Last year, in the spirit of The Stackies, I undertook the exciting (and somewhat daunting) exercise of charting Third Door Media’s entire marketing technology stack. I documented the journey on MarTech Today — and noted several insights and lessons learned. It was an illuminating exercise and one I recommend highly. But in recent discussions with fellow marketers, I’ve found that not many have taken the leap.
Here are five reasons why you should visualize your martech stack:
- You’ll spot redundant or outdated tools and technologies.
- Filling in integrations and connection points will highlight gaps in your marketing flow and potential issues within your customer journey.
- It’s a terrific collaborative exercise: You’ll talk to folks outside your department — always a good idea with side benefits!
- It helps onboarding new hires and consultants.
- It will help your marketing teams understand your stack and integrations, and enable them to step back to see your stack from a different perspective.
Another great reason to visualize your stack? So you can enter it in the 2020 Stackie Awards!
The Stackies celebrate the intricacies of marketing stacks from organizations across the planet. Over the past five years, we have seen some amazing submissions, which we publish, ungated, so the entire community can learn from them.
It’s your turn to share your stack and educate the community!
- Create a 16:9 slide that illustrates the way you conceptualize your marketing stack — the different tools you use and how you think about the way they fit together.
- Upload your slide before midnight PST on Friday, March 20, 2020. Use this link to submit your entry.
- There’s no cost to enter. In fact, for every qualified entry (i.e., a meaningful stack slide), we will donate $100 to Girls Who Code, up to a total of $10,000!
Use these templates and tools to help you get started!
I want so badly for you to submit your stack, I’ve turned our own spreadsheet into a template to jumpstart your journey. Download it here. We also partnered with CabinetM (check out their video tutorial) and Martechbase to give you access to their visualization tools — use them and you’ll also score 15% off your MarTech registration!
Of course, if you prefer a D-I-Y approach, have at it! Check out past winners to soak up some Stackie inspiration. We can’t wait to see what you create.
We’ll publish the deck of all stacks and host a celebratory awards ceremony during the opening reception of The MarTech Conference in San Jose on April 15. Five entries that our judges deem as particularly “outstanding” will be awarded trophies.
One final note: The Stackies isn’t a graphic design contest. It’s about sharing your thinking, collaborating with the community and understanding how your marketing technologies help you deliver a great customer experience. So have fun with it!
About The Author
Marc serves as Third Door Media’s SVP Marketing & Experience. He is a twenty+ year digital marketer with a proven track record of revenue & digital fundraising growth. He’s led high-growth change at a wide range of organizations, helping companies ranging from startups to large enterprises.
Credit: MarTech Today By Marc Sirkin
