Creating a Martech Stack That Supports Agile Marketing

The pandemic sparked a surge in the use of agile marketing techniques. At the same time, marketers were adding new tech to their stacks as operations moved to a digital-first approach. Bonnie Crater, CEO, Full Circle Insights, shares how marketers can consolidate data to make sure your martech stack supports your agile marketing approach.   

Agile marketing is on a roll. The rate of agile uptake in the marketing community was already rising, then the pandemic hit and accelerated adoption significantly. In its 2021 State of Agile Marketing report, AgileSherpas found that more than halfOpens a new window of marketers surveyed use agile methods. The report says that 38% of marketers surveyed accelerated their plans to adopt agile methods due to the pandemic.

Even more are planning to use agile marketing strategies in the future. Among those who aren’t using agile now, nearly 60% plan to start in the next six months. It makes sense, given the current economic situation. Agile marketing tends to be budget-friendly since it focuses on short-term campaigns that can iterate quickly to accommodate marketplace changes, and agile teams are typically small.  

Another trend that accelerated during the pandemic is the adoption of new martech tools. As marketers turned to digital channels, they deployed more martech tools, and according to a Garter surveyOpens a new window , they expect continued budgetary support for martech investments. Agile marketing requires frequent measurement so marketing teams can assess campaign effectiveness and shift strategies as appropriate. 

That said, a martech stack that includes dozens of solutions with disparate measurement capabilities can make producing credible metrics a challenge. A martech solution that provides click-through and open rates are useful for marketing, but agile project teams are cross-functional. You need metrics that non-marketing team members understand, which is why many B2B marketing departments house relevant data inside the CRM to create a single source of data truth.

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Conducting a Measurement Sprint Using Martech Data in the CRM

Agile projects are called “sprints,” and since agile marketing success depends on closely monitoring metrics, it makes sense to have measurement sprints as a part of your agile marketing strategy. A measurement sprint runs at the same time as a project sprint, keeping tabs on campaign performance, providing data on how leads are progressing through the funnel and attributing revenue. 

The frequency of measurement sprint meetings should correlate with the length of the project sprint, i.e., team members would meet more frequently for shorter campaign sprints and less often for longer programs. Here’s a look at how a measurement sprint might proceed:

1. Representatives from core functions participate, e.g., marketing operations, sales operations, demand gen, sales development or telemarketing, etc. 
2. Meeting participants review campaign execution, assess funnel metricsOpens a new window , analyze attribution dataOpens a new window and identify any unexpected results for closer examination. 
3. The group determines status, i.e., whether they’re ahead of or behind the curve on progress toward the project objectives. 
4. Any questions asked during the meeting are either resolved to wrap up the session or assigned as action items for the next meeting. 

When the team meets again, the process is the same until the project sprint concludes. An alternative to a project sprint is a marketing objective sprint. In this kind of sprint, the team sets a length of time to meet an objective such as Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) volume, demo conversion rates, or lead velocity from First Touch to Sales Accepted Lead (SAL).

It’s important to remember how the marketing data is managed for marketing sprints. When all of the key data is housed in the CRM, it’s not only credible throughout the company; everyone has access to it. That simplifies things for all involved, making it easier for the measurement sprint to succeed in its essential goal, which is to give participants the information they need to make the right decisions. 

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A Single Source of Truth In Action

The steps involved in a measurement sprint illustrate why a single source of truth is absolutely essential. A large B2B operation might deploy dozens of programs using multiple martech solutions that provide a gargantuan amount of data. If the data stays siloed within those point solutions, you won’t get all the insights it has to offer. But if you consolidate the information in a single source of data truth that is connected with sales, you can measure funnel impact and attribute revenue accurately.

This was the case with IntegrateOpens a new window , a provider of a powerful SaaS platform that empowers marketers to unify their demand marketing channels and related data. Integrate faced challenges in aligning its marketing team with sales and finance departments as it needed a better tool to measure campaign performance. With Full Circle’s help, Integrate effectively streamlined its data gathering process into a single system that was easily accessible to both sales and marketing channels and made it easier to incorporate budget information from finance. 

That’s the way to stay on track in uncertain times. When you might have to shift course quickly, agile marketing is built to do that. Your martech stack helped you get through the pandemic, and it can help you succeed in whatever comes next. But make sure it’s aligned with your agile marketing strategy and that you have a single source of data truth to demonstrate marketing’s contributions.