5 Things To Do Before Changing MarTech Platforms in 2020
With a new year comes a new set of goals, objectives, ambitions and projects aimed to achieve them. Never has the core of this been more centered on MarTech than 2020. Brands must create competitive advantage from their 1st party data and counter headwinds and transformation in the privacy and ad targeting spaces. To do this, many will focus on what to do with their MarTech stacks.
Are you evaluating whether to add to, change-up, or remediate your marketing technology stack in 2020? These are big decisions with major implications for your budget, your time and your business results. Whether you are looking at AI, Customer Data Platforms, Campaign Execution platforms, or any other MarTech tool; here are 5 key steps we encourage you to take that will make or break your efforts:
1) Define Your Use Case(s)
The foundation of any evaluation should be; what do you plan to do? Clearly defined use cases will make or break any decision you seek to make. Our advice is to be specific and focused. Avoid overly broad use cases like "Hit 2020 revenue targets". Trying to boil the ocean leads to a sea of despair. Be narrow and focused. Start small. Success comes from small wins that align teams and prove capability, with expansion coming later. Try focusing on improving the active customer file %, improving marketing spend efficiency by x% or reducing email unsubscribe rates by segmenting content to specific audiences. The more clearly defined and actionable your use case, the most success you will find.
2) Align People And Process With Technology
Avoid the classic trap of being too quick to blame the technology or the vendor. Don't confuse frustration with current platform features and functionalities with poor or mismatched strategies and operational plans While it is tempting to think the faster path to success is to rip and replace a platform; it is far more cost effective and impactful to make sure your operational rhythms and processes are optimized to your technology and business objectives first. No matter what tool set you have, it will only ever be as good as the people and processes you have leveraging it.
3) Ensure Your Data Strategy Is Up To The Task
Perhaps the biggest determiner of success with MarTech today is the quality and type of data the MarTech platform seeks to leverage. The phrase garbage in - garbage out has never been more true than in the MarTech space. Without solid and scalable data ingestion, transformation, and governance capabilities, your technology will be limited in what it can do. Worse still, your ability to derive insights and understand performance drivers will be obfuscated.
We encourage you to start with a rock-solid data taxonomy and data model architecture. Properly defined and formatted data models that contain actionable data that can be leveraged across any touchpoint is critical. By creating a consistent definition and application of data, you position yourself to scale, adjust to change and trust the results you get, be they good or bad.
4) Be Realistic About ROI
This is really an exercise in scope and scale. Even the Taj Mahal started with as a much smaller project. As business leaders, we love to swing for the fence, however success is far more likely if we start with the basic foundations and build consistently from there. Rather than chase shiny objects that promise exponential gains, what would happen to your business if you improved by 5%? Most brands covet these types of improvements. Often by simply focusing on the 5 or 10% improvements over the 50% improvements, you will reduce the need for additional investments (and difficult conversations with your CFO) while delivering meaningful improvement in results that will pave the runway for your next big budget ask!
5) Evaluate MarTech Within A Larger Strategy
This is all about avoiding the chasing of sparkle ponies, unicorns and other shiny objects. Amongst the many challenges with this approach is the likelihood that this type of short-term thinking will result in a MarTech stack with significant gaps, or worse, significant overlapping capabilities that go unused, or perhaps worse, conflict with each other to create chaos and confusion in the organization.
The pathway to lost credibility with internal executive stakeholders is in not leveraging what you already have, and being able to communicate a strategy that places short term needs within a framework of a longer term strategy. This doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in new capabilities. What it means is you should provide a reference architecture and strategic roadmap that clearly visualizes and communicates how each MarTech investment adds incremental value to your organization.
Get 2020 Started Right!
With Marketing technologies being relied on more than ever, and the pressures from privacy regulation, market disruption, increased customer expectations and competition, getting your data and MarTech stacks right has never been more important.
If you are evaluating customer data or marketing technology projects in 2020, we encourage you to work with an external trusted advisor who can help guide you and ensure you get maximum value from your project as quickly as possible (Time to value!).
We hope you consider working with Kessel Digital for your customer data and marketing technology strategy. Our real-world experience, vendor agnostic approach and strategic expertise can be a big help to achieving your goals in 2020 and beyond. If you would like to talk more about how we can help, please reach out to us and book a free consultation.