Wednesday is a thoughtful tactician who applies creativity and rationality in everything she does professionally. She is able to analyze data quickly, gather compelling support materials, and write strategic proposals under tight deadlines. Wednesday has the ingenuity to expand her writing and research responsibilities as her expertise develops.
Position: Grant Writer
Best Qualities: Thirst for knowledge, sharp mental acuity, deadpan wit, persuasive communicator, exposes problematic societal norms with powerful monologues
Favorite Quote: “I’m not perky.”
Wednesday would have a low-profile, but influential role as grant writer who packs a lot of punch and isn’t afraid to prove her power.
Samwise Gamgee (The Lord of the Rings)
Dearest Sam, of course he makes the list. Could you ever hire a truer hero? He can face great foes with courage. Sam has well-developed people skills and can build robust social relationships. He is receptive to change and new ideas. He has a knack for engaging others within the work we support with enthusiasm and generosity.
Position: Executive Assistant
Best Qualities: Loyalty, dependable companion, repeatedly saves us all from disaster
Favorite Quote: “How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.”
Lastly, he would bring “a few good taters” to the team potluck.
Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Who doesn’t love an epic villain? Lord Vader would offer any nonprofit organization solid direction amid adversity. He is a fearsome leader who would always deliver the fundraising results that are expected of him. Vader is dedicated and strong-willed, with references stating he is consistently hard-working.
Position: Fundraising and Development Director
Best Qualities: Sales background, experience training fundraising staff and volunteer leaders, telepathy, the Dark Side/Force, provides rides on the Death Star
Favorite Quote: “Perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them.”
He would evaluate and plan fundraising campaigns that no prospective funder or donor would be safe from.
Clifford (Clifford the Big Red Dog)
Clifford is charming, selfless, and easily has insights to what speaks to people’s hearts. It is difficult to describe this quality on a resume, but Clifford easily relates to others’ emotions, helping minimize conflict. He would promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of his work.
Position: Community Outreach Coordinator
Best Qualities: Unusual size, gentleness, loves unconditionally, grows referral sources, gathers wonderful client success stories and feedback
Favorite Quote: “Share your smile with the world. It is a symbol of friendship and peace.”
Clifford grew up to be the Big Red Dog because his owner, Emily, loved him so much. Now, he always wants to help people and makes new friends (and nonprofit partners!) wherever he goes.
Chef (South Park)
When interviewed, Chef was clearly full of passion and charisma. He has experience with all levels of government and wants to eliminate inequality by dismantling existing systems of discrimination. Chef would take on multiple responsibilities with competence and good cheer. He also has the ability to convey complex concepts clearly, both orally and in written format.
Position: Advocacy and Policy Director
Best Qualities: Cheerful, background in community legal aid, shares wisdom via soulful or jaunty singing, bakes delicious treats to share with colleagues
Favorite Quote: “Well then don’t buy into this fad, Kyle. Be who you are. Not what’s cool.”
Chef has the capacity for insightful communication and is inspired by the opportunity to take action for meaningful work, knowing that efforts contribute to something bigger than himself.
Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins)
Hiring some who is always polite and proper is no hardship. Mary Poppins is happiest when she can help someone learn something new. Mary Poppins is generous, compassionate, and sensible. She may come across as bossy, but only because she cares so deeply. Basically, she is practically perfect in every way.
Position: Educational Director
Best Qualities: Experience working with children, makes menial tasks more bearable through song, magical abilities (including umbrella transportation and speaking with animals)
Favorite Quote: “Anything can happen if you let it.”
Efficient as she is elegant, she would help plan amazing educational events and delight participants.
Which fictional character would you add to this list?
I work for a historic house museum…it is as cool as it sounds. The basic information of The Moss Mansion can be found with a general google search. It is a single family home built in the early 1900s by P.B Moss. This man helped build Billings, MT into what it is today. You could even go on a tour of the home and learn so much more. However, there are a couple things you would never know unless you spent some quality time within the home.
We do not have secret passageways…but I guarantee there is plenty of other details you have never noticed.
When you walk into the Moss Mansion it can be overwhelming. The intricate details on the walls, ceilings, floors, furniture can be a lot to take in. There is just so much to look at that people often miss the small details throughout the house. Things such as lizards carved into the doorknobs. A bathroom sink painted with gold on the bottom of it. Old man wind’s face carved into wood, tucked into the side of a china hutch. My suggestion? Keep coming back. You will always find something new!
