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In nature, ecosystems rely on harmony and balance to thrive. Every link of the food chain is interdependent on the others, and if one of those links is severed, chaos ensues. This interconnectivity ensures that no single organism becomes overly dominant or diminished — the soil microbes feed the plants, the plants feed the monkeys, the monkeys feed the snakes, and when the snakes die, they decompose, feeding the soil microbes all over again.
A marketing ecosystem is no different than a jungle ecosystem. Sure, maybe as a paid media manager, you don’t have to fight off leopards or wrestle boa constrictors. However the principles of balance and harmony remain the same. Your software tools should integrate with one another, passing along data the same way the food chain passes along nutrients. If your tools are operating in silos, the whole ecosystem will suffer because your team won’t be able to capture and activate the insights they need to reach their goals.
That’s why CMOs are prioritizing technology integrations in the coming year. According to a recent Forrester report, companies’ 2024 martech roadmaps will prioritize the ability to operate all of their technology capabilities in one place. On top of that, 91% of marketers agree that the ability to integrate is the most important feature of marketing tools.
In this post, we’ll cover what martech ecosystems are, how they benefit teams, and some concrete steps you can take to build seamless ecosystems that drive revenue growth.
The difference between a stack of marketing software tools and a martech ecosystem is that when you have the latter, your tools are sharing data with each other, rather than working in silos. This allows marketing teams to make data-driven decisions, automate tasks, streamline processes, and connect their efforts to revenue generation. Martech ecosystems can encompass a wide range of technologies, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems, content management systems (CMS), email marketing software, social media management tools, analytics platforms, revenue execution platforms, and more.
Creating a cohesive martech ecosystem is easier said than done, but the rewards you’ll reap are massive. Here are a few of the main benefits:
There are undeniable benefits to creating cohesive marketing ecosystems, but they aren’t always straightforward to create. To successfully merge your martech tools into seamless workflows, you need to develop an overarching strategy, carefully vet technology vendors, and create alignment across various teams in your organization. In this section, I’ll lay out some actionable tips you can take right now to get started.
The first step to creating a martech ecosystem is to define the right goals to guide your program. You’ll want to choose goals that align with your broader company strategy so that your tools can help you move the needle and drive value. Here are some examples of goals that marketers may have when they create a martech ecosystem:
Once you have goals in place, you can drill down and create benchmarks that align with those goals. For example, if your goal is to increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, you can set a concrete cost per acquisition benchmark to measure the success of that initiative. Having metrics to strive toward will help you regularly gauge the effectiveness of your martech ecosystem and make the right changes to improve it.
Once you’ve identified your goals, you’ll want to audit your existing technology stack to understand which tools are helping you achieve those goals, and which are holding you back. During your audit, be sure to look out for technology tools with overlapping features — these can be prime areas to consolidate and cut back to preserve your budget.
You’ll also want to assess the compatibility between your tools. Prioritize software solutions that have robust APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). These are sets of rules and protocols that enable different software applications to communicate, interact, and share data with each other seamlessly.
It can also be valuable to audit the data flow between your systems to identify bottlenecks. If possible, avoid tools that require you to manually upload data as this can create lag when compared with tools that share data in real time.
When creating a martech ecosystem, it’s key to designate a centralized hub for your data. This creates a single source of truth for your team that can inform your overarching strategy. Many teams use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or a Customer Data Platform (CDP) as their central data repository.
In an era where customer interactions span more touchpoints and channels than ever before, these tools play a pivotal role in tracking customer behavior. They unify data from sources like website interactions, email engagements, and social media activities, enabling marketers to create highly targeted and personalized campaigns. CRMs have the added benefit of tracking the customer lifecycle, allowing marketers to understand how their efforts are impacting revenue generation and lifetime value.
Martech ecosystems aren’t created in a silo — they require collaboration from across the revenue team. Each sub-team plays a vital role in integrating different tools and data sources to achieve your overarching goals. For instance, the paid search team may work closely with the CDP sub-team to integrate Google Ads with customer data from the CDP. This collaboration ensures that paid search campaigns are targeted and personalized based on customer insights.
In addition, the paid search team may work closely with the contact center team to track how many of the phone leads it generates from Google Ads get converted to sales by agents. This helps them boost the returns from their campaigns and ensure they’re not wasting marketing dollars driving unanswered calls.
By creating a shared data ecosystem with your marketing, sales, and contact center teams, you can gain visibility into the entire customer journey. This allows you to create better experiences that drive revenue growth and lasting loyalty.
Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the country. They added Invoca to their martech ecosystem, and its insights have driven cross-departmental collaboration in the organization. The digital business team, contact center, marketing team, and reputation division now meet biweekly to discuss how they can improve the end-to-end patient experience.
“Invoca has helped us democratize data across our organization,” said Chris Pace, chief digital marketing officer at Banner Health. “Shared information has kept our marketing team and contact center tightly aligned so that we can provide the best possible experience for our patients. If we notice a problem occurring in the Invoca platform, like low conversion rates, we can reach out to the contact center team and figure out the right solution to fix it.”
Read the full Banner Health Case Study here
When choosing technology vendors, it’s important to think long-term. The last thing you want to do is spend valuable time and effort onboarding a tool and integrating it with your other systems only to have to replace it a year down the line. When creating your martech ecosystem, evaluate vendors based on their scalability — you want tools that will grow with you. That means making sure your software provider can accommodate increased data volumes, account seats, and any customer support needs you may have. It’s also worth checking out the vendor’s product roadmap to see what future innovations they’re cooking up.
Invoca is a game-changer for marketers looking to create more cohesive martech ecosystems. With its advanced AI technology, Invoca seamlessly integrates offline data from phone calls with marketers' online data sets, creating a comprehensive view of the customer journey. This allows marketers to tap into valuable insights that were previously hidden, unlocking a wealth of information about their customers' interactions and preferences. It also allows them to pinpoint which programs are driving phone call conversions and allocate their ad dollars more efficiently.
See how it works in the video below:
Invoca offers 50+ certified integrations with leading martech tools. Using Invoca’s exhaustive API library and webhooks, we can also create custom integrations with virtually any platform—even home-grown solutions. But what makes Invoca’s integrations better than the rest?
You already have enough marketing tools to keep track of. It can feel like you’re constantly cycling between platforms to complete your daily work. Rest assured that when you use Invoca, you’re not adding new workflows — you’re simply enriching your existing ones with better data.
Nataly Huff, director of digital marketing at Amplifon Americas said it best: “Invoca is a very powerful tool that can be the linchpin for your entire data structure and digital strategy.”
Want to learn more about how Invoca’s deep technology integrations can benefit your martech ecosystem? Request your personalized demo of the platform or check out these resources:
