Audit your advertising expertise stack with the 6Cs to refine its capabilities and show its return on funding
Are you aware The Stackies? They’re a casual contest organized by Scott Brinker, creator of the Advertising and marketing Expertise Vendor Panorama Supergraphic, the place totally different firms visualize their advertising stacks in alternative routes to share their approaches. In 2025, Scott shared the most recent MarTech stack entries, of which three are featured right here, on LinkedIn.
They supply a fast, easy option to visualize using MarTech in your organization to different companies and get concepts on enhancements. With the common adoption of AI in companies, the most recent entries are attention-grabbing since they present different approaches to integrating AI into companies, as proven on this instance:
For me, a part of the fantastic thing about the The Stackies, is that companies have a free rein to current them in vastly, other ways that are helpful in prompting other ways of considering. Listed below are some that stood out from the 2025 Stackies.
I additionally like this instance because it highlights how the Advertising and marketing Ops crew talk the worth they hope to ship.
Right here you’ll be able to see components of the funnel just like RACE together with administration and the expertise used to help this.
A less complicated option to audit your MarTech
One potential criticism of the The Stackies and Supergraphic is their complexity. Because the aim of Sensible Insights is to simplify digital advertising to raised plan, handle and optimize it, we now have utilized this strategy to MarTech too.
After all, you’ll be able to audit your advertising stack in opposition to any of those ‘Stackie’ entries, however they are usually company-specific. Once we first noticed them, the construction of among the examples prompted us to suppose whether or not there was a easy, generic manner of visualizing or auditing a advertising expertise stack that might work throughout firms (notably small and medium companies) and was easier than our Advertising and marketing instruments wheel. Most of the strategies introduced are highly effective in that they current all the primary MarTech choices in a single slide. Nonetheless, we thought that many of those stacks are for giant companies and are trade or company-size particular or don’t cowl the total vary of instruments.
So, as an easier different to the 30 classes of our Digital Advertising and marketing Instruments wheel, we developed our personal ‘MarTech Matrix’ audit instrument by analyzing the vary of applied sciences to develop this sensible table-based MarTech audit which is fast to use throughout various kinds of enterprise.
You may see that this MarTech audit (above) opinions six various kinds of providers proven on the left throughout seven major communications channels (proven throughout the highest) which should be managed as a part of immediately’s built-in advertising technique.
As we speak, given the significance of AI for the longer term, summarizing how you’ll use AI could be a helpful further row – just like the way in which among the Stackie examples have referred to as out AI.
The classes of auditing in our desk is just like these from the 2025 Stackies:
Right here is the audit utilized to Sensible Insights (from a number of years again). You may see it has the benefit of exhibiting at a look the place you might be at the moment utilizing a service in opposition to the place you’ve gotten a spot – the place it’s a description moderately than a brand.
The six various kinds of MarTech service are:
1. Core broadcast communications (advertising cloud providers).
We begin with these since these are the MarTech platforms that each enterprise wants. Of those seven core instruments for every of the communications channels, the 5 major forms of platform for various channels are a content material administration system for serving web site pages (with commerce administration for e-commerce companies) which types the web site expertise; web site (and cellular) analytics; an e mail advertising or advertising automation system for sending out newsletters and promotional emails to subscribers and a social media administration system for posting social media updates and interacting with social media contacts and an analytics platforms. Advertising and marketing cloud providers like these from Adobe, Oracle, Marketo and HubSpot sometimes cowl all of those 5. Lastly, there are the all essential gross sales and customer support techniques for firm individuals to straight work together with prospects by cellphone, e mail or social media. We additionally advocate that companies have a instrument for managing the goal key phrases for SEO (web optimization) and paid media, though these are much less generally in place than the opposite 5 and companies may match straight with Google instruments for web optimization or advert platforms like Google Advertisements or the Fb promoting platform.
2. Customized particular person communications.
Now we have outlined a separate layer for focused communications with particular person prospects, prospects or companions since separate expertise from totally different distributors are sometimes used for this goal. For instance, though some content material and commerce administration instruments embrace personalization capabilities, it’s usually higher to make use of a specialist resolution. This customized layer of MarTech providers is usually added after the primary layer is in place, so is for extra mature companies.
3. Optimization instruments.
The optimization instruments of this MarTech layer may also be considered optionally available since they’re for extra superior testing and structured assessments. For instance, e mail packages will usually embrace personalization and A/B testing options, however don’t at all times embrace instruments for detailed assessments.
4. Perception.
The perception degree isn’t straight concerned with buyer communications. As a substitute, it presents extra superior evaluation instruments. Once more, these aren’t important, since some measurement will likely be out there from the core instruments or analytics. As a substitute, superior customers will use these instruments to research further perception not out there generally analytics bundle.
5. Planning.
To handle these six advertising channels individually and create an total advertising plan requires further planning instruments. These are the forms of instruments supplied by Sensible Insights and different analysts which allow you to construction methods.
6. Productiveness.
These collaboration providers are for inner communications. Some providers on this class can be utilized for inner comms throughout all channels, however separate channels can be found additionally.
Reviewing your MarTech in opposition to rivals
You may assessment the MarTech your corporation and rivals are utilizing with providers that monitor and categorize the Javascript tags which might be used on web sites to change information with SaaS providers. Should you kind in your web site URL to providers like BuiltWith.com; SimilarTech.com or ObservePoint.com you’ll be able to see the variety of MarTech tags and the class of selling utility, e.g., Analytics, Promoting, CRM, and so forth. Should you take a look at the rating for bigger digital companies like Expedia or John Lewis you will note they’ll have greater than 50 totally different tags.
The 6Cs classes of MarTech
As one other different, Scott Brinker has described The 6Cs for organizing the chaos of selling expertise. It is useful because it supplies a simple to recollect mnemonic and covers a lot of the bases nicely:
Should you evaluate Scott’s 6Cs in opposition to our 6 classes you will note some similarities, however with totally different labels since our labels are longer and extra useful, (about what you are seeking to obtain). So, for instance, we separate messaging by way of e mail and on-site personalization whereas these are coated within the intersection between Clients and Content material. Collaboration is just like our productiveness and administration, and our Optimization is just like core.
Our matrix has the benefit that it is a sensible instrument you’ll be able to fill in the important thing classes of MarTech that almost all companies will want.
Whichever framework(s) you utilize on your MarTech evaluation, the essential factor is that you’re auditing your MarTech to determine the gaps, in order that your corporation can ‘Compete on MarTech’ and that they’re easy sufficient to speak the necessity to audit and useful resource your advertising expertise.
