How To Choose The Right MarTech Tool For Your Company

It’s clear why marketers might get excited about the wealth of martech tools out there. Great marketing technology can bridge the gap between the art and science of marketing.

Find the right marketing tool and you could boost your output, earn more wins, and take Fridays off, right?

Well, maybe.

Finding a solution and building your tech stack can be pricey and complex.

It’s important to choose tools that will broaden your reach and streamline your processes in a meaningful way. But don’t be distracted by the newest shiny object — and don’t choose something that is so involved it might add to your workload with little payoff.

“More than half of marketers (51 percent) think their companies don’t invest enough in martech solutions, and 42 percent say the current technology in place is out of date and insufficient for helping them do their jobs.” -Walker Sands Communications, Understanding the New MarTech Buyer Journey

Where should you begin when choosing a new marketing solution?

Start with your goals.

Ask yourself the following questions to determine if you truly need a technology solution for the marketing challenge you’re facing. Consider where it can help solve a real problem.

• What issues come up again and again for your marketing team?
• What processes could be improved or augmented with technology?
• Where does your team need extra help?
• Which interactions with customers could be smoother?
• Where are your marketers spending a lot of time doing repetitive work?
• What goals do you have for this year or quarter?
• What new tactics do you want to experiment with?

Remember: it’s easier to scale up than down.

If you’ve done the research and found a new martech solution for your team, it’s easy to start implementing and then get in over your head. Measure your expectations of both your budget and team members as you search for the best solution — make sure it’s one you can handle long-term. If a tool becomes an integral part of your marketing processes, then it’s usually simple to upgrade your package or focus more resources on it; it can be much more difficult to “reverse” hard work you’ve done or scale back once you’ve customized a solution.

Watch the Budget… and the Clock

• Make sure to review sign up terms. Are you required to commit to a pricey year(s)-long contract or can you register by month while you’re still testing the software?
• Think about how much time it should take to set up the tool. Is a 3 month custom implementation standard, or can you get up and running in 5 minutes? Add these time costs into your potential ROI calculations.

Dig deeper.

It’s easy for vendors to claim that they can “revolutionize your marketing,” “boost your sales,” or “provide actionable insights.” But what do these claims really mean? Go beyond “marketing-speak” and ask the hard questions before you get started.

Consider how solutions work together. Check that any new tools work with your existing systems (or improve them so much that you can move on from old solutions).

If you do the proper due diligence and ask the right questions before signing on a martech partner, you’ll be well-poised to add tools that advance your goals instead of stifle them. And who knows? Maybe those Fridays off won’t be so elusive after all.