1. IMPLEMENTING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY THROUGH
A WELL-DESIGNED TECHNOLOGY STACK
DELIVERING MORE EFFECTIVE
MARKETING THROUGH THE
RIGHT TECHNOLOGY
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2. ADMA | Delivering more effective marketing through the right technology2
INTRODUCTION
First published in 2009, self-described venture capitalist Fred
Wilson introduced the concept of a golden triangle of megatrends
in the technology sector that are reshaping business today.
MOBILE DEVICES
Hand held technology that empowers individuals
SOCIAL MEDIA
Enabling new connections and communications
REAL TIME
Live dialogue between people in different locations
At the heart of this golden triangle lies the nexus of disruption.
This space is open for businesses to grow and develop deeper
relationships with existing and potential customers.
In this paper we discuss the technology stack, which is the set of
solutions businesses are using to get inside the golden triangle,
and maximise their opportunities there.
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REAL TIME
TECHNOLOGY
STACK
Nexus of
disruption creates
opportunities for
business
SOCIALMOBILE
GOLDEN TRIANGLE
OF OPPORTUNITY
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In this paper we examine:
What comprises the technology stack
How to define the stack for your organisation
How planning ahead can help drive successful
implementation
Choosing the best way of implementing your
technology stack
Future developments in products and providers
Addressing the skills gap
Conclusions for marketers
5. ADMA | Delivering more effective marketing through the right technology 5
However, today, for marketers, the technology stack
is the combination of technologies an organisation
uses to automate its marketing function and provide
quantitative information that is used for making
business decisions.
As businesses and technology has become more
complex, the technology stack has grown to extend
beyond an organisation. Tools like social media,
exist beyond the walls of any one business, however
their influence and value within the business can be
considerable.
There is now a wide range of different solutions
available to marketers, to help aggregate, analyse
and interact with customers and their data. The
challenge lies in selecting and implementing the
right combination of technologies to keep pace with
growing customer expectations. Those who succeed
will benefit most from the disruptive change mobile
devices; social media; and real-time technologies are
creating.
DEFINING THE
TECHNOLOGY STACK
TRADITIONALLY, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HAS DEFINED THE TECHNOLOGY
STACK AS THE LAYERS OF COMPONENTS OR SERVICES THAT ARE USED TO
PROVIDE A SOFTWARE SOLUTION OR APPLICATION.
COLLECT
Collect and Listen
Loyalty
INTERACT
Interact and Analyse
ACTIVATE
Engagement Channels
CRM
Web
3rd party
Content
Point of sale
Web
Programmatic media buying
Customer marketing execution
Communications
Content
Measurement
Mobile
Social
Email
DQM - Data Quality Management
DMP - Data Management Platform
DSP - Demand Side Platform
DV - Data Visualisation
A - Analytics
jour
ney mapping segm
e
ntation
personas
personalisation
cust
om
erexperience
DV
DQM
DMP
DSP
A
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DEFINING THE TECHNOLOGY STACK
THAT WILL WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS
THE KEY TO ACHIEVING OPTIMAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES IS TO MAKE IT
A PRIORITY, AND BUILD OR RESHAPE YOUR BUSINESS AROUND THIS GOAL.
Begin with business strategy
Defining your technology stack begins with your
overall business strategy. Before you begin to look at
solutions, you need to have a clear understanding of
the goals you are trying to achieve as an organisation.
The most important role of the Chief Marketing Officer
(CMO) in implementing a technology stack is to ensure
there is complete alignment between the marketing
technology strategy and the organisation-wide
business strategy.
Marketing strategy alignment
It is useful to revisit your marketing strategy, to remind
yourself of what your team is responsible for delivering
to support the overall business goals. Your marketing
strategy can guide you in the next phase, where you
examine how you are going to use technology to
achieve your deliverables.
Your technology stack is a combination of tools only.
Although it will support your marketing and business
strategies, it will not be able to provide you with all the
answers.
How to define your technology stack
1. Revisit overall business strategy: what do you
want to achieve?
2. Identify how the marketing strategy will support
overall business goals
3. Define the technology strategy that will deliver
marketing strategy
4. Engage Board and C-Suite
5. Evaluate where your capabilities lie: vendor
or in-house
6. Select technology providers
7. Implement technology stack
8. Measure outcomes.
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Defining your technology strategy
The process of defining your technology strategy is one
of constant refinement.