We are completely self-funded.
People see big, huge fancy mansion, and assume a lot about money. They think the family must have left money to upkeep the estate, that we receive money from the state or city, or that we have secret stash of gold. The truth of the matter is that we are 100% self-funded. What does that mean? It means every cent of our budget comes from hard work from staff, board members and volunteers. We generate our revenue through tours, rentals, amazing events, and a handful of grants. It is never easy, but it is always fun.
A lot of our collection is never put-on display, and it is the most interesting items.
We have a whole collection of objects located on the third floor in a climate-controlled room we have named the vault. Most of these objects are original to the Moss family. Items such as clothing, photographs, schoolwork, even journals and business logs. These items are some of the most precious in our collection, because they give us a peak at the Moss family and their personalities. The Moss women were quite witty and funny, and very smart. The Moss men were trouble makers, but very kind. Everyone who knew them loved them.
The third floor is not as cool as it sounds…mostly
The third floor of the Moss Mansion has always been off limits to the public, for a multitude of reasons. People often try to bribe us to see it. When people are not allowed to see something, they always want to. The third floor is actually a little…underwhelming…it is just work and office space, where we keep all our collection items, and where we store a lot of seasonal event items. While that sounds very mundane there is a cool aspect of this floor. There is a ladder that goes into an attic space above. For a long while they were pulling stuff out of there. They found little toy boats, tiles from the roof, old screen doors. All of that has been taken out and replaced with insulation. However, what does remain is all the signatures from the Moss children. They wrote their name in chalk all over the beams of the attic. Within this attic is another ladder that leads you to the roof. Fun fact about the roof…it’s flat!
Yup…There are Ghosties, but they are friendly
The Moss has a lot of wild ghost stories associated with it. Talks of a little girl giggling on the staircase, hearing doors open and close, footsteps when no one is there. The list could go on. We have been investigated by the Montana Paranormal Society on more than one occasion, and they caught quite a few cool EVPs. They saw figures pass in the night, and more than one investigator had some great personal experiences. However, no one has ever had a bad supernatural experience in the Mansion. All have been harmless and in passing. More than once students have sworn someone got into their selfie with them. Ghosts are just like us, they are just still trying to enjoy the house. Though I would not complain if they scared people occasionally.
Bonus Secret: History is cool, and so is the staff.
When people think Historic House Museum staff their minds immediately go to older grey haired cranky cat ladies telling you to not breath on anything. Now I am not going to say we aren’t cat ladies (seriously…we have wanted a Moss cat for years) but we aren’t old, and we aren’t cranky. We are just a group of people who love our job and love the Mansion we work in. It is like our second home, and we make ourselves at home. We often prank each other, some of us lay on the floor when we need a brain break, and we have piles of snacks and drinks to get us through our workday. We dress up for every occasion, often wear slippers when in our offices, and have to walk down four flights of stairs just to use the restroom. Think all this sounds awesome? You should probably volunteer. Trust us…we are fun to hang out with.
How do you entertain your three-year old grandson during the middle of a pandemic in Tucson, Arizona? The option we recently selected was a morning trip to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Located in the southwest part of the city, this zoo/museum/aquarium has been delighting guests since 1952. Having been a visitor at ASDM myself since 1975, I was excited to have our grandson experience this magical place for himself.
We set off on a crisp January morning and before even entering the museum, we encountered the charming coyote pictured below. He meandered around the parking lot and seemed unfazed by us humans. Once he disappeared into the prickly brush, we made our way inside already excited about our outdoor adventure.
Our grandson wasted no time running from exhibit to exhibit searching for creatures. Since the air was cool, almost chilly, many animals were out and readily visible. A mountain lion, mountain goat, and rock squirrel prowled, climbed, and basked respectively. The museum was relatively quiet (likely due to the cooler temps and COVID) and we were able to see all the critters up close without obstruction.
Several hours flew by as we continued to discover the wide variety of desert animal and plants throughout the winding paths of the museum. We spent over 30 minutes at the Stingray Touch exhibit mesmerized by the graceful dance of these sea creatures within their shallow pool. While we couldn’t touch the captivating fish due to the pandemic, our grandson smiled up at us each time a ray would glide past and “wave” at him.
As we wound our way through the grounds, our grandson decided to hitch a ride in his stroller and rest. Luckily for grandma, most of the property has paved walkways which makes pushing a stroller, wheelchair, or walker relatively easy.
