How an orchestra approach can help you optimize your customer experience with your martech stack
Beyond the martech stack: It takes an orchestra to solve the customer experience
Marketing technology, or martech, is a term used to describe the software and technology used by marketing teams to attract and retain customers. These tools are time-saving, as they typically streamline and automate processes. They also help marketers analyze the success of their efforts.
Beyond the martech stack: It takes an orchestra to solve the customer experience
A marketing tech stack is the list of tools that marketers use to execute elements of their marketing campaigns, from lead generation to email marketing, from social media management to search engine optimization. There are thousands of different tools to choose from when creating your marketing tech stack.
But is having a martech stack enough to deliver a great customer experience? In this article, we'll explore why a martech stack alone is not sufficient, and how you can adopt an orchestra approach to solve the customer experience challenge.
What is a martech stack and why is it important?
A martech stack is a collection of software used by marketers to conduct, manage, measure, and improve their marketing activities. Oftentimes, martech stacks are designed to work in conjunction with one another (through built-in integrations or APIs) to supplement marketing processes.
Some examples of martech tools and categories are:
Category
Examples
Content management
CMS Hub, WordPress, Medium
Email marketing
Mailchimp, HubSpot Marketing Hub, ConvertKit
Social media management
Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social
Search engine optimization
Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush
Advertising
Google Ads, Facebook Ads, mediasmart
Analytics
Google Analytics, Heap, Mixpanel
Customer relationship management
HubSpot CRM, Salesforce, Zoho CRM
Landing page creation
Unbounce, Leadpages, Instapage
Webinar hosting
Zoom, GoToWebinar, WebinarJam
Chatbot creation
Intercom, Drift, Chatfuel
The benefits of using a martech stack are:
It helps you automate repetitive and tedious tasks, saving you time and resources.
It helps you collect and analyze data from various sources, giving you insights into your marketing performance and customer behavior.
It helps you personalize and optimize your marketing campaigns, improving your conversion rates and customer retention.
It helps you scale your marketing efforts, reaching more potential customers and expanding your market share.
Some best practices for building and managing a martech stack are:
Start with your goals and strategy, not with the tools. Identify the problems you want to solve and the outcomes you want to achieve, then look for the tools that can help you get there.
Choose quality over quantity. Don't get overwhelmed by the number of options available. Focus on the tools that are essential, reliable, and compatible with your existing systems and processes.
Keep it simple and organized. Avoid unnecessary complexity and duplication. Use a framework or a diagram to map out your martech stack and how each tool connects and interacts with each other.
Test and evaluate regularly. Don't settle for the status quo. Experiment with new tools and features, measure their impact, and optimize your martech stack accordingly.
What are the challenges of using a martech stack alone?
While a martech stack can provide many benefits for marketers, it also comes with some challenges. Some of the common challenges of using a martech stack alone are:
Silos and fragmentation. Having too many tools can create silos and fragmentation of data, processes, and teams. This can lead to inconsistency, inefficiency, and miscommunication across your marketing organization.
Complexity and confusion. Managing multiple tools and vendors can be complex and confusing. You may have to deal with different pricing models, contracts, support channels, updates, integrations, and security issues.
Lack of alignment and integration. Having a martech stack alone does not guarantee alignment and integration with other business functions and goals. You may have to coordinate with other departments such as sales, product, finance, and customer service to ensure a consistent and seamless customer experience.
These challenges can prevent you from delivering a great customer experience, which is the ultimate goal of marketing. According to a report by Adobe, 74% of marketers agree that customer experience is an important factor in driving loyalty, yet only 30% believe they are doing it well.
So how can you overcome these challenges and create a better customer experience? That's where an orchestra approach comes in.
How can an orchestra approach help solve the customer experience?
An orchestra approach is a way of thinking about and organizing your marketing activities that goes beyond the martech stack. It involves aligning your strategy, leadership, collaboration, orchestration, and measurement to create a harmonious and impactful customer experience.
The analogy of an orchestra is useful because it illustrates how different elements can work together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Just like an orchestra consists of different instruments, sections, players, conductors, composers, and audiences, a marketing organization consists of different tools, channels, teams, leaders, strategies, and customers.
The key elements of an orchestra approach are:
Strategy: This is the vision and direction of your marketing organization. It defines your goals, objectives, value proposition, target audience, positioning, messaging, differentiation, and competitive advantage. It also guides your decision-making and prioritization of resources.
