Think about this: you’re elbow deep in a severe advertising marketing campaign, your tech stack scattered throughout ten totally different tabs. There are shopper analysis instruments, technique docs, your CRM, analytics… the listing goes on. Every instrument guarantees the world, however all you are feeling is a rising sense of overwhelm. Sound acquainted? In the event you’re nodding alongside, you’re not alone.
Regardless of their guarantees of effectivity, these instruments can create an ‘app entice’, the place too many choices find yourself being extra of a hindrance than a assist. With staff spending about 9% of their time simply switching between apps, it’s no marvel productiveness takes successful. After which there’s the fee. Managing a mess of subscriptions can put a pressure in your sources, particularly in the event you’re not utilizing the instruments successfully.
Fortunately, there’s a easy approach to clear up the muddle: tech stack consolidation. On this article, we’ll present you the right way to strip again your setup and make your tech stack work more durable. Right here’s what we’ll cowl:
What’s a tech stack?
A tech stack is a group of instruments, applied sciences and SaaS functions that staff use to do their jobs.
This contains every little thing from shopper analysis platforms like GWI, to CRM methods like Salesforce, to venture administration instruments like Asana. As of 2024, the common group has greater than 125 totally different SaaS apps of their tech stack. Yikes.
What are the advantages of consolidating your tech stack?
Decluttering your digital workspace does greater than you may assume. On prime of simplifying your every day actions, it additionally:
Will increase effectivity
We’ve already touched on the time wasted switching between totally different instruments, and because the previous saying goes, time is cash. With fewer instruments to ping-pong between, your workforce can spend extra time specializing in what actually issues; delivering outcomes. This increase in effectivity results in higher efficiency and a more healthy backside line for your corporation.
Reduces prices
With out realizing it, you may be spending an enormous portion of your finances on instruments that your workforce doesn’t use. Our knowledge exhibits that 28% of firms sometimes spend $10K-20K per yr on their tech stack, whereas over 1 / 4 spend $20K-50K. That’s a considerable funding for instruments that may not be pulling their weight.
A key step in consolidating your tech stack is performing an audit to pinpoint the methods you may be losing invaluable finances on – however extra on this later.
Improves knowledge safety
Every new instrument you add to your tech stack will increase the danger of an information breach, particularly if it handles delicate data like buyer knowledge. By consolidating your tech stack, you narrow down the variety of platforms with entry to this knowledge, making it more durable for breaches to occur.
Streamlines workflows
Making huge groups work collectively in concord isn’t any simple feat. Suppose again to the instance at first of this text. To tug off a showstopper of a advertising marketing campaign, you’ve bought to get your content material workforce, design workforce, demand gen workforce, social workforce, and PR workforce all on the identical web page. When every workforce has its personal set of instruments and workflows, issues can rapidly turn into chaotic. However by consolidating your tech stack, you’ll be able to guarantee everybody makes use of the identical platforms, streamlining workflows and making collaboration a breeze.
Tech stack examples in follow
After we discuss a tech stack, it’s essential to visualise how all of the instruments work collectively to realize an finish end result. To deliver this to life, we’ve crafted an instance of a tech stack in motion:
Meet Rochelle, a senior advertising supervisor working in-house at a journey firm. Her purpose? Attracting luxurious vacation makers. She’s bought some fairly steep targets to hit and must squeeze each little bit of effectivity out of her day.
As soon as sufficiently caffeinated, Rochelle begins the morning by syncing up together with her venture supervisor and content material supervisor on Slack. They’re brainstorming potential campaigns however maintain going spherical in circles, so that they hop on a Google Meet name to work issues out extra successfully. On the decision, they decide to working a sequence of paid adverts alongside a compelling weblog submit to seize their viewers’s consideration.
The venture supervisor schedules the adverts and weblog submit in Asana, assigning duties to the copywriters and design workforce. In the meantime, Rochelle dives into GWI to establish essentially the most related social media channels for his or her adverts and to know the type of content material that’ll greatest interact their viewers.
By GWI’s shopper analysis platform, she learns that luxurious vacation goers are 11% extra doubtless than the common shopper to make use of the web to seek out new concepts and inspiration. They’re additionally 35% extra doubtless than the common social media person to observe journey writers and corporations. Digging a bit deeper, she finds that Instagram is the popular social media platform for his or her viewers (excluding China, the place it’s unavailable) and decides to tailor the vast majority of the adverts to that platform.
In terms of the content material itself, Rochelle learns from GWI’s shopper analysis that luxurious holiday-goers have clear preferences. They need manufacturers to be unique (157% extra so than the common shopper), daring (125% extra), and younger (124% extra), leaving Rochelle with a a lot clearer course of the right way to tailor her messaging. She now is aware of precisely the right way to seize her viewers’s consideration, specializing in daring adverts that create a way of FOMO (whats up exclusivity) and are completely optimized for Instagram.
