The Best Inbound Marketing Technology Stack for Manufacturers

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September 13, 2018

 

Modern marketers know that their digital marketing programs are only as good as the tools and technologies they run on. That’s why it’s important to understand what a basic inbound marketing technology stack looks like, and what marketing software might be best for you.

The problem is, the marketing automation platform landscape is vast. It brings up a lot of questions:

  • Should we buy marketing software?
  • Do we buy Marketo or HubSpot?
  • Should we use a CRM like SalesForce?
  • Can we use MailChimp?
  • Should I build my website on WordPress?

Most of our clients are growing companies who are ready to invest in or at least test drive some sort of digital marketing platform to manage their email marketing, social media, website and blogging. But they’re not sure what to buy. Recognize yourself? Read on!

What is a Marketing Technology Stack?

A marketing technology stack or ‘tech-stack’ is the name for the technologies, platforms and tools that are used to automate, manage, and measure your digital marketing efforts across multiple channels. And if you haven’t heard, Industry 4.0 is upon us, and marketing is a big part of that. Launching your tech stack is a great way to get your marketing department connected, optimized, and ready for Industry 4.0.

Marketing tech stacks often have these components:

Why You Need an Inbound Marketing Techstack

The days of putting your marketing message on blast and hoping your B2B customers took the bait are over. Today, your customers expect contextually relevant messaging, live chat, and a host of other personalized marketing efforts in order to move them through the funnel. And they’re much more likely to do their own online research before engaging your sales team. Simply put: you have to deliver useful information at the right time, or you’ll lose them to your competition. Speaking of losing…

If you suffer from any of the following ‘pains’ you should consider setting up an inbound marketing tech-stack:

Putting the right technologies in place will help your team move faster, close more business and have better customer retention.

So what does a basic inbound marketing tech-stack look like?

Best Marketing Technology For Manufacturing Companies

As an industrial marketing agency, we work with manufacturers who are new to setting up their Martech or techstack to support their inbound marketing programs. Because they’re learning and their budgets are tight, we tend to keep it simple. For beginners, we recommend this basic inbound marketing technology stack.

This model is robust enough to support your digital marketing program and it’s a scalable technology stack – as your team and marketing program grows, these technologies can grow with it. Especially HubSpot!

If you haven’t heard of these digital marketing tools, here’s a quick run down:

Raven Tools are Search Engine Optimization tools for link building, research and reporting.

Google Search Console is a free tool that helps you monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google Search results.

WordPress is the most popular, easy-to-use, open source CMS on the planet for building websites.

Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool used to track and report your website traffic data.

SalesForce is a CRM platform that helps you connect with your customers and manage the sales process.

HubSpot is inbound marketing and sales software that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers.

Speaking of HubSpot – they have a FREE CRM that comes with the basic package. If you’ve already got a CRM, HubSpot integrates with many of them. If you’re still shopping CRMs, you should know that Salesforce is a better fit for enterprise businesses, or organizations with large sales teams, and HubSpot is the tool of choice for small-to-medium-sized businesses.

Tips For Setting Up HubSpot

If you need to plug HubSpot into your digital marketing tech stack so you can attract, convert and close leads faster, here are some great resources:

Not interested in setting it up yourself? We are HubSpot Gold Partners with 30+ HubSpot certifications between us. (#HumbleBrag) We can get it up and running and we can train your team how to use it, or manage it for you. If you did in fact get stuck setting up your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts, or are frustrated with managing your own Word Press site, we do that too. (yay!)

Sick of talking about marketing technology and just want to pet dogs? Stop by our office and meet these guys:

No time to talk in-person? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing for Manufacturers.