marketing stack
What is a marketing stack?
A marketing stack, also called a marketing technology stack, is a collection of technologies used by marketers to perform, analyze and improve their services.
A marketer is an employee of an organization whose job is to help the business achieve its goals by displaying the organization in a positive way to the public, interacting with current buyers to ensure they stay active with the organization and reaching out to potential buyers to bring in new business and increase sales.
What are the components of a marketing stack?
A marketing stack can include the following software products:
- an email marketing platform
- a content management system (CMS)
- customer relationship management (CRM) software
- CRM analytics tools for tracking customer behavior
A full stack marketer is someone who knows and understands all components of the stack. This broad knowledge allows them to work on a project relating to any area of the marketing stack.
The stack and how it is organized is based on the type of business and what they find most important to their marketing efforts. The biggest difference is whether it is a business that sells to consumers (B2C) or to other businesses (B2B). The technologies used in these two businesses will differ greatly since they use different methods to gain customers.
How to use a marketing stack
To create an effective marketing stack, all organizations must first define and perfect their brand essence, personality and goals. Once this is established, organizations can begin building off this base to create a company website, social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, and improve search engine optimization (SEO) so their name is seen in related keyword searches.
The organization will also need to create a place where they keep all of their customer data. This collection of data can then be used to create email marketing campaigns. Other levels of the stack might include direct mail and marketing events. Once the stack is created, the organization will be able to use the layers of supportive technology to engage with customers and achieve their marketing goals.
Why are marketing stacks important?
The landscape of marketing technology is consistently growing and changing as more technologies are created to help marketers understand the constantly changing needs and desires of their customers. The evolving field of digital marketing provides marketers with new platforms and methods of communicating with customers.
Developing a marketing stack allows a business to gain an understanding of which technologies are most beneficial to their goal. The stack will also make achieving the goal easier by providing marketing automation. The stack must start with a strong foundation and then each level that is built up must be able to support the next layers.
Creating and maintaining a marketing stack can help marketing teams achieve their goals, trace customer journeys and interact with customers in the most efficient and effective ways. Through customized messages, these stacks can help organizations turn leads into new customers and keep current customers interested.
Editor's note: This article was written in 2019. TechTarget editors revised it in 2023 to improve the reader experience.