With these new insights, Rochelle briefs the copywriters to get began on the adverts, that are later designed in Figma. On the identical time, the search engine marketing supervisor makes a begin on the weblog submit temporary. He makes use of Ahrefs for key phrase analysis and performs round on ChatGPT+ to brainstorm just a few partaking weblog titles, selecting his prime three after which including these choices to the briefing doc in Google Docs.
As soon as the copywriter finishes the weblog submit, she palms it over to the content material supervisor for an in depth proofreading. After it’s accredited, it’s uploaded to WordPress, the place a HubSpot type is embedded to encourage guests to subscribe to their journey e-newsletter.
Whereas this is occurring, the adverts are finalized and launched by way of Meta Adverts Supervisor, making them seen on Instagram and Fb. With the marketing campaign now stay, the workforce makes use of a variety of instruments to trace the way it’s performing, together with HubSpot, HotJar and Google Analytics.
This instance is only a glimpse of what a tech stack can appear like, with particular instruments various based mostly in your trade, workforce, and function. For instance, HubSpot knowledge reveals that relating to startup firms, the go-to instruments for knowledge and analytics are Google Search Console, Typeform, and Stripe, whereas Intercom, Salesforce, and Zendesk are favorites for gross sales and customer support.
Easy methods to consolidate your tech stack for streamlined groups and cost-effective workflows
As we’ve talked about, consolidating your tech stack could make your workforce extra environment friendly and assist reduce prices. Right here’s a easy step-by-step information that will help you create a extra streamlined setup:
1. Define your course of
Earlier than diving headfirst into consolidating your tech stack, take a step again and map out a plan. Consider it like constructing a home: you wouldn’t begin hammering nails with out a blueprint (hopefully). By fastidiously outlining your course of, you’ll make it possible for your tech stack correctly helps your corporation objectives. Begin with the core components, your basis, and regularly construct upon it. This methodical method will prevent time and frustration in the long term.
2. Conduct a tech stack audit
Understanding your tech panorama is step one to consolidating it.
A tech stack audit entails a radical evaluate of all of the instruments and software program your workforce at the moment makes use of; consider it as taking stock.
As you perform your tech stack audit, contemplate your stack from two views: what your workforce must do their jobs successfully, and the way effectively your present instruments are supporting these wants. As you do that, it’s useful to align your tech stack along with your buyer journey to establish any gaps or overlaps.
Whereas working your approach by way of your audit, you may also discover which you could categorize your tech stack into teams, for instance, instruments for insights (resembling GWI) and instruments for execution (like HubSpot or WordPress). Splitting up your tech stack this fashion can assist to establish overlapping instruments, supplying you with a clearer view of the place to streamline your software program.
3. Survey your groups to find their challenges
To get an actual really feel for the way your tech stack is working, it is advisable to hear instantly from the individuals utilizing it day by day: your colleagues. Ship out a survey to collect insights into their every day challenges and frustrations.
And don’t restrict your survey to only one division. Involving everybody from advertising to gross sales to operations provides you with a complete view of your tech stack’s strengths and weaknesses. By understanding the wants and preferences of your workforce, you’ll be able to establish areas the place instruments simply may not be working.
4. Spotlight instrument redundancies
Your surveys and discussions are prone to reveal the instruments which are gathering digital mud. You may uncover software program that’s now not getting used however nonetheless has an energetic subscription, and even worse, instruments nobody ever knew about within the first place. These ‘ghost instruments’ are prime candidates for elimination.
5. Determine and prioritize cross-functional instruments
That is your alternative to establish multi-purpose instruments that can be utilized by totally different groups for various causes. Consider it like a Swiss Military knife on your tech stack. Not solely will this method make issues run smoother between groups, nevertheless it’ll additionally assist you to squeeze each final drop of worth out of your tech instruments.
An ideal instance of such a instrument is (drumroll please) GWI. Sure, in fact we’re biased, however as a world shopper analysis platform, GWI can be utilized throughout quite a lot of groups – from advertising to product improvement to advert gross sales – for an enormous vary of functions. Listed here are totally different ways in which groups can leverage GWI:
Content material advertising: Content material entrepreneurs depend on viewers insights to develop content material advertising methods that actually join with their audience. Utilizing knowledge from GWI, they’ll create tailor-made content material for each stage of the client journey.
Product improvement: Creating merchandise for people requires perception into stated people. Product builders flip to GWI to collect insights about particular areas, audiences, and classes. This data helps with the product improvement course of as manufacturers can higher meet the wants of their goal market.
Model well being: With GWI, firms can maintain a detailed eye on their model’s well being. By monitoring issues like buy intent, buyer sentiment, and model loyalty, companies can perceive how their model is perceived available in the market.
Pitching: Gross sales groups use GWI to craft standout pitches which are backed by stable knowledge. This helps them impress new prospects, retain loyal purchasers, and shut extra offers.