As lunchtime approached, we knew we had to stop at one last place before heading for home…the Hummingbird Aviary. We entered the enclosure and a pair of little hummers whizzed by quarrelling and chattering as they passed. Brilliant green, ruby red, and burnt orange were just a few of the colors we noted on these amazing birds. It was a special treat while there to spy a female gathering materials to line her tiny nest.
Completely tuckered out, our grandson climbed back into his stroller and we headed for the exit. The little guy was asleep before we hit the end of the parking lot. Later, when reunited with his parents, he talked on and on about all he had seen that morning. I think it is safe to say that our family’s tradition of enjoying the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum will carry forward to this next generation.
Okay, what have I learned as a mother and step-mother of all boys? Farts … it turns out…. are always funny. Not in the mood for farts? Too bad, because they are funny – ALWAYS.
Can you imagine if they found out the actual truth!?
2. I thought that was one of the main reasons to get a dog….that and cleaning up the kitchen floor and all of the pets!
3. Sometimes it is just easier not to say anything:
4. Probably didn’t think hard enough before speaking!!
5. Good ole corona virus – has even changed the way we cough and fart in public
:
6. Which could also be known as the ring of fire….
7. Ummmm, I will be right back!
And to close, there has to be an actual unicorn fart meme, because you can’t have the title talk about unicorn farts and not have a meme about them. That would just be rude.
Markets bring out the competitive side of businesses as they try to stay relevant in the consumer’s mind, gain more market share, and innovate their business practices. Innovation in business practices can be through product/service development, new sales models, or marketing technologies. All of these areas can bring success to a large or small business in the short and long-term if they innovate them properly. However, one business practice should be focused on a little more than the others. That is the Marketing Technology Stack, sometimes referred to as Martech. Having a wide variety of technologies that can aid in key business practices and increase work efficiency is what the marketing technology stack is all about. For small businesses having a marketing stack can boost revenue and by small business I mean, those who’s majority of sales come from local clients/customers.
The B2B market has been flooded with new software technology services that can increase a businesses’ marketing efficiency as a whole. Since 2011, the unofficial first wave of marketing technologies, the number of vendors in the marketing technologies market has risen substantially. In 2020 the marketing technology market as a total of 8,000 technology solutions falling under six categories of application (Brinker, 2020). The massive increase in vendors from 2011 to 2020 shows just how important the role of a marketing stack is in any business model. For a business looking at the vast amount of marketing technologies available it should be noted that the marketing technology stack should reflect the goals the business wants to achieve. It could be to build out a more engaging social media platform, gather important data and be able to interpret such, or increasing efficiency at the management level. Whatever area seems most important to a business, this paper looks to explain how to assemble and properly apply a marketing technology stack.
Understanding the ins and outs of Martech is the first step for a small business looking into the marketing technology stack. The adaptation of technology can be a difficult if a business doesn’t know what they are looking to achieve. Breaking down the technology solutions market into categories of business practices helps show what the marketing technology stack can get done. Once the Small Business assembles and implements their marketing technology stack, if done properly, positive financial returns can be an outcome.
What is Martech?
Marketing technology stacks have been around mostly since 2011, Scott Brinker made a famous visual diagram called the Marketing Technology Landscape Infographic. The diagram showed over 100 companies organized under three main categories of external promotion, customer experience, and marketing management (Brinker, 2020). You may have seen this diagram at some point in time as it has been referenced by many professional papers and college classes.
Now this diagram only shows what the marketing technology market looked like in 2011. Today in 2020, the amount of technology vendors in the marketing technology landscape is estimated at 8,000 vendors (Brinker, 2020). Martech is broken down into six categories relating to business practices across all industries. Advertising & Promotion, Content & Experience, Social & Relationships, Commerce & Sales, Data, and Management. All of these categories reflect what Martech is and, what Martech can do. Some commonly known marketing technologies are Google Ads, Sprout Social manager, and Instagram analytics. Each of these marketing technologies is tailored to a specific area of business and are some baseline Martech for a small business to look into. Google Ads is meant for companies looking to advertise digitally and tailored around the Google platform that so many people already use. Sprout Social Manager is meant to put all your owned media platforms under one roof so planning campaigns and seeing feedback is easier to do. Here is a great quote from Zara Burke, an employee and editor from Intercom:
“A marketing technology (Martech) stack is the collection of technologies that marketers use to optimize and augment their marketing processes throughout the customer lifecycle. Marketing technologies are used to streamline internal collaboration, analyze the performance of marketing campaigns, and conduct personalized and proactive communication with customers.” – Burke, Zara. “The Ultimate Marketing Technology Stack for 2020.”
