Martech Stack:
How to Choose and Connect Marketing Tools

A martech stack is the collection of software used to plan, execute, and measure marketing, including applications for content, campaigns, customer information, and analytics, as described in HubSpot’s marketing stack guide.

Choosing a stack involves three decisions: which marketing capabilities are needed, which tools provide them, and how information moves between those tools. Start with the work and data requirements, then compare products against them.

What belongs in a martech stack?#

Martech means marketing technology; the stack is the combination of technologies used together. A useful way to organize it is by capability. The products below illustrate documented functions within each category.

These categories are a planning checklist. Select the capabilities required by the marketing work, and check existing products before adding a separate application. WordPress’s feature documentation, for instance, describes plugins that extend the same platform with forms and search engine optimization controls.

Marketing automation executes configured workflows: Mailchimp’s documentation distinguishes the trigger that starts a flow, the rules that control progress, and the actions that perform tasks. Evaluate those functions alongside the other capabilities required in the stack.

How to choose the tools#

Begin with the outcomes to measure and the work required to reach them. Define the channels, publishing tasks, customer information, messaging rules, and reporting requirements. HubSpot’s stack-building guidance recommends setting goals and auditing existing tools before selecting additional software.

Create an inventory with a row for each application. Record its purpose, active users, operating owner, cost, renewal date, connected systems, and manual imports or exports. Mark unused capabilities and overlapping functions. HubSpot’s audit guidance includes usage, ownership, integrations, overlap, underuse, and duplicated data.

Use the inventory to write a requirements list for each purchase. Separate essential functions from optional features, and require evidence for each essential function. A useful evaluation checklist is:

• Can the product perform the required publishing, messaging, reporting, or data-management work?
• Does the proposed integration support the required records and fields?
• Which capabilities are included in the proposed subscription?
• Can operators configure, inspect, and maintain the required workflow?
• What data can be exported, and what must be rebuilt during a move?
• Who will own configuration, access, support, and renewal?

Check features at the subscription level. Mailchimp’s automation documentation states that access to automation tools depends on the plan. A product-level feature description is therefore insufficient evidence that a particular purchase includes the required capability.

Integrated suite or specialist tools?#

Compare a suite’s combined applications with a selection of separate products against the same requirements. List the connections, configuration work, and operating responsibilities for each option. For a suite, verify that each included application meets the requirement. For separate products, verify each connection and the work needed to maintain it.

Compare the full cost of operating both designs. The UK government’s technology ownership checklist includes integration, migration, maintenance, support, training, and retirement costs. Use those categories alongside subscriptions, over the same comparison period.

Ask for the export process and migration requirements before selecting a product. Include the cost of leaving it in the evaluation. The government’s cost guidance also explains that financial cost must be assessed alongside suitability and requirements. Record any unmet requirement separately from the cost estimate.

Decide how customer data will be managed#

Separate customer record management, profile unification, and data activation when writing requirements. Assess each against the information that marketing needs to store, combine, and use.

CRM: A customer relationship management system manages customer interactions and stores contact information, sales opportunities, and service records. Evaluate a CRM for work that depends on those records, and specify which fields it should own.

Customer data platform, or CDP: A customer data platform collects data across customer touchpoints, builds unified profiles, and makes those profiles usable in connected applications. Assess a CDP against an explicit need to combine customer information and distribute it to multiple destinations. Include the required sources, identifiers, profile attributes, and destinations in that assessment.

Warehouse and data activation: Hightouch’s documentation describes reverse ETL as moving warehouse data into operational tools, including advertising platforms, CRMs, and marketing automation. Its sync model specifies the fields, update mode, and schedule for each destination.

Treat these as separate requirements during selection. Contact management, profile unification, and moving warehouse data into campaign tools each need their own acceptance criteria. Evaluate an additional data layer against the gap it must fill and the cost of operating it.

How to connect a martech stack#

Choose an integration method for each required data flow. Three approaches to evaluate are a prebuilt connector, an automation platform, and a custom API connection.

Prebuilt connector: Review the supported objects, fields, direction, and conflict rules. HubSpot’s data sync documentation describes one-way and two-way sync, field mappings, and a setting that determines which application takes precedence when values conflict. Check those details for the specific application pair.

Automation platform: Use this approach to evaluate workflows that coordinate actions across applications. Zapier’s workflow capabilities include filters, branching paths, scheduling, formatting, and webhooks. Specify the required trigger, conditions, actions, and failure handling before testing the workflow.

Custom API connection: An application programming interface, or API, lets software exchange data; the WordPress REST API supports sending and receiving structured JSON data, including site content. For a custom connection, review the documented interface and assign responsibility for building, testing, and maintaining it.

Document each connection in a short specification:

• Source and destination applications.
• Record or event being transferred.
• Identifier used to match records.
• Source fields and corresponding destination fields.
• Trigger or schedule, with an acceptable delay.
• Direction of updates and precedence for conflicting values.
• Failure reporting and the responsible operator.

Treat synchronization settings as part of the design. Review the field mappings and conflict settings described in HubSpot’s sync documentation before enabling a connection. Require a documented reason for each direction of data movement.

Define the data and messaging rules#

Write a tracking plan for the events used in campaigns and reports. Twilio’s data governance guide describes a tracking plan in terms of what to collect, where to collect it, and the business purpose. Record the event meaning, required properties, and allowed values so that configuration and reporting use the same definition.

Validate the data against that plan. Segment’s event violation documentation identifies missing required properties, invalid data types, and values that fail configured conditions. Use those categories to define validation requirements for the selected collection and integration tools.

For messaging, document where subscription and suppression status are stored, how changes reach sending applications, and which fields each destination needs. Include access and data-routing controls in the specification. Twilio’s governance guidance describes selectively routing data and masking or blocking personal information. Verify the controls available in each selected product.

Test delivery and measure results#

Test both collection and delivery. Segment’s testing documentation distinguishes the Source Debugger, which shows incoming data, from Event Delivery, which reports delivery to destinations. Its Event Delivery metrics include delivered messages, undelivered messages, and delivery latency for supported cloud-mode destinations; the feature does not cover device-mode, warehouse, or Amazon S3 destinations.

Use the corresponding evidence from the selected tools to check the full connection. Compare source records with destination records, inspect mapped values, and verify the intended workflow action. Include record creation, updates, invalid data, subscription changes, and repeat delivery in the acceptance checks. Name the operator who will review failures and document the recovery procedure.

Choose marketing measures separately from integration measures. Google’s key-event documentation defines a key event as an action important to business success and distinguishes it from a Google Ads conversion. Specify the action being measured and the reporting tool’s definition before comparing campaign results.

Record the reporting period, time zone, and counting rules alongside each measure. Google Analytics property setup includes a reporting time zone, which affects the date assigned to activity. Check these settings during setup and when reconciling reports.

Before renewal or replacement, review the requirements list, current usage, operating cost, delivery evidence, and marketing results. Confirm the replacement’s data mappings and acceptance checks before retiring an existing connection, and document where its historical records will remain accessible.