For each solution in your technology stack,
you need to ask the following questions:
The flow chart can help you identify solutions
that cross technology streams. You can then
begin prioritising the different solutions in order
of effectiveness, and begin looking into trials.
TECHNOLOGY
STACK
TECHNOLOGY
STRATEGY
MARKETING
+ CONTENT
STRATEGY
DATA
STRATEGY
BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES
VISION/
MISSION
What do we have in place to make use
of this medium/information/channel?
What's working and what's not?
Which technologies can we retire?
Where are the gaps that need to be filled
How are these technologies being
used by our customers, potential customers,
former customers and our ourganisaiton?
Are there any significant new
technologies we need to be aware of
or start to use that we are not using?
MOBILE MARKETING STRATEGY
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
DATA STRATEGY
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Engagement and implementation
The CMO has an important role in advocating and facilitating understanding of the technology stack across the
organisation. The Board and C-Suite need to understand how your technology stack drives bottom line results.
Although they do not need to necessarily understand the technical detail behind each technology, or how your
organisation might implement it, they will need to see a clear connection between the technology stack and
business outcomes.
The other key area the CMO needs to focus on is in collaborating with IT. By working closely together, the
CMO can engender support from IT by collaborating on trials and sharing experiences from both successes
and failures.
CHAMPION WITHIN
MARKETING TEAM
CMO LEADING
TECHNOLOGICAL
CHANGE
Align objectives with
business objectives
Support entrepreneurial
culture
Encourage fast learning
Allocate budget for
testing new technologies
CHAMPION ACROSS
BROADER ORGANISATION
Demonstrate alignment
of business objectives with
technological change at
Board level
Facilitate learning gaps
at C-suite and Board level
Retain visibility for projects
across organisation
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Capabilities evaluation
Once you have identified the areas of the technology
stack to be explored, you need to decide where your
capabilities lie. Should you develop technologies
in-house, or look for off-the-shelf solutions? And once
you have the technologies up and running, will you
have the intellectual capital in-house to make use of
the technologies, or will you rely on outsider vendors
for day-to-day management and upkeep? Knowing
how to use your technology to its fullest, to generate
meaningful business insights, is just as important as
the technology itself.
A real challenge lies here for marketing agencies.
Agencies need to have the people and skills ready
and tested before clients come to them for advice. To
stay ahead of the game, they need to investigate and
understand how new technological solutions work and
can be implemented.
The decision whether to develop in-house or to use
off the shelf solutions is discussed later in this paper,
where we explore the pros and cons of point solutions
and single-vendor solutions.
Measuring success
It is important to regularly review your technology
stack, and quantify its outcomes. Return on investment
is a standard tool used to measure effectiveness,
however, it does not capture the total value generated
by implementing your technology stack. Many
outcomes can be more difficult to attach a dollar
figure, such as the goodwill generated through
improved customer engagement.
Following is a checklist of things you should consider
when evaluating the performance of your technology
stack:
Which technologies are customers using regularly?
Does your technology stack match the tools your
customers prefer to use?
How are technologies reducing workload from other
parts of the business, such as your call centre?
What are your feedback channels telling you about
the customer experience with your technology stack?
Should you consider surveying your audience?
Your technology stack is part of your
business infrastructure, and must
be invested in, as other parts of your
business are.
You will need to evaluate whether to:
develop the solution in-house; or
find a reliable vendor solution that
can be integrated with your systems.
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Technology challenges
Your IT team is going to be your most useful source
of help when it comes to overcoming the key IT
challenges:
how to find an infrastructure partner
how to put together multiple solutions
where to spend your money, in-house or external
providers
- In-house solutions can have a low level of
sophistication, but might work easily with existing
infrastructure
- External solutions can be more mature, offering
more tools and features.
Many vendors now go directly to marketing to sell
their solutions, bypassing IT altogether. This can
undermine the IT function, generating distrust within
the organisation. It is therefore vital to maintain open
dialogue with IT, so they have the opportunity to get
involved where and when appropriate, and ensure
they are able to keep up-to-speed with the technical
aspects of new technologies being tested.
Information technology
Human resources,
or those responsible for
your organisational culture
Operations.
Although the CMO is responsible for
leading the implementation, everyone in
the marketing team plays an important
role in promoting the technology stack,
and facilitating productive relationships
with internal stakeholders.
