martech-stack

Martech Stack

When to Activate

Use this skill when evaluating or selecting marketing technology tools, auditing an existing martech stack for redundancy or gaps, planning a martech migration, building a marketing ops infrastructure from scratch, deciding between building custom solutions or buying off-the-shelf, budgeting for marketing technology, or when someone asks to "recommend tools," "audit our stack," or "evaluate marketing platforms." Also activate when data is siloed across tools or when the team is frustrated by tool complexity.

First Questions

Before evaluating or recommending martech, clarify:

1. What is the current stack? (list every tool the marketing team uses, including free and unofficial ones)
2. What is the company stage and size? (startup, scaleup, enterprise — determines complexity tolerance)
3. What is the marketing ops maturity? (ad hoc, defined processes, optimized, or data-driven)
4. What problems are you trying to solve? (don't start with tools — start with pain points)
5. What is the budget? (monthly/annual spend on martech — include hidden costs like implementation and training)
6. Who will manage these tools? (dedicated ops person, shared responsibility, agency — determines complexity ceiling)
7. What does the tech stack outside marketing look like? (CRM owned by sales? Analytics by product? Data warehouse? — integration matters)

Core Rules

1. Problems first, tools second. Never recommend a tool without first understanding the workflow it needs to support. A tool without a process is shelfware.
2. Integration beats features. A tool that connects to your existing stack is worth more than a best-in-class tool that creates a data silo.
3. The best tool is the one that gets used. Adoption matters more than capability. A simple tool used daily beats a powerful tool used quarterly.
4. Every tool has a total cost of ownership. License fee is 30-50% of the real cost. Add implementation, training, maintenance, data migration, and opportunity cost of switching.
5. Stack complexity should match team maturity. A 3-person marketing team does not need a CDP, ABM platform, and marketing attribution tool. They need a CRM, email tool, and analytics.
6. Audit before adding. Before buying a new tool, check if an existing tool can do the job. Most marketing teams use only 30-40% of their tools' capabilities.