How to Build a Marketing Tech Stack in 2021
Those two words sounds cool as hell. Hearing it makes you think of 80’s cyber hackers with sunglasses on inside. You already have one – but you might not know it.
This week, we’re talking about tech stacks: what are they, how do they work, why do you want one and what other people’s ones look like.
First things first: what is a marketing stack, anyway?
What is a tech stack?
A technology stack, also called a solutions stack, infrastructure, or ecosystem, is a list of all the technology services used to build and run a whole business, or just one aspect. A sales funnel stack then, is the collection of software you use to build, automate and run your sales funnels.
If you’ve ever played Magic: the Gathering or Pokemon, you’ll know how important it is to have the right cards in your stack. Tech stacks are the same: you start out with some likely contenders, then build, tweak and modify your loadout as you gain more experience.
How to build a marketing tech stack
In this article, we’ll be going over how to create a marketing-sales funnel tech stack hybrid. It’ll do all the jobs you need to build a great sales funnel, as well as co-opting some broader marketing tools to promote it.
But before you subscribe to each and every free trial that crosses your path, you need to break down what you need. You want your tech stack to be as efficient as possible: there’s no point having three different platforms when one will do, or missing out on a great new tool because you don’t want to switch.
Here’s a breakdown of the general marketing stack categories you’ll need, as well as the best marketing tools you’ll find in 2021.
Customer relationship management (CRM)
Good customer relationship management software helps you keep a track of where each customer is throughout your marketing pipeline, and lets you send them the perfect message for each stage of their journey.
You want your CRM to not only help you take a client or customer from prospect to close, but also help you retain and upsell customers, build on existing relationships and analyse data over a period of time.
Salesforce
This is one of the most widely-used cloud-powered CRM tools, suitable for small businesses as well as multinational corporations. You can integrate customer data from various sources, streamline your email messaging, add social, phone and chat support, and connect to many leading platforms.
Monday.com
This is a really easy-to-use tool that presents complex customer information in an intuitive way. With a ton of project management capabilities as well, this is the platform for you if you love having one platform for multiple tasks.
Hubspot CRM
This cloud-based tool lets you manage your sales pipeline and respond to customer support issues, which makes it perfect for small businesses and startups which manage things like courses or memberships.
Email automation
Whether you’re sending short courses, newsletters or affiliate offers, email marketing is a must for any business. A good email platform will let you integrate with all the other tools you use, schedule email campaigns easily, and help you grow with analytics tools and reports.
Mailchimp
One of the most popular email automation tools out there, Mailchimp has made its name in the sales field as a marketing essential. With a user-friendly interface, this platform has all the bells and whistles you need to set up a successful campaign, manage your list, and see the results.
Aweber
This is an email marketing service provider with over 100,000 small business clients worldwide. Aweber helps marketers keep in touch with subscribers while upholding email marketing best practices. It’s cheap and cheerful for those who are just starting out, with the ability to upgrade to enough functionality to stay with you as you grow.
GetResponse
With a host of advanced tools, GetResponse is a solid choice for an email marketing service. It lets you design newsletters, manage and build a list, and works with many of the most popular tools out there. It has a free trial available too, so you can try it out before you subscribe.
Meetings and webinars
Everyone’s working from home in 2021, and this means our attention is on social tools that help us get work done while staying in touch – but they’re also great for demos, consultation calls, discovery meetings, and more.
Calendly
This free tool lets you set up your availability, and allows others to book meetings with you regardless of region or time zones. It securely integrates the times with the calendar you already use, and will update your schedule in whatever CRM you have.
Zoom
The gold standard of meeting software, Zoom provides a platform to host webinars, online meetings, conference calls, and even allows file sharing and screen sharing, all in an easy-to-use interface with a limited version that comes with 40min meetings free.
GoToWebinar
For more advanced webinar set-up, look no further than GoToWebinar. It offers quick and easy online event management, with polls, chat, sharing, data on attendees and performance, analytics and automatic confirmations and reminders.
Outsourcing
You can’t do everything yourself – even with the best marketing tech stack in the world. These tools will help you keep a tab on your freelancers, while making you a breeze to work for.
Slack
A renowned collaboration software, this allows you to create teams and organise them by topic, project, and more. You can integrate Slack with your CRM, start video calls and share files. It’s great to organise all your workers in one place.
Upwork
This is one of the most popular online marketplaces for freelance workers, and with good reason. Many small businesses and startups get work done with the help of Upwork. It’s a place to make great relationships, and find great talent – but make sure you vet each prospect wisely.
DocuSign
Got an NDA or a contract that needs signing? Look no further than DocuSign. It helps you securely send and receive signatures online.
Project management
We’ve already mentioned Monday.com, which is a great multitasker which helps you manage your customers as well as your workload. Here’s a couple more tools to help boost your productivity (and get rid of those sticky notes).
Workfront
Workfront gives your team – no matter what size – a central hub to manage workflows, create content, collaborate on projects, and share ideas across projects and time zones.
Trello
Trello is a simple web-based, Kanban-style tool that gives teams the ability to organize and list projects based on priority and due date, compare progress, and tag individual team members on different projects.
Website and sales funnel builders
The meat and potatoes of any marketing strategy is a good sales funnel. After all, what’s the point of your CRM, your email autoresponder, your webinars and your Facebook ads if not to move customers through the sales process? Use these tools to create the perfect environment for your prospects to find out more about what you offer.
Convertri
Of course, we’re not going to neglect this opportunity for a little self-promotion. Convertri lets you create high-converting sales funnels and websites, from one central platform that integrates with all your favourite tools. Create landing pages and grow your list, sell digital products or real-world purchases from your physical inventory, create your portfolio, and more.
WordPress
WordPress has a 60.8% market share in the content management system market, and powers 14.7% of the world’s top websites. With that kind of pedigree, why wouldn’t you want it? WordPress helps you make simple sites and engaging blogs, and – yes – integrates with the rest of your tech stack to make life easier. (There’s also a Convertri plugin!)
Shopify
If you have a storefront, you’ll have heard of Shopify. It’s a great way to deliver what you offer, all in an easy-to-use interface that helps you get up and running. Perfect for smaller organisations and individuals, Shopify can also power bigger organisations so it can grow with you every step of the way. Pair it with Convertri for a powerful landing-page-to-checkout sales machine.
In 2021, there’s a tech stack for just about every kind of marketing strategy. But only you know how you work, what you want to accomplish, and where you want to be in the future.
The best tech stack is flexible, fits effortlessly into your processes, and helps you improve without too much of a learning curve. But that’s not to say it’s not worth shopping around for a while before you settle down. Invest in some trial and error, and you’ll soon find yourself making more profit.