SMOOTH IMPLEMENTATION
TAKES PLANNING
THERE ARE THREE MAIN AREAS OF THE BUSINESS TO CONSIDER WHEN
IMPLEMENTING YOUR TECHNOLOGY STACK. KEEPING OPEN LINES OF
COMMUNICATION, AND INVOLVING EACH IN YOUR PLANNING CAN MAKE A
SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE TO HOW SMOOTHLY YOUR IMPLEMENTATION GOES.
YOU SHOULD AIM AT COLLABORATING WITH:
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People challenges
There are a number of different challenges that come
with organisational change. The particular challenges
you are likely to encounter when implementing your
technology stack include:
The Board being divorced from digital operations
- SME can be more agile, as those making the
decisions have the advantage of both a satellite
view of their business as well as hands on, front
line experience.
Legacy systems and politics that can make change
slow and costly
Managing the leadership role with IT. The CMO
should initiate and lead the overall project while
the CIO needs to:
- work out how to pull different technologies
together
- balance in-house and external spend/ownership/
technology
Speed of execution and change management.
When change takes too long to implement,
momentum breaks down.
Engendering the entrepreneurial spirit so change
agents can develop within an organisation. The
CMO needs to enable a degree of risk to be taken
by business units to try new technologies and make
changes
Skills gap: finding an analyst who has marketing skills
as well as technical skills to implement solutions.
Operational challenges
Bringing new technologies into a business becomes
challenging when you move from theory into practice.
Practical consideration and planning needs to be
given to:
Balancing risk and reward
Funding innovation: budget needs to be made
available for small trials, so organisations can fail
and learn quickly. This is difficult for public/listed
companies who need to show a ROI within
12 months
Mapping business/outputs against technology
requirements (technology is required to meet some
goals).
RISKS SOLUTIONS
Is there a safe bet anymore?
Is it possible to future proof your
solution?
Churn to new technology
is costly
Create a pool of money
for testing
Fire bullets before cannonballs,
that is, test incrementally using
a speculation fund.
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POINT SOLUTION V SINGLE VENDOR
Point solution (Solving one particular problem
without regard to related issues)
Point solutions are widely used to fix a problem
or implement a new service quickly
Easy, low cost, low disruption to overall
architecture to change if not working
Point solutions can be costly to integrate
Can silo data in one area
Quick and easy integration
Data can be empowered across the business
How good is your single vendor at integrating
point solutions?
Costly and disruptive to change if not working
Single vendor
IMPLEMENTING YOUR TECHNOLOGY
STACK WITH A POINT SOLUTION OR
SINGLE VENDOR
THERE ARE TWO WAYS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT YOUR TECHNOLOGY STACK: EITHER WITH
A SINGLE VENDOR WHO PROVIDES ALL THE TOOLS AND SYSTEMS YOU NEED; OR A POINT
SOLUTION, WHERE YOU BUY IN INDIVIDUAL TOOLS TO ADDRESS INDIVIDUAL PROBLEMS.
SINGLE VENDOR
POINT SOLUTION
Look for a primary system, and then everything
needs to plug and play with that system
Select one system and then fill the gaps
with point solutions
It makes sense to consider how flexible your business architecture is when you’re deciding between single vendor solutions
and point solutions. The benefits of each option are described in the table below.
The steps you take in implementing your technology stack depend on which solution you use:
UPSIDES
DOWNSIDES
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WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT FUTURE
PRODUCTS AND PROVIDERS
THERE IS NO DOUBT ABOUT WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS: THE COMPANIES THAT MATCH
CUSTOMER NEEDS WITH THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION WILL WIN.
The skills gap between IT and marketing is widening.
Marketers need to become more active in the
technology space. They need to know more about
technology and the solutions it can provide to help
automate marketing, and provide information for
decision making.
IT also needs to catch up. Where in the past IT projects
drove business change, the shoe is now on the other
foot. Lines of business are coming to IT with specific
needs, or solutions that need to be integrated into
existing business systems. IT is being asked to develop
a deeper understanding of how technology can
support business. In addition, business is demanding
a technical expertise in a wider range of specific tools
and technology solutions than ever before.
There are a number of other, more specific changes we
see ahead, as further democratisation of technology
continues. These are described in the table below.
