Which type of a tech marketer are you?

There are only a million ways to build a martech stack. But of course, you knew that, you marketing-pro you. But what you probably didn’t know, is that much like those posts you’ve seen online where owners and pets begin to look alike – that martech stacks are made by the Marketer. Your martech stack is a reflection of more than just your company’s objectives, but also your individual style of working and your focus. And if you think stacks are no big deal, we’ll have you know there’s even an award show for it – The Stackies!) Ready to see how you and your stack... stack up?

Doctor Frankenstack and his monster

The mad scientists of marketing, who think they’ve created a miracle – but have no idea that what they’ve really created is a monster. Created with disparate pieces of software and hardware in the hopes that they will work together. Well, they do work together. Just not well at all. There are 3 different systems that send an email - one for automation, one for campaigns, one for product messages. Like what even? Who cares that governance is impossible and no one can make sense of how many emails one customer receives, right doctor? The complete mismatch and overlap of parts are apparent in the way the Frankenstack monster operates – there’s little to no flow of data across it – and it’s a threat to the organisation at large. Unless they put an end to it before it’s too late.  

Mr. DIY and his WIP

Out on the frontiers of marketing, is a marketer who’s determined to go their own way. To be the artisan of the bunch and painstakingly create a labour of love – building an entire martech stack – in house. They laugh at the others –  “How hard could it be even?” Very. That’s how hard it is (we’d know). Which is what he realized on day 542 into the task. He’s spent valuable resources and man-hours on bug-fixing and new features, and on finding the right talent to maintain the infrastructure. Not to mention, that he’s not prepared at all for when the times and tides turn – like what to do when the vendor & platform API change. Or what if – something as unlikely as Google killing the third-party cookie, or Apple killing the IDFA happened? Well. There’s a first time for everything he thinks. Just that this first time really never seems to end.  

Mr. 3rd Party Pooper

Who needs a CRM or a CDP in a martech stack, when you can just BUY the data right off the shelf, #amirightorwhat? This Mister is the rebel of the bunch – though just a rebel without a clue. He’s focussed on data buying and 3rd-party everything for every component. And before you ask, of course, he’s heard of security concerns and data leaks. But what are the chances that something like that could happen to him right?  

Ms. Upper Right Quadrant

She’s the authority on well… following the authorities of marketing. She follows Gartner & Forrester the way most people follow fashion mags. If it’s recommended by Gartner or Forrester – she’s just gotta have it in her stack. To her credit, Miss Upper Right Quadrant gets it right - the martech stack works well enough. Not to mention that it’s the safe play - there’s no way anyone could fault her for that. And you know what they say in the dark rooms of Measure Slack… “No one ever gets fired for buying IBM.” So she can relax and breathe easy - at least until the next Magic Quadrant is released. And then back to shopping, she goes.  

Mr. One Giant Cloud

He’s the most loyal customer, the one-stop wonder. He prefers to buy every piece of his martech stack from one vendor. I mean if they have it all, why all the legwork right? To him, it’s one vendor, one cloud, one invoice… and more than one big problem he hasn’t quite realised yet. If the vendor increases the price 2x, he’s in for a world of trouble. Also as it happens that the vendor might be great at just one thing like CRM and pretty um… crap at everything else. Oh well. At least he got it all done in one shopping trip.  

Mr. Open-Source

The king of the free deal - he’s searched and researched every nook of the internet to figure out the best free open-source platforms for his martech Stack. He’s already implemented snowplow on his own servers in the office closet, built his own dashboards in D3.js, bolted Acquia or Matic on it and voila, he’s done it for free! Well, free of Enterprise SLA and support maybe but that’s really just a minor detail. After all, he’s the hero of freeing up the corporate budget. Now if only the army of consultants he’d need to keep this running were open source too...  

Ms. Let it Flow

She’s the guru of martech stacks, who’s been around long enough to know that it’s all connected - just gotta let the data flow. Seamlessly from the Customer Data Platform to every component and platform and back again. It’s just a whole ecosystem, man. She’s about first-party data all the way. None of that nasty inorganic intrusive 3rd party stuff for her. So while the rest of her marketing tribe panics about the death of this and that, she’s got it all figured out. She loves her customers – and she always knows the right communication mix to get them feeling good.

Which one are you? And does it matter?

Admit it – you found yourself in one of these. Or parts of yourself, in several. And we hope you had a good laugh while you were at it too. We’ve been in the marketing technology business for a while now and we’ve seen every kind of marketer and martech stack there is. As with other things in life, there are many ways how to get to a destination. Some are longer, some windy, some more expensive, and some lot more painful than others. The real question that is left is, is your martech stack delivering reasonable ROI? And is it really? Can you MNC marketers justify spending hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars especially in this economical situation we're facing or should you consider making it leaner and explore alternatives? Some of these questions were already covered by Marketoonist with hilarious pictures from Tom Fishburne. But in the end, you have to answer those yourself, and if you'd like a partner for that conversation give us a holler! As martech nerds ourselves, we’d love to recommend the perfect stack for you. Cheers!