A Brief Guide to Martech Integrations

How do you identify, evaluate and integrate the very best marketing technology tools into your digital marketing operation for superior content management, minarketing automation and customer relationship management?

Digital marketers and content marketing strategists have firsthand experiences regarding how marketing and technology work symbiotically with each other.

Because there are thousands of tools available for martech, having a solid understanding of which are needed for your team is critical. In this guide, I’ll outline what I see as essential martech integrations for certainly any B2B business and probably most B2Cs. I’ll cover the basic workflow of needed acronyms (WCM to MAP to CRM) and what that means for integrating and automating your company's content marketing strategies.

Defining the Terms

Before we dive too deeply into martech integrations, let us look at what martech, WCM, MAP, and CRM stand for.

• Martech: marketing technology. The good people at chiefmartec.com put out what is now a “supergraphic” of marketing technologies. The 2020 version has more than 8,000 technologies listed. Suffice to say, any marketing challenge you have, there’s probably a tool to help you. But budgets aren’t infinite and resources to support them are likely just as limited so we’ll focus on the ones I think are most essential to facilitate lead flow and sales follow-up.
• Web content management or web content management system (WCM or WCMS). The Association of Intelligent Information Management states “WCMS is a program that helps in maintaining, controlling, changing and reassembling the content on a webpage.” In simple terms, a tool to help you create, publish and maintain your website and digital brand.
• Marketing automation platforms (MAPs). Forrester | SiriusDecisions defines MAPs as “technology solutions that automate demand creation programs within a new or existing customer base. Key MAP functionality includes the development and execution of outbound and inbound marketing tactics (e.g. emails, landing pages, online registration forms) and assuring the optimal distribution and management of the leads that result from these tactics.”
• Customer relationship management (CRM). According to Microsoft, “CRM systems help you manage and maintain customer relationships, track sales leads, marketing, and pipeline, and deliver actionable data.” Essentially it’s how your sales reps manage their leads, track their opportunities and keep notes on the interactions they are having with prospects and clients.

You Will Need Them to Talk to Each Other

When implementing martech tools, that means you are using software that eases the process of implementing your marketing strategies. The use of martech integrations to ensure your tools are working well together means that your team can:

• Work more efficiently
• Communicate more effectively
• Measure progress against your goals

When you look closely at the definition of martech integration, it means you are driving your customers and prospects interactions with your brand, usually digitally. Then, you are measuring their response to the marketing programs you have available and using the technology to deliver information to sales representatives.

It is not uncommon to see the term, “martech stack” when referring to the martech tools marketers use. These tools often integrate, which means they help optimize your team's workflow and the content they are creating.

Common Types of Martech Integration Tools

Integrating your WCM to your MAP and your MAP to your CRM embraces the principles of content and experience. That means you and your team are embracing tools that include:

• Asset creation and management
• Content marketing
• Web marketing experiences
• Email marketing
• Marketing automation
• Web and SEO
• Closed loop funnel tracking

In addition to your company running more efficiently and effectively, automating martech integrations helps reduce the number of working hours that are necessary for executing marketing strategies. The use of this automation also helps you develop actionable insights into your company's return on investment for marketing and how that relates to your marketing efforts. After identifying your company's ROI, use that information to scale up or scale down various initiatives to maximize acquisition.

Additional benefits of automating martech integrations (WCM to MAP to CRM) include:

• Streamlining workflows through the use of automated tools and technology and, thus saving time by eliminating time-consuming tasks
• Offering ways for open communication regarding a project's status, ways to improve tracking, or to give team members progress visibility
• Using insights and data to connect with your audience on a personal level and optimize the user experience
• Easily access past conversations, subscription information, and other interactions with buyers and customers to enhance relationships

What Martech Integrations Means for Content Marketing

Enhancing your content marketing strategies is possible when you use martech integrations to automate that workflow. Your martech tools should address every phase of the customer journey, including:

• Awareness: Your potential customer is aware that they have a problem or pain points that need addressing
• Consideration: During this phase, they are weighing options regarding how to address those pain points
• Decision: Here is where you can demonstrate the value of what you are offering to help drive the decision-making process
• Delivery: Create content that delivers on the promise you are making for solving the customer's pain points
• Loyalty: Offer free courses, guides, or other content that helps retain your customer and encourage them to recommend what you are offering

By embracing what stage of the journey your potential customer is on, it is easier to create a content marketing strategy focusing on their needs or how to solve their problem.

Final Thoughts

Progress is what I would call a medium-sized company. We’re publicly traded (PRGS) with three business units and over a dozen products sold through a variety of go-to-market motions, direct, OEM, two-tier distribution, resale and referral and our we’re very proud of our martech stack, in fact we submitted it for a ChiefMartech.com Stackie award.

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But this is after decades of being a B2B high-tech and in the martech space ourselves.

Integrating web content management, a marketing automation platform, and customer relationship management are the basics I would recommend to get started on optimizing your company’s digital journey. It automates hand-offs and helps make your company run more efficiently and effectively. The tools you choose must meet your business goals during every stage of your customer’s buying journey.

If you’re wondering where to start, start at the beginning of your value chain, your website which is your digital storefront to the world. One of our digital experience experts would be happy to demonstrate how WCM can help transform your business.

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