Leadership: This is the role and responsibility of your marketing leaders. It involves setting the tone and culture of your marketing organization, empowering and motivating your teams, communicating effectively with internal and external stakeholders, fostering innovation and creativity, and driving change and improvement.
Collaboration: This is the way your marketing teams work together internally and externally. It involves breaking down silos and barriers between different functions, departments, locations, and levels. It also involves sharing information, insights, ideas, feedback, best practices, and learnings across your organization.
Orchestration: This is the process of coordinating and executing your marketing campaigns across different tools, channels, teams, stages, touchpoints, and moments. It involves integrating your martech stack with other systems and processes to create a seamless and personalized customer journey. It also involves optimizing your campaigns based on data and analytics.
Measurement: This is the method of evaluating and improving your marketing performance and impact. It involves defining and tracking relevant metrics and KPIs that align with your goals and objectives. It also involves analyzing and reporting on your results, challenges, and opportunities for growth.
The benefits of adopting an orchestra approach are:
It helps you create a consistent and seamless customer experience across different touchpoints and channels, reducing friction and increasing satisfaction.
It helps you leverage data and insights from different sources and tools, enabling you to make informed and data-driven decisions.
It helps you foster a culture of innovation and creativity, encouraging you to experiment with new ideas and solutions.
It helps you align your marketing goals and activities with your overall business objectives and vision, demonstrating your value and impact.
Some examples of companies that use an orchestra approach to solve the customer experience are:
Netflix: Netflix is known for its personalized and engaging customer experience. It uses a combination of data, algorithms, content, design, and marketing to deliver relevant and tailored recommendations, previews, and notifications to its subscribers. It also collaborates with other platforms and devices to ensure a seamless viewing experience across different screens.
Spotify: Spotify is another example of a company that uses an orchestra approach to create a unique and delightful customer experience. It uses data and machine learning to curate personalized playlists, podcasts, and radio stations for its users. It also integrates with social media and other apps to enable users to share their music preferences and discover new songs.
Zappos: Zappos is a company that prides itself on its exceptional customer service. It uses a variety of tools and channels to communicate with its customers, such as phone, email, chat, social media, and video. It also empowers its employees to go above and beyond to delight its customers, such as sending flowers, cards, or gifts.
Conclusion
A martech stack is a valuable asset for any marketing organization. It can help you automate, analyze, personalize, and scale your marketing campaigns. However, a martech stack alone is not enough to solve the customer experience challenge. You need to adopt an orchestra approach that aligns your strategy, leadership, collaboration, orchestration, and measurement to create a harmonious and impactful customer experience.
If you want to learn more about how to optimize your customer experience using an orchestra approach, here are some steps you can take:
Download our free customer journey map templates to map out your current and desired customer experience.
Read our blog post on how to create a customer-centric marketing strategy.
Book a demo with our experts to see how our marketing software can help you orchestrate your marketing campaigns.
Don't let your martech stack limit your potential. Start using an orchestra approach today and see how it can transform your customer experience.
FAQs
What is a martech stack?
A martech stack is a collection of software used by marketers to conduct, manage, measure, and improve their marketing activities.
What are the benefits of using a martech stack?
The benefits of using a martech stack are: it helps you automate repetitive and tedious tasks, saving you time and resources; it helps you collect and analyze data from various sources, giving you insights into your marketing performance and customer behavior; it helps you personalize and optimize your marketing campaigns, improving your conversion rates and customer retention; it helps you scale your marketing efforts, reaching more potential customers and expanding your market share.
What are the challenges of using a martech stack alone?
The challenges of using a martech stack alone are: silos and fragmentation of data, processes, and teams; complexity and confusion of managing multiple tools and vendors; lack of alignment and integration with other business functions and goals.
What is an orchestra approach?
An orchestra approach is a way of thinking about and organizing your marketing activities that goes beyond the martech stack. It involves aligning your strategy, leadership, collaboration, orchestration, and measurement to create a harmonious and impactful customer experience.
What are the benefits of using an orchestra approach?
The benefits of using an orchestra approach are: it helps you create a consistent and seamless customer experience across different touchpoints and channels, reducing friction and increasing satisfaction; it helps you leverage data and insights from different sources and tools, enabling you to make informed and data-driven decisions; it helps you foster a culture of innovation and creativity, encouraging you to experiment with new ideas and solutions; it helps you align your marketing goals and activities with your overall business objectives and vision, demonstrating your value and impact. 71b2f0854b