Recently there has been a lot of talk in the industry about marketers losing productivity due to maintaining so many Martech solutions. With this, we felt it was time to review our own Martech to ensure that what we use is still relevant to our business and processes.
So below we?ve provided a breakdown of the software we use to manage our in-house marketing projects. In particular we wanted to ensure that:
- each solution served its purpose
- there were no duplicate features across standalone solutions
- where possible we consolidated features into one Martech solution
- there were no ad hoc or obsolete tools we were using
- our software enhanced not hindered the marketing department?s productivit
Recommended reading: Is your marketing technology making you inefficient?
Automaton?s Martech Review
Admation project management software
Our marketing department produces (mostly) digital content and printed collateral. We use our own software ? admation - to brief and approve content such as website updates, eDMs, white papers, videos, marketing guides and printed collateral. Admation is a cloud solution so we save everything online and can refer to our digital footprint instead of relying on paper trails. We also use the online proofing tools to mark up changes to artwork which we?ve found to be faster and less confusing than written feedback. Automated approval reminders keep us on our toes if we accidently drop any balls.
We store our current branding assets including logos and licensed images in admation?s Image Library. The Ad Storage feature also enables us to store our final production files so that we can find them quickly if we need to review or refer back to them. Having these extra inbuilt features means that we haven?t had to implement a standalone DAM for managing our assets.
Slack
We use the messaging app Slack to manage internal communications between our developers and support teams. Slack is a simple and easy collaboration tool where teams can share information and discuss issues in realtime ? without their email boxes getting clogged up. A drag and drop feature enables files like PDFs and images to be uploaded and shared instantly.
Hubspot
Most marketers have heard of Hubspot which is a popular inbound marketing and sales tool. We find it really handy to schedule and track our blog content via Hubspot. The software has an inbuilt CRM feature which is also used by our sales team. Utilising Hubspot?s CRM meant that we were able to remove our previous CRM software from our Martech stack. It made sense to have just one solution that provided two features rather than use two standalone solutions (which would mean switching from one to the other and potentially lose productivity time).
Campaign Manager
We use Campaign Manager to run our email marketing campaigns which includes sending eDMs to admation users to keep them up to date on software releases, new features and tips. The software enables us to schedule and track our eDMs more accurately.
The Result?
In conclusion, we can confirm that each software continues to optimise our marketing tasks. We don?t have any duplication of functions across different tools; in fact, in both admation and Hubspot we were able to consolidate some important features. It turns out, our Martech tools still benefit our business and allow us to manage staff with flexible working hours across remote locations.
Is it time to track and review your Martech tools?
If your Martech is beginning to encroach on you and your team?s productivity, it might be time to track and review your tools. Here are a few tips to get you started:
1. Track your Martech by keeping a current record of all your tools. Include details such as major features, users, frequency of use and benefits so you can cross reference tools at any time. This step alone should begin to give you a clearer picture of how your tools are performing.
- Are their duplicate features across more than one solution?
- Are there any tools that are used infrequently or by very few users?
- Are you still deriving the benefits that the tool promised to deliver?
- Are there legacy tools that your department doesn?t use?
2. Diarise a review of your Martech tools every six months to ensure they are delivering on their promise to meet your challenges and optimise your productivity. When reviewing your tools, request feedback from other users so that you get a rounded appraisal of your tools.
3. If possible, consolidate any tools where there are overlapping features. Perhaps you need a resource management tool to help manage your resources. Consider first if there is a solution in the marketplace that also offers project management and/or DAM to avoid juggling three different tools in the long run.
4. Remove any obsolete or inherited tools that are not benefitting your team.
5. Have a strategy for implementing new tools so that you?re not selecting ad hoc/standalone tools without proper research and consideration.
When selecting a new tool, make it a project in its own right so that you give it the attention to completely understand the software. After all, mistakes are costly!