Intercom is a marketing technology solutions company that specializes in sales management, marketing campaign management, and additional key business practice support. Intercom offers technology solutions in the form of a digital management interface for a company to use. This is the premise of Martech. A designed, digital technology platform that is meant to be used in aiding or automating a business practice. Martech can be used by top management executives, branch managers, and just about anyone in a company at any level. While the number of marketing technologies in a stack varies from business to business, it is not uncommon to large marketing agencies having up to 30 tools in their stack. Now this may not translate well if a smaller, more local business, tries to implement a stack this big. It’s important to keep in mind the relative size of your customer base and sales outreach when deciding how many tools you want in your stack.
How do you assemble a Marketing Technology Stack?
Once you have learned everything you can about marketing technologies it’s time to build out your stack. The term “stack” refers to a collection of marketing technologies. Every stack is different, it varies across industries as certain business practices are of higher priority than others. However, one thing is certain, how a business goes about their marketing is a key factor in their success. The first step in assembling your marketing technology stack is pointing out the goals and values of the small business, you don’t want your stack to offer solutions not in line with your current business practices. With that now in mind, the ability to create a strategy for what the marketing technology stack will achieve is clearer. Hubspot is a technology solutions provider specializing in marketing management software platforms, sales campaign planners, and other various service softwares. A reason for Hubspots market dominance in the Martech vendor space is their ability to uniquely tailor the offered software packages for clients. Kerri Harrington, a senior Hubspot Marketing Operations Analyst, has worked with many clients consulting on how to build out their first marketing technology stacks. When in the initial assembling process for the stack, Kerri Harrington always tell her clients this, “If you are still developing your strategy, try drawing out and visualizing your tech stack. This gives you an opportunity to think critically about each tool, the purpose it serves, and where there is any overlap or duplication in your tools.” (Nikolau, 2020)
This idea of an overlap or duplication in a stack’s tools, from Kerri Harrington’s quote (Nikolau, 2020) is an important step in assembling a marketing technology stack. Whether a large organization or small business is assembling a stack, the idea of increasing efficiency is always present. The second step in assembling a marketing technology stack is pointing out what tools can be overlapped for a business’s individual practices. Martech vendors thrive off offering integrated software solutions platforms, and from a sales viewpoint this makes sense for them to do. A client new to doing digital advertising may use Google Ads because of the “freemium” price-model. Later, that client may find themselves using other complimentary Google stack tools such as Google Analytics or Google Tag Manger for the integration capabilities. While Google may have integrated their sales packages and services to attract more customers, a business can still benefit from marketing technology integration. Keep in mind the six areas of Martech: Advertising & Promotion, Content & Experience, Social & Relationships, Commerce & Sales, Data, and Management (Brinker, 2020). Content marketing is a good area to look in it for stack overlap, especially for a business creating their initial stack. Planning, publication, distribution, and measurement of content marketing campaigns can be managed under one roof in the Social Media manger solutions provider, Sprout Social.
In 2016, the Enterprise marketing Survey partnered with R2Integrated to look at a vast sample of 500 US based marketing specialist companies with a minimum of 500 employees. They looked at what these 500 companies were using in their technology stack comparatively to other technologies. The survey gave this figure to show the results:
PATRUTIU BALTES, Loredana. Marketing technology (Martech)the most important dimension of online marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov Series V: Economic Sciences. 2017.
While this survey is from 2016, the 500 surveyed marketing agencies showed that Web and Marketing Analytics was the most used marketing technology tool. Customer relationship management software and social community management software are the next most used technologies in the stack. Seeing what large marketing companies use in their own marketing technology stack can give a smaller business insight on how to assemble a stack of their own. Being able to properly read and interpret the data from website traffic or social media content can provide a higher chance of a financial return for a business. This may be a reason for web and marketing analytics tools being the most used tool but large marketing agencies.
