Wow! In 2011 there were 150 marketing technology solutions to choose from – now there are 7000+.

And the madness is not likely to end!

Not surprising that many organisations see a Marketing Operations/ Technologist as a must-have. This constant growth and complexity have made it hard for marketers to choose which tools are best for them – what integrates with what, what does it do, at what cost and benefit?

In the 2018 State of B2B Marketing Technology report DemandGen International’s David Lewis emphasised the important of assessing your martech stack to ensure what you have is working and keep track of any gaps that might creep up. He spotlighted four qualitative criteria — or core systems for building or maintaining a martech stack — which include:

• Impact: The system’s impact on helping a company achieve its marketing objectives;
• Usage: How much time and resources are spent using the system;
• Adoption: How well the system’s capabilities are being leveraged by the team; and
• Integration: How well the system is integrated to other tools within the martech stack.

Lewis added that there is a fifth, quantitative criteria: investment, or how much of the marketing budget is spent on the system. “Not all martech is created equal when it comes to cost,” he said. “It’s important to take a look at what a particular tool costs because if a tool is relatively inexpensive, then maybe the need from an impact perspective is not as critical as a tool that is more expensive.”

Like many marketing leaders in organisations around the world, Sprint Marketing attempt to keep it simple for our clients by recommending no more than 10 tools for the ‘Martech Stack’. We help our clients choose best-of-breed solutions (for their business) that work together, can scale when they grow and that do not cost the earth!