Hay - MarTech Simplified: How to Make Sense of Marketing Technology & Marketing Automation

MarTech (Marketing Technology) can be confusing, overwhelming, and complex for many business owners, and managers, but it doesnt need to be like that.

With 10,000 solutions to pick from in an industry now estimated by chiefmartech.com to be worth over $121bn per annum, more businesses are seeking to automate their marketing with substantial investment upwards of 20,000 per annum in their MarTech stack.

For me, your MarTech Stack is the 3rd stage of the process, and many people make the mistake of missing out the first two steps when it comes to planning, documenting, automating & executing their marketing strategy.

01 BUSINESS MODEL

The most important stage, yet a common stage missed out by many business owners and management teams because they think they already fully understand their business. I smile when

I recall how many meetings and boardrooms Ive been in over the years and asked the question What business are you in? and received a different opinion or reply from everyone in the room.

This stage of the process is a return to basics, and in answering key questions about what you offer and to whom. We need to understand what it is we offer and the data we need before we can think about automating the business processes and workflow.

Later in the book, we will be going a little deeper to help you answer some vital questions and get the information you need to successfully implement the latter stages.

02 CUSTOMER JOURNEY

This stage is all about the 5 stages of customer acquisition and retention to help you understand the process of acquiring, engaging, converting, transacting, and scaling the customer journey by automating each stage to eliminate duplication of effort, mistakes and to reduce your cost per lead, cost per sale, while improving and increasing the lifetime value of a customer. Its not just about what you expect and want your customers to do at each stage, but also what you want each member of your team and your MarTech Stack to do as well to reduce and eliminate waste and maximise productivity and conversions.

03 MARTECH STACK

One definition is a collection of software, hardware, apps, apis, iPaaS, saas, and netware brought together to manage the business processes and workflow within a business. In short, its all the marketing technology you need to stack up and integrate seamlessly to help simplify your business model, automate your customer journey, and assist you in planning, documenting, executing, and automating your marketing strategy and can be split into 6 key areas:

04 MARKETING STRATEGY

However, for me, many people overcomplicate their marketing too, and I prefer to the plan into 8 clear outcomes. Far too many people want to know how to automate their lead generation but havent articulated or defined a consistent message for their intended audience before becoming overwhelmed and stressed in trying to work out why their marketing isnt working.

Many hire a 3rd party coach or consultant without sharing their plan or strategy, and the supplier works in isolation unaware of the human, technical and financial resources available or whats really holding the customer back and preventing the results they want from their marketing.

Just reading and reflecting on the content will have little effect on the results you can and should be generating until you convert these thoughts into action . Sorry, but its true. I can lead a horse to water, but I cant make it drink. However, if you need or want help then just ask.

Its your business. Youre in control. You make the decisions. Decide to take responsibility and action today. Start experiencing the breakthroughs and results you and your stakeholders want. Its time to simplify your marketing and MarTech strategy so that it makes sense and stacks up. Ready?

Fraser J. Hay

November 2021

Fraser J. Hay, 2021

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The last 12 18 months of 2020 and 2021 have changed for thousands of business owners. Since the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic, entire industries have collapsed with millions of people have been furloughed, laid off, paid, or made redundant.

Millions of businesses have had to close their doors, Tens of thousands have had to recoup, dig deep, and innovate and automate their business processes and workflow to appease stakeholders, shareholders and investors who have become more demanding in seeking to cut costs, improve efficiencies, protect customer data, increase productivity, ROI and profits and a lot of this has been achieved with investing in MarTech (marketing technology.)

However, for many owners, founders and senior management teams wanting to set new goals and objectives and to begin the tactical deployment or execution of a new MarTech or Marketing Strategy, many are simply confused by the complexity of it all or overwhelmed by the enormity of the task at hand.

Before deciding on your marketing and MarTech goals and objectives for the year ahead, lets look back as to what has all happened in your business to help you lay solid MarTech and Marketing foundations for the future.

Many people have regrets of the past or worry about the future, and far too many founders, owners, and management teams miss steps in this vital 3 step process out from their marketing planning and thus, fail to attain the clarity, vision, or purpose they need to create the future they want for their business. Fear not, all the acronyms, software urls, social media platforms and recommendations will come. I suspect you will get great benefit from completing the exercise at the end of this section, but first

Many people who want to automate their marketing, create a MarTech stack or execute a new marketing strategy are so keen to learn HOW to generate leads. Many also want fans, friends, followers, back-links, traffic, signups, downloads, sales, revenue and to automate all their workflow and business processes. So much so, that they miss out two especially important steps with their marketing & MarTech planning.

WHY > WHAT > HOW

HOW

Far too many people are in a rush to learn how to generate backlinks, traffic, signups, registrations, sales, and revenue. Many want to know how to set up and run an ad campaign, build a funnel, automate their workflow, or create a nurture sequence of emails. The tactical implementation of the strategy is the last part of the process. Not the first!

Unfortunately, many approach their marketing the wrong way round. Many people rush to the implementation and execution often by hiring someone to assist with this in isolation instead of including them during the planning process.