Examples of Martech in various Industries
Being able to look at data from a promoted post or a digital ad isn’t necessarily a new technology solution. But, it has become more accessible for smaller businesses to access Martech software solutions relating to web and marketing analytics. Digital marketing and advertising giants, Facebook and Google, are a common place for small businesses to run marketing campaigns. A big part of Google’s success in digital advertising is that their softwares can be free to the customer, not to mention the enormous percentage of individuals using the google search engine. With this value proposition, the Google marketing stack is made up of Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Google Search Console, and Google Tag Manager. All of these tools will help a small business run a digital advertisement successfully and hopefully attract new customers.
It was estimated that in 2019 marketers spent over $6 Billion attracting businesses to their websites. This could be called “engagement” and there are numerous CRM platforms that can aid marketers in converting the web traffic to a website to possible sales. Intercom was talked about earlier in this paper and should be mentioned again for their customer engagement solutions. Intercom offers marketing technologies that can aid marketers with targeted outbound messages that can drive revenue by targeting the right potential customers visiting a business’s website. Another great marketing technology to add in a small business’s stack is Clearbit. “For many companies, over 90% of their web traffic is anonymous.” (Burke, 2020). This lack of information on the traffic to a company’s website leaves big holes in what to target in marketing. Clearbit helps to solve this problem by pulling the “hidden” data and putting an image to it. This is best described in Zara Burke’s, January 8th, 2020 publication about Intercom’s marketing technology stack:
“To give you one example: let’s say your sweet spot is B2B SaaS companies. By using Clearbit Reveal in tandem with a messaging tool like Intercom, you can have a personalized message that shows up when someone from a B2B SaaS company hits our website (and conversely doesn’t appear for a B2C company who you believe aren’t a great fit).”
(Burke, 2020)
The application of Clearbit is precise and in line with what the company’s goals are in this example. If the company didn’t know what their “sweet spot” might have been, then the application of Clearbit wouldn’t have been as precise and effective. Driving website engagement is the clear goal here.
Applying your Marketing Stack
Touching back on the first step in assembling a marketing technology stack, knowing the organization’s goals and values is a critical part in creating the proper stack. Knowing what the organization wants and what the organization needs will better narrow down the choices of marketing technologies available. After assembling the stack it’s now time to apply it to desired business practices (marketing, communication, management, etc.). How the technology in the stack is applied is critical in the success a company will see. If the marketers, senior/executive level down to small teams, using the stack don’t apply the stack properly, success may not be as great. Highlight the goals of the area for the Martech application. What does the organization want to accomplish with the aid of having this technology? More effective returns on marketing campaigns? Better communication with a business’s customers and employees?
Circling back to the survey done by R2Integrated and Marketing Insights 2016 survey results (Patrutiu, 2017), the data also gave the REASON as to why “Senior Marketers” used the marketing technology in their business practice. In a multiple-choice question asking the Senior Level marketers why they applied the marketing technology, 62% marked “To better understand customer and prospects” while, 57% marked “To automate processes and reduce time on admin”.
PATRUTIU BALTES, Loredana. Marketing technology (Martech)the most important dimension of online marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov Series V: Economic Sciences. 2017.
Conclusion
Businesses rely more and more on technology as the years go by. Now in 2020, most fundamental marketing practices are done through technology application or assistance which makes it all the more important to have a Marketing Technology Stack. Staying ahead of your competition and being as efficient as possible is always a key business trait for success in the short and long term. A small business should always keep in mind its goals and standards for what it wants to achieve before assembling a marketing technology stack and once that’s done, it’s time to break down the over 8,000 marketing technology solutions companies that are fighting for your business (Burke, 2020). Looking at the market growth alone from 2011 to 2020 in the marketing technology market, any organization could realize the importance of having a marketing technology stack.
After the small business has assembled a stack that highlights each of the six main areas, or if not all six which ever are applicable to the organization. The six main areas were from Scott Brinker’s widely known, Marketing Technology Landscape Infographic (Brinker, 2020) and covered advertising & promotion, content & experience, social & relationships, commerce & sales, data, and management. Knowing what the marketing technology is intended to suit makes it easier for the small business to consider it for their own stack. Applying the marketing stack will take some time and a small business, just starting to use their stack, should expect a few speed bumps in the start. However, for a smaller business having a stack with tools that can overlap onto other business practices is a good way to apply the stack.
Martech isn’t necessarily a new concept in business but, it has emerged as a new age necessity for most small and large businesses. If a business’s competitors are using a marketing stack, then the business should too. If a business’s competitors aren’t using or creating a marketing stack, then the business should STILL do it. Get the upper hand on the competitors and grow the business. Competition will always be present in business and it there is no sign of it going away.