WHAT WE KNOW WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
Existing technologies are not yet being fully utilised.
Marketers can still make better use of the technology
they already have available to them.
Technology will more directly affect ROI and business
success in general.
New technologies will be developed.
As new technologies are rolled out, skills gaps emerge.
Greater computing power will enable a break down
of customer behaviour to generate understandings.
Big data computation will enable more informed
decision-making, in real time.
Existing technologies may have new applications,
but we don’t know what those applications are.
Which technologies will generate the greatest returns.
While we can see what is possible, it’s not clear how people
will use the new technologies.
Those who embrace change will succeed
Education and cross training between technical skills and
marketing skills is needed to make full use of the new
technologies available.
Institutions, as well as technology providers will need to
support training and skills development of those using new
technology.
The challenge for agencies is to have the people and skills
ready and tested before clients demand. Agencies need
to be ahead of the game.
When marketers know more about customers and their
behaviours, how will customers respond?
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Compounding the problem is the fact that every new
technology that becomes available creates a new skills
gap to be bridged.
Business leaders need to decide how they are going
to fill the knowledge gaps. There is a need to balance
the amount of skills required to use a new technology
against the capability that technology brings to your
organisation.
The following chart describes the balancing act
required to maintain the right level of skills to meet the
demands of the technology you use. As technologies
become more complex and specific, so too does the
pressure mount on generalists to combine ideas to
create value. Generalists need to become experts
quickly, so they are competent enough to maximise
the benefits new technologies bring.
People solutions
Owning the skills needed to operate your technology
in-house is not always the right answer to addressing
the skills gap. Having control over those with the
skills is what is needed. Following are some common
solutions to this universal challenge:
Federate your technology – operate a central IT
function that services all your different business
functions
Outsource specific services as and when required
Use virtual global teams to provide business-specific
solutions to complex problems
Apply just-in-time purchasing to technical skills
through a flexible workforce (e.g. Uber). You can
decrease the number of full-time employees, and
buy in skills as needed.
Embed associates (e.g. Facebook and Adobe)
- Partnering with technology providers to provide
skills along with technology solutions
- Employ a corporate intern: skilled professionals
who can rotate through a business, providing
practical training to others.
WAYS TO ADDRESS
THE SKILLS GAP
A KNOWLEDGE GAP EXISTS BETWEEN THE VARIOUS AREAS OF DIGITAL
MARKETING AND TECHNOLOGY. THE DIVERGENCE BETWEEN THOSE
IMPLEMENTING SEO/SEM AND THE TOOLS THAT RUN THEM, FOR EXAMPLE,
IS INCREASING AS THE TECHNOLOGY BECOMES MORE SOPHISTICATED.
SKILLS
GAP
CAPABILITIES
#SKILLS
Minimum
skill level for
a business
Core Skills /
Capabilities
New SkillsStretch Skills
(making do)
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Organisational culture solutions
Organisational culture can be a powerful tool to help
stretch the skills in your business to meet your needs.
Encourage agility – a technical aptitude required for
a dynamic environment
Strong leadership – sales and leadership skills are
needed to promote technological change internally
Effective project management skills are needed to
keep an organisational change program on track.
What the skills gap means for
experienced marketing professionals
Bridging the skills gap has important implications
for all marketing professionals. Marketers will need
to increase the range of skills they bring to work
each day, as the emphasis changes. Marketing
competencies are changing.
Technology is becoming part of the next
generation’s skills
Marketers need the ability to turn strategy into an
execution plan
Technical competency, at least at a theoretical level,
will be required for key initiatives
Marketers must develop an understanding of the
key areas required for successful delivery: business
stakeholders, technology, vendor etc.
Leadership will be needed to attract and retain the
right staff with the right skills
In summary, experienced marketers will need to
expand their generalist business skills, while at the
same time tapping into the specialist skills and
technical ability of less experienced marketers.
What the skills gap means to business
managers
At a broader business level, the skills gap poses
challenges for managing organisations as a whole:
More skills are needed to deliver value to customers
Wages are spiralling: it can cost a lot to hire the
talent you need as it is rare
Baseline skills can be hard to verify: it’s hard to
identify what skills a person has, and what specific
skills are needed to implement a technology
Training and development costs are increasing: there
is a constant need to upgrade skills. People need
to be training for their next job. This makes it more
difficult to evaluate the cost effectiveness of training.
