This week we got to sit down with Brian Moseley of Databox, all the way up in Boston, Massachusetts!
Having started with Hubspot way back in the day, Brian is now Director of Sales at Databox: a software solution centered around data visualization. For people trying to look at analytics from ten different systems, the program is a lifesaver.
But one thing Brian has noticed is that he’s often working with people who are trying to visualize far more data than they actually need. As a result, he sat down with us today to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of building a Martech stack – whether you’re just starting out, or already in way over your head.
1. THE ORIGINS OF MARTECH
The term “Martech” refers to marketing technology. Think programs like Hubspot, Salesforce, Autopilot, Drift, Zapier…
Anything you use to connect your digital data, your CRM, your website, and so forth – all for the sake of marketing – makes up your individual ‘stack.’
Ten years ago, Google Analytics was really the only “Martech stack” anybody had. Of course, now there are hundreds if not thousands of options.
Marketers now have the luxury of picking any and all metrics they want to follow…but this tends to get out of hand before long.
“I know 50% of my marketing is working…I’m just not sure which 50% that is!”
Sound familiar? Here’s Brian’s take on which of those metrics are probably most valuable.
2. GETTING BACK TO BASICS
As great as a building a Martech stack the size of Texas might feel at first, it may be more convoluted than necessary. That’s why condensing what you can is always a good idea.
You just can’t do everything…so pick carefully.
A content strategy is a good thing to focus on – or a promotional, social strategy.
Of all the programs out there, Brian’s personal recommendation is Hubspot.
Hubspot measures the three basic KPIs that most B2B companies really should want to focus on: traffic, leads, and customers…and they also measure the conversion rates between those three categories.
Brian also highly recommends looking into the book or video, The Four Disciplines of Execution by Franklin Covey.
Covey explains that there are leading indicators (factors that you can control, like content output) and lagging indicators that you can’t control (like monthly web traffic).
It’s important to determine which leading indicators you want to change, in order to garner better results from lagging indicators.
3. IF YOU’RE STARTING A STACK…
Company size is always a factor in building your Martech stack, but there are plenty of options for all.
If you want to focus on learning about your SEO, Google Search Console is a great (though surprisingly little-known) tool.
If you want to focus on emails, Mailchimp is highly popular and effective.
For more conversational marketing, Drift chatbots allow you to communicate more quickly with leads, and educate them at greater speed so they become higher quality leads in less time.
If you want to close the loop between marketing and sales to really encourage communication between both departments, nothing beats Hubspot.
Best of all, thanks to high competition, a lot of these programs have to be highly generous with their services: many offer free accounts so that you can try out some of their basic tools without committing right away!
4. IF YOU NEED TO SHRINK YOUR STACK…
One of Brian’s favorite experiences was seeing a company create an actual bracket similar to a sports bracket, then list all their programs (SEMrush versus Drift!) in a department-wide debate.
Pros and cons were listed: how much are we paying for this one? How much does it cut down on time? It doesn’t take long for something so polarizing to clean up a cluttered Martech stack.
Brian also has an analogy he liked to use for people still uncertain about dropping a lot of accounts.
Marketing software is like a new employee. You can hire, and there may be a learning curve at first…but you never lose the authority to fire if it’s not working out.
If a software automates a process for you, ask yourself if going back to manually overseeing that process would really be so terrible. Were you even doing the process manually in the first place?
Step One that he often has to discuss with Databox clients is that they’re trying to visualize 50-100 metrics, when only 5-10 will do.
Set yearly S.M.A.R.T. goals, whether for traffic or leads or sales or ad reach or organic traffic… then break those yearly goals down into quarters, and then months.
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If there’s a particular topic that you’d like for us to talk about, or if you have a particular a challenge that you’d like us to take a crack at, send us an email. We’d be happy to answer them for you – and if your topic gets picked for a future episode, you’ll win a free IndustrialSage t-shirt!
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