Media planning: Businesses use GWI to take advantage of their digital promoting budgets. By tapping into GWI’s insights, they’ll pinpoint the perfect platforms and methods for his or her adverts, guaranteeing they attain the fitting individuals in the simplest approach.
Partnerships and sponsorships: Partnerships groups use GWI to establish potential model companions, each regionally and globally, who can assist develop their attain. With GWI’s insights, they’ll establish companions or sponsors that match their audience and enterprise targets.
Market sizing: Corporations flip to GWI after they need to break into new markets. By understanding shopper numbers and spending patterns in particular areas, companies could make knowledgeable choices about the place to focus their efforts.
6. Perceive how attainable integrations may work
Understanding how your instruments work collectively (or don’t) is a key think about optimizing your tech stack. Take a step again and visualize the way you need every little thing to attach. Which instruments are already speaking to one another? Which of them have the potential to combine, however don’t at the moment? Are there any ‘lonely islands’ in your tech stack that could possibly be changed by cross-functional choices as a substitute? By mapping out these connections, you’ll establish alternatives to streamline workflows and remove redundant instruments.
7. Map out your tech stack consolidation plan
That is the place the true enjoyable begins. Now that you simply’ve bought a transparent image of your tech stack, it’s time to resolve what to maintain, what to toss out, and the right way to join the dots. There are other ways you’ll be able to deal with this, and a number of it should rely in your finances and wider enterprise targets, however listed here are the choices companies have a tendency to think about:
Remove non-essential instruments: One method is to strip your tech stack right down to solely essentially the most essential instruments. This might imply utilizing primary spreadsheets as a substitute of a CRM, or counting on handbook processes relatively than automation. Whereas this may get monetary savings upfront, it’s most likely not the most suitable choice on your workforce’s productiveness.
Minimize single-purpose instruments: Another choice is to take away all single-purpose instruments and solely put money into complete platforms that may deal with a number of duties, for instance, HubSpot, which lets you create touchdown pages, ship emails, and section your viewers, vs a instrument that may solely carry out one in all these duties. Whereas this method can simplify issues and prevent cash, you may find yourself sacrificing specialised options that solely sure single-purpose instruments supply.
Spend money on multi-function instruments: A well-liked go-to technique is to put money into just a few versatile instruments that may carry out a number of features, then combine them so that they function as one system. This balanced method means that you can retain important options whereas benefiting from streamlined workflows, and also you’ll doubtless save sufficient cash to afford any single-purpose specialised instruments you may nonetheless want.
Whichever method you select, our largest piece of recommendation is to get visible. Don’t be afraid to go old style; seize a whiteboard, some sticky notes, or perhaps a huge sheet of paper and begin mapping out your new tech stack. Seeing your plan laid out like this can assist you notice potential issues and discover inventive options.
8. Get worker suggestions in your tech stack consolidation plan
When you’ve mapped out your ideally suited new tech stack, share it along with your colleagues to get their opinions. They’re those who’ll be utilizing it on the every day, so their buy-in is important. Encourage suggestions, and be open to creating changes based mostly on their insights.
9. Put your plan into motion
With everybody on board and your plan now finalized, it’s time to start out making modifications. Cancel these unused subscriptions, be cautious of any auto-renews looming within the not-so-distant future, kickstart conversations with new suppliers (the place wanted), and implement some other changes you’ve selected. As you do that, ensure that to doc every little thing. This might be a lifesaver on your workforce as they get used to the brand new methods of working.
As soon as every little thing is up and working, schedule common check-ins along with your workforce. This can be a likelihood to see how issues are going, handle any points, and make any essential tweaks.
Tech stack consolidation FAQs
What’s a advertising tech stack?
A advertising tech stack (or martech stack) is a group of instruments and platforms utilized by advertising groups to plan, execute, and measure their campaigns. It sometimes contains instruments for e mail advertising, social media administration, content material creation, search engine marketing, analytics, and buyer relationship administration.
How do you select the fitting advertising tech stack?
Constructing the right advertising tech stack begins with understanding your objectives and viewers. Take into account what you need to obtain, who you’re making an attempt to succeed in, and the way a lot you’ll be able to spend. Search for instruments that work collectively seamlessly and supply sturdy knowledge safety.
What are the advantages of working common tech stack audits?
Common tech stack audits prevent money and time by surfacing pointless instruments and highlighting alternatives for higher collaboration.
Remaining ideas
A cluttered tech stack is a productiveness killer. Overlook the times of countless tab toggling, it’s time to optimize your tech stack. By consolidating your instruments, you’ll be able to streamline your workflows, increase effectivity inside the workforce, and – right here’s the biggie – save extra money.
A shopper analysis instrument (like GWI) is the right approach to maximize your tech stack by offering actionable insights to tell each side of your corporation, from advertising and product improvement to gross sales and customer support.
