Why Your Marketing Tech Stack Needs Regular Evaluation

Before adopting any new tool, I always step back and evaluate the broader landscape of my strategy.

You have to ask: Where are the real gaps? Where do we actually need help?

Without understanding that first, you’re just going to get swept up by the latest pitch about bells and whistles that might not even apply to your business.

After outlining those gaps, I assign a Subject Matter Expert to the tool. That could be me, someone on my team, or a trusted vendor partner – but the key is someone needs to own it.

You can’t let a new tool just float in the organization without a driver behind it. You need someone who understands it deeply enough to not just implement it, but optimize it against your real goals.

Then – and only then – would I sit through vendor demos or evaluation meetings.

When you’re armed with a real understanding of your strategy gaps, you’re able to listen to a sales pitch differently. Instead of getting dazzled by features, you can focus on: “Will this tool close the gap I know I have – or is it just shiny noise?”

That distinction is everything.

If – and only if – the tool matches the real needs identified, and after assigning an SME to guide the adoption, then comes the education phase. And real education, not just sitting through a kickoff call and saying you know how it works.

I would carve out a 3-6 week learning period: Working closely with customer success reps Completing formal trainings Studying real use cases In some cases, like HubSpot, getting certified through their academies

You have to become the expert internally – you cannot outsource that understanding to the vendor.

And even after all of that – I would still not roll it out company-wide immediately.

Instead, I would pilot it on a small scale first. One campaign, one business unit, one sales team. Measure the impact, the workflow fit, the data cleanliness, and the early ROI.

Only after a successful pilot would I even consider expanding it to the larger organization.

For technology to truly drive revenue, sales and marketing must be aligned. Without this alignment, even the best marketing tech will fail to deliver its full potential.

Integration Failures: The Hidden ROI Killer

Data integrity issues destroy even the best technology investments.

I’ve experienced firsthand what happens when organizations merge systems like Salesforce and HubSpot without properly mapping fields or evaluating what’s needed. Data hygiene disappears. Systems break. Fields stop syncing properly.

I’ve seen: Duplicate records flooding CRMs from poor field mapping Lead scoring chaos because intent signals weren’t aligned with scoring systems Attribution data destroyed when enrichment tools auto-updated “Lead Source” fields

Integration work isn’t optional or something to figure out later. It’s the foundation everything else builds upon.

Treating it as an afterthought is like building a beautiful house on a cracked foundation. It doesn’t matter how nice your kitchen appliances are if the basement is flooding.

When Leadership Makes It Harder

Even with perfect integration, ambitious pilots, and careful tech selection, there’s one more hurdle that often stands in the way of marketing technology success: leadership itself.

I’ve seen this play out repeatedly: Marketing understands what will work. A marketing leader tells executives that X, Y, and Z strategies are the best paths to revenue. The executives agree – but then tack on L, M, N, and O because “that’s how it’s always been done.”

The marketer knows those additions will dilute the original strategy, but there’s no clear way to push back. The result? You end up with a tech stack supporting a compromised plan, and performance suffers.

This disconnect isn’t just frustrating – it’s expensive. Poor Integration Is a Quiet but Costly Problem

I’ve dealt with integrations that broke everything: – Forms that created duplicate records – Tools that overwrote lead source data – GDPR flags that didn’t sync properly

When these things go wrong, no one notices at first. But later, reports break. Sales gets the wrong leads. Compliance issues pop up.

And it’s all because the tools weren’t connected the right way.

Bottom Line: The Future Doesn’t Wait

The tools you chose two years ago were built for problems you either no longer have – or weren’t even aware were coming.

The future belongs to marketers who question comfort, even when things technically “work.” Who prioritize education before implementation. Who align their tech with their actual strategy – not just what’s trendy.

The future isn’t coming. It’s here. And it’s ruthless to teams who think “good enough” still is.

The question isn’t whether you’ll evolve. It’s whether you’ll do it strategically – or be forced to do it in crisis mode when the gap becomes too wide to ignore.

This keeps your strong elements but flows better.

Start here and ask yourself:

1. Are we using this tool because it’s helpful—or just because it’s familiar?
2. Is this tool helping us win today — or just not causing enough pain to replace?
3. What outcomes are we expecting from it — and are we measuring them?
4. Where are we seeing overlap — and is it strategic, or just duplication?
5. Who owns this tool beyond setup? Who’s responsible for driving ROI?
6. Have we adjusted how we use this tech since our strategy last changed?

You don’t need the newest tool.

You need the right one—and a clear reason it belongs in your stack.

The longer you wait to re-evaluate, the more it costs you. Not just in spend—but in performance.