Vendors need to collaborate to help businesses
bridge the gap in training required to operate new
technologies.
Growth of data makes it more difficult to analyse and
interpret: businesses need staff with hybrid skills.
There is a disconnect that requires
communication and analytical skills
combined to turn data into information
that can be used to make informed
business decisions
DATA ≠ INSIGHT ≠ ACTION
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CONCLUSIONS
This investigation into the technology stack has highlighted
a number of changes that have important implications for
marketers and the changing direction of the marketing function
in organisations:
Technology has allowed large amounts
of data to be analysed quickly, providing
useful insights and information for
marketers, enabling marketing to move
from a reactive to pro-active function.
Although marketing has recently
undergone an industrialisation, it will
continue to be transformed by technology.
Technological solutions that address
marketing problems are many and varied.
In order to select the right solution,
decision makers need an in-depth,
practical understanding of the marketing
problem you are trying to address.
CMOs need to drive all aspects of the
technology stack:
- Most IT departments are sufficiently
removed from the detail of marketing
that they are not able to pro-actively
suggest new technologies as they
become available.
- Because technology plays such a
significant role in marketing today,
CMOs need to drive the strategy and
implementation of the technology stack.
Single vendors can provide general tools
to support marketing, however gaps can
persist for point solutions to fill. Deciding
on the mix of technologies, and balance
between in-house and external providers is
best done in partnership with IT.
New technologies are generating skill gaps
between those with technical knowledge
and those with broader marketing and
business experience. Although training can
go some way to address the mismatch,
CMOs need to think of creative ways
to bridge the gap through partnering
skills and experience together within the
organisation at times and bringing in
experts when needed at others.
Although the technology stack presents
many challenges for marketers, it is the
future direction businesses will be taking.
Those who harness the opportunity it offers
businesses to get closer to their customers
will ultimately win the battle for hearts and
minds.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THIS WHITE PAPER IS A RESULT OF THE EXPERIENCE, IDEAS AND THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP GENERATED BY THE ADMA CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE EXPERT GROUP
FROM THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE THINK TANK.
These invitation-only facilitated workshops explore topics related to one of our content pillars; Customer Experience,
Data, Content, Creativity, Technology.
With thanks to the members of the ADMA Customer Experience Expert Group and Teradata for their sponsorship.
Kym Boyle
Senior Director,
Technology and Systems Marketing,
Oracle Corporation
Simon O’Day
Head of Partnerships Program,
Emma Inc
Matt McGrath
Chief Brand Officer,
Network Ten
Richard Harris
Director,
ADMA
Brad Bennet
Head of Technology,
The Hallway
Hugh Bradlow
Chief Scientist,
Telstra
Jon-Paul Stift
Client Partner,
Atlas | a Facebook company
Shaden Mohamed
Executive GM - Online Marketing
Business Intelligence,
Wotif group
Jeffrey Evans
Vice President Agency, Asia Pacific,
Epsilon
Rachelle Kerr
Marketing Technology Director,
McCorkell
18. ADMA | Delivering more effective marketing through the right technology18
WRITER AND RESEARCHER:
Charlotte Spencer-Roy
Copywriter
Mike Vasavada
Director - Mobility Solutions,
mobiDdiction
Jeff Clark
Managing Partner,
Engage Digital
Stuart Waite
General Manager, Head of
Consumer Products Technology,
News Corp
Theo Noel
Regional Director AU/NZ,
Return Path
Daniel Aunvig
Head of Customer Intelligence,
SAS
Midu Chandra
Director of Strategy Innovation,
mobiDdiction
Katherine Milesi
Partner,
Deloitte Consulting – Australia
Ray Kloss
Head of Marketing,
SAP
Steve Brennen
Senior Director of Marketing
Advertising Sales,
Ebay Australia
Tim Knight
Group Head of Digital,
True Allianz
SPONSOR:
20. Registered Office
Association for Data-driven
Marketing and Advertising
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ABN 34 002 909 800
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Sydney NSW 2000
GPO Box 3895
Sydney NSW 2001
T +61 2 9277 5400
F +61 2 9277 5410
contact@adma.com.au
adma.com.au
ADMAWP011_27_APR15
This whitepaper has
been produced with
thought leadership
from Teradata.
