Why you need to master martech tool management

To lead and shape marketing technology strategies, marketers must master six core competencies. You can read about the first one, generalized system understanding, here. Today we’re looking at martech tool management.

Let’s start with what martech tool management isn’t: It isn’t about technical setup or programming, and doesn’t require certifications or deep technical knowledge. It is about managing access to each tool and ensuring the proper use of customer data. This helps marketers align platforms with marketing processes and ensures data privacy and security.  

Why a systemic view is more important than certifications

Here, having a systemic view is more beneficial than certifications or technical skills. Marketers should know how to do the following with each tool in the martech stack.

• Define and assign appropriate access levels for each team. Ensure designers, brand leaders and operations staff have distinct roles within platforms, each with specific permissions. Also, how to determine which teams can access customer data, such as personally identifiable information (PII).
• Guide the customization of customer communications to protect data privacy. This means taking the lead to ensure customer data is used safely in martech platforms, avoiding unnecessary exposure of PII during campaign customization.
• Identify and manage the assets and data within each martech platform. Each team, from designers to operations, should know what assets they are responsible for within the platform. Keep track of all data stored to streamline management.
• Implement strong data security and privacy measures. Work with technical stakeholders to activate multifactor authentication and regularly update user access logs, ensuring only authorized individuals can access customer data and company assets.

Questions to get started

These questions will help you take the first step to effective tools management:

• Do marketing teams have access to the appropriate martech tools? If other marketing teams also use these tools, does this improve marketing processes?
• Do I know which vendors (such as external agencies and consultants) have access to which tool? How can I let them use the tool without accessing customer data and still complete their tasks?
• Does each tool have the assets and customer data marketers need to use it? 

Next steps 

Answering those questions will show you which marketing teams need access to specific platforms, what data each team should be managing and how to carry out daily activities while safeguarding customer data.