I once did an audit of a company’s tech stack. The person I spoke to said they had 26 pieces of tech across their business. But, when I asked them about the value they were getting from all those different solutions, they said they were getting about 10% of what they initially thought.
This is an example of companies putting technology before strategy. They buy all these pieces of tech after seeing a demo, thinking it’s going to solve a problem, but they never put in the change programme or integrate their systems to get the total value. Buying tech is not a strategy; there has to be something more.
So what is the strategy?
You need to consider more deeply why you want to buy a piece of tech. Think about how it will fit in with the way you market and how it plays with the other solutions in your stack. You ideally want your new purchase to integrate into your current processes, so you can accelerate your marketing results.
Once you have made your purchase, implement a change programme that ensures you get the full value from your new solution. If you’re going to get the tech, have a plan to utilise it.
The integration multiplier
When you integrate your tech stack and use different solutions in conjunction, it creates a multiplier effect on your results.
At Modern, our strategy is to forge deep and lasting partnerships with the best marketing tech vendors in the industry, including Drift, Outreach, Salesforce, Pardot, Cyance, 6Sense and Folloze. We know in great detail how these solutions work – and how they work together. It allows us to create combinations that yield excellent results for our clients.
Here’s a quick example of how we combine tech solutions in our demand and lead conversion model:
- We build audiences that match our clients’ target and intent-based audiences using data platforms like 6Sense and Cyance
- We drive demand to a landing page through ad platforms and media partners (e.g. LinkedIn, Google)
- On the landing page, we use Folloze to personalise the communication based on what they clicked, their industry or another parameter. We’ll also use Drift to fire chatbots that are relevant to the respondent’s industry or even their company
- We use the data captured on the landing page (via Drift) to begin lead nurture using Salesforce and Pardot
Traditionally, what people do next is leave it there. They’ll send nurture email sequences and hope to convert some leads that way. The problem is they may only get a 20% open rate on those emails, so 80% of the nurture isn’t happening.
What we do is a little different. We continue working those tech combinations to achieve higher conversions:
- We pull the data out of the platform and feed it back into LinkedIn, where we can target them with new messages
- If they come back to our website, Drift already has their first-party data, so Drift can activate and say, ‘Hello Company X’. How about we talk about that digital transformation you’re interested in.’ It’s the personalised touch that is so effective today, converting at a much higher rate than generic messaging
Finally, when we hand the data over to the sales team, we use Outreach and Drift in combination to build personalised sales cadences with video, to create the ideal customer experience.
This process works because we use the tools and data together. Using Drift as an example, you’ll see how it pops up across the process, multiplying the effectiveness of the other tools. It’s strategy before technology!
Do you put strategy before technology?
The above is just a little example of the kind of strategy you need to achieve maximum value from your tech purchases. It’s not complex; it’s just looking at your models and thinking about how technology can add value. When you create several quick wins across your process, they combine to deliver spectacular end results – greater than you initially imagined.
