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Updated on: 24 July 2024
Why I chose an integrated sales and martech stack?
I was spending a lot of time learning and integrating different marketing and sales tools as opposed to generating leads for my business. This was holding me back from achieving my business goals.
In this blog, I will take you through why I chose an integrated sales and marketing technology stack for my business and how I went about evaluating the same.
Table of Contents
1. Multiple tools held me back from achieving goals
2. Challenges managing multiple tools
3. Re-evaluating my MarTech stack
4. Case Study - How to get the most out of B2B email marketing?
1. Multiple tools held me back from achieving marketing and sales objectives
Websites, Blogs
I needed to communicate my message to my target audience at different touch points in their buyer’s journey. I bought a website builder tool which required little to no coding for designing a website.
Very soon, I realised that the website builder tool didn’t have the capability to create landing pages. The blogging software didn’t have the capability to address my SEO needs, as well.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
I needed a CRM tool for lead management and storing customer data. The CRM would enable me to track progress of my leads and opportunities in my pipeline. I bought a CRM software, which is a great investment for small businesses as well.
Landing Pages
My website builder tool didn't have the landing pages feature. I bought a landing page tool to design landing pages for my marketing campaigns.
Email Marketing Automation Solution
I needed to nurture leads via email marketing campaigns. I needed an email marketing tool to manage my email lists and maintain regular communication with prospective customers.
I needed an email marketing software that had the capability to send emails with personalised subject lines and email body.
I wanted an email marketing software that had email workflow automation and pre-built email templates like welcome emails, newsletter.
2. Challenges managing multiple tools to meet my marketing and sales objectives
Integrations
It was becoming quite cumbersome for me to log into multiple tools for doing marketing activities. This included website management, landing page creation, lead generation and lead nurture.
I spent a lot of time trying to integrate different technology platforms. This took time away from my day to day marketing activities. This held me back from meeting my marketing goals, sales goals and business goals.
Multiple Sources of Truth
The lead list in my email marketing database was separate to the lead list that I maintained in my CRM. I needed to integrate two technology platforms. This was required to get a full picture of my overall marketing efforts.
Marketing Automation Solutions
It became very hard to implement a marketing automation strategy for my business. This is because I had to deal with multiple sources of truth. It became very hard to build automated workflows for basic marketing tasks. Marketing automation tools are essential for automating marketing tasks.
Analytics Tools
The use of multiple analytics tools (website analytics, landing page analytics, blog analytics, google analytics etc.) also made it hard to measure campaign performance across different digital channels.
Limitations in doing SEO activities
The blogging feature in the website builder tool didn’t meet my SEO needs. I very quickly hit my page limit in my website builder tool. I didn’t realise that the website builder tool had a page limit (i.e. the number of web pages I could create using the tool) while buying the tool.
This started to bog down my marketing efforts. There was no easy way of upgrading my existing website builder to a higher version with a higher page limit. I was left with no other option but to recreate my website in another CMS platform.
3. Re-evaluating my existing tools. Choosing an integrated sales and martech stack
As a digital marketing and sales professional, I wanted an integrated sales and martech software that would address my above challenges. I was looking for a software that would help me execute my digital marketing channel and campaign strategy.
I had a content marketing strategy that I could not fully execute as my technology stack (refer above challenges) was holding me back. I wanted to evaluate a new Content Management System (CMS) for my website. My desktop research made me realise that a few popular Content Management Systems were very expensive.
In my desktop research, I came across HubSpot CMS. This was my starting point for exploring all capabilities that HubSpot offered - HubSpot Marketing hub, HubSpot Sales hub, HubSpot CMS hub.
I found the HubSpot suite would address my above challenges. HubSpot came with a good suite of marketing automation capability that I could activate as my business grew. HubSpot Marketing hub is one among many marketing automation platforms. As a digital marketing and sales professional, I thought it would be a good tool for both sales and marketing teams.
I signed up for a free version of HubSpot CMS to explore CMS and blogging capabilities. I realised that it had all the capabilities that I was looking for in one place - website, blogging, landing pages, forms, email marketing tools, CRM etc. It checked all my boxes:
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Single source of truth for leads.
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Ability to log into one platform to manage websites, blogs, landing pages, forms, email marketing, leads.
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Affordability.
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Ability to upgrade my subscription as my business grows. This is to access advanced capabilities like advanced SEO, marketing automation software and additional website pages.
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Reduce time spent on integrating different sales and martech tools.
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Customer experience for website visitors.
Note:
After signing up for HubSpot, I joined the HubSpot Solutions Provider program to enable my clients to grow their business using HubSpot. My views are based on my experiences using HubSpot. My views may be biased. Please thoroughly evaluate your options prior to purchasing any marketing, sales or website tools.
Conclusion
An integrated sales and martech stack enables me to maintain a single source of truth for leads generated from multiple digital marketing channels. There is very little technology integration activity required. This enables me to focus my efforts on achieving marketing goals like increasing brand awareness, leads and sales opportunities.
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Written by Anees Misbahudeen
Founder & Digital Marketing Director, INNMCO
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Hello, I am Anees. I empower B2B companies to grow online using Google Ads, SEO and email marketing. I enable businesses to translate a vision for online marketing into a coherent digital marketing strategy. Creating engaging content is my way to increase web traffic, leads and sales.
I have supported the growth story of 30+ brands in software, financial services, automotive & B2B industries. I am Google Ads search certified. I hold HubSpot & Semrush certifications. I hold an MBA (Executive) from AGSM, UNSW Business School.
About INNMCO
We’re INNMCO (pronounced IN-EM-COH).
Our mission is to empower founders, CEOs and marketing leaders at B2B companies to drive revenue growth from Google search and email marketing.
We believe that inbound marketing accelerates revenue growth. We’re your go to team for writing engaging content that ranks high on search engines, increases web traffic, generates quality leads and drives revenue growth for your business. We have a combined experience of 10+ years in SEO, Google Ads, email marketing and content marketing. We have supported the growth story of 30+ brands in software, financial services, manufacturing, automotive and B2B industries.
INNMCO - INNovation & Marketing COmpany
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