How to Pick the Right Marketing Tools to Grow With Your Business, Not Against

I have buyer’s remorse.

I bought a $20 blender just a few months ago. The sole point of the purchase was to make margaritas… I was really trying to put on a good time for family that was in town for the weekend.

They all loved margaritas, so it was perfect.

The blender was great for margaritas. But, the other day I wanted to make a smoothie.

Such a disappointment. The frozen fruit wasn’t blending; the blade just kept getting stuck. So, I kept pouring juice in.

The blade continued to get stuck.

By the end I would’ve been better off having just had a glass of juice because I poured so much in. Not to mention the fruit was still pretty chunky.

The $20 blender was a great tool for the margaritas, but just a complete fail when it came to smoothies.

My needs and wants had changed since I purchased the blender. I bought it to solve one specific problem. Blend my margarita.

However, as I wanted to broaden my horizons to the world of blending, the tool was no longer sufficient.

The right tool for the job

Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, you need a specific tool or tools, to achieve the end result.

Marketers face this at all stages of a business’s growth; foundation, survival, self-sustainability, rapid growth, and maturity.

At each stage of the business, marketers’ needs and wants change to meet the business and customer needs. But, growth of a business is just one aspect of marketers unique needs while they continue to develop a strong business and marketing strategy.

Marketers also need to consider who their market is. B2B or B2C? What specific channels is their customer using? Social Media? Print? Online?

Depending on those variables, among others, creates combinations of needs making some solutions better fits than others. The same solution can not be the best fit for companies at opposite ends of multiple spectrums. Thus, the importance of the custom stack, which allows business’s to choose the right tool for the job, while providing a solid foundation for their business and their unique marketing needs.

Everything for everyone?

Take a large B2C company marketing a product to millennials. The company will be much more focused on marketing on social channels than a small B2B. This focus is due to the fact that the tools, or solutions needed for B2C and B2B will vary wildly.

The B2C company, marketing their product to millennials, will need a feature-rich social media management solution. This will allow them to handle the large volume of social activity.

Though, for the smaller B2B, that same solution would be overkill and a wasteful expense. Depending on the scope of the small B2B, they may not need a solution at all, but with an all-in-one cloud solution, they’d pay for it each month regardless.

The notion that there can be a one-size-fits-all solution to such varied business needs flies in the face of logic.

Let your solution grow with your business

If you buy an all-in-one solution and the direction or scope of your business changes you are stuck. You are stuck because your marketing foundation will not allow you to adjust to the growing needs and changes that a company, like yours has.

The all-in-one solution is a behemoth of a platform that’s supposed to solve all of your needs and provide success for the business. But, just as success is not a straight path, neither are the tools to get there.

By customizing a marketing stack on a strong marketing foundation, you avoid being stuck and can instead adjust and nimbly move with the growing demands of your business.

Don’t have buyer’s remorse. Start with a strong foundation for your business and marketing needs, allowing your solutions to grow with you, not against you.

*Read more about the death of the all-in-one in our Escaping the Clouds white paper.