How Do You Grade Your Martech Stack?

February 19, 2024

If you’re measuring everything based on a dollar return, then you’re going to miss a lot of effective marketing. It’s very dangerous to grade everything on that, says Moni Oloyede, Founder of Mo MarTech and Co-Organiser of DC Marketing Tech Talks.

“There are two types of tools that marketers need to have and build the ecosystem based on what makes sense for their business. The smaller the business, the less one needs, the bigger the business, the more that one needs. The first tool is a CRM of course, and the second would be an email platform,” says Moni Oloyede, Founder of Mo MarTech and Co Organiser of DC Marketing Tech Talks.

Oloyede, with a career predominantly focused on marketing automation, marketing operations, digital marketing, and marketing technology, observed a recurring issue among companies she encountered: challenges with lead generation and demand generation. Realising that the root cause often lay in ineffective marketing and communication strategies rather than the tools themselves, she made the decision to establish her own company – Mo MarTech.

She aims to educate individuals and businesses on marketing and communication principles, emphasising their critical role in addressing various business challenges.

Speaking to CXM Today, Oloyede talks about how brands should measure success when it comes to marketing investments, and choose the right tools for their tech stack. She also lets us in about her expectations from 2024 and beyond.

Full interview:

What advice or strategies would you give teams to align people and processes to get the most out of technology?

You don’t have a technology problem; you have a process problem, and you are looking at tools to be auto-magical. Most companies’ approach to marketing and sales is out of whack! They are looking at marketing to drive revenue. I always say that that’s the wrong approach to marketing as it’s not its core function.

If you go back to the titans of marketing such as Philip Kotler and David Ogilvie, they didn’t have any tools and technology. They weren’t about selling, they were about marketing. Marketing is the communication of value to a desired audience. How many marketing teams are actually doing that? Marketing teams are trying to drive sales, trying to do analytics and these elements are not really in its purview. So you have to take a step back.

If we focus on marketing being the communicating arm, things will ultimately be better because again, you’re going to be communicating well with sales; you’re going to be communicating well with the executive team; you’re going to be communicating well with the product management and the customer success team because that’s marketing job to do. And ultimately communicating well to the customer.

How can marketing leaders choose the best solution for their stack?

There are two types of tools that marketers need to have and build the ecosystem based on what makes sense for their business. The smaller the business, the less one needs, the bigger the business, the more that one needs. The first tool is a CRM of course, and the second would be an email platform.

Email is the core of digital marketing. It is not dying, it’s not going anywhere!

Apart from these two core tools, you also add a content hub, social media platform, a digital advertising platform and tracking. But how do you select these tools? Budget is number one, and number two is scale, and then we have a digital footprint. These three factors will dictate what your tech stack looks like once you have a database record and an email platform.

How should brands measure success when it comes to marketing investments?

Most things come back to ROI and revenue pipeline attribution. In marketing, it is very dangerous because there are some things you have to do from a brand, just establishment setting. A lot of things in marketing, especially in B2B, take a lot of time to establish. So if you’re measuring everything based on a dollar return, then you’re going to miss a lot of effective marketing. It’s very dangerous to grade everything on that.

Revenue is important, yes, but it is the responsibility of the entire business, not just marketing. So how do you grade your martech stack?

Grade it like a technology.
Ask the right questions:
How many tools shut down randomly?
Login errors
How often does it happen
How is your relationship with support?
How many upgrades do you need to do regularly?

Have a grade for each of these and use it when the time of renewal comes.

What are the key trends and emerging technologies that you think are going to shape the future?

AI isn’t going anywhere. There are two paths for AI – One, a fool with a tool is still a fool. So people are going to run with AI and just sort of like to bastardise and mismanage it. And then the other path is that we actually get sophisticated with AI.

The year 2023 was one of the strangest years in marketing. It was a very odd and an unpredictable year due to a lot of changes in the market, and frustration around the demand funnel. Yes, I hear a lot of frustration around demand generation and lead scoring. They are being challenged as far as their effectiveness.

The traditional model of the lead MQL-SQL pipeline, that funnel, is going to change because it has been proven to have a lot of issues. There are holes in that logic, and I don’t think it’s effective for marketing, especially in a B2B context. The second funnel that’s going to change is the buying funnel. So that kind of awareness and intent is also going to change back to linear.

We know that people are already further down that funnel than when they come to actually engage you. It’s going to have to change the way that marketing prioritises how they communicate people with people within that context. So the funnel is going to change dramatically.

The year 2024 is a year of change, and it will continue developing. This particular year, you will see different models and different frameworks for measuring marketing effectiveness.

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