[ARTICLE] How Use Cases Provide Structure for Your Martech

The success of your martech stack and marketing outcomes is closely correlated to the breadth and depth of your martech use cases — and that isn’t just an opinion. A Bain & Company survey found that one of the key differences between martech “leaders” and “laggards” was not the size of their tech stack, but rather the range of their martech use cases. The leaders in the survey were found to have dozens of adopted martech use cases — with 1 in 6 applying more than 50 (yes, 50!) use cases. On the other hand, the laggards averaged fewer than five use cases.

The kicker? The leaders gained market share while the laggards lost market share. Successfully putting your martech to use is about much more than getting the most bang for your buck; it’s about achieving better market performance overall.

If you’re dedicated to improving martech as a method to gain market share, then creating and adopting use cases for your technology is essential. In this blog, we’ll discuss why use cases are important, provide a template to apply to your own use cases, and share an example of use cases in action so you can see how beneficial they can be.

The Importance of Use Cases in Martech

Back when there was only one tool for any given marketing need, creating martech use cases might have seemed redundant or useless. Today, however, martech is proliferating at a breakneck pace — the number of martech solutions has grown 6,521% over the past 11 years. Solutions now number around 9,932, a 24% increase in the last two years alone.

Without defined and applicable use cases tied to existing and future technology purchases, today’s marketing departments run the risk of buying redundant tools, leaving value on the table with the technology they already own, and not properly enabling their teams to use the technology — all which diminish their martech ROI.

While no team has an unlimited budget to purchase endless tools, they often fail to ask the fundamental question behind the technology: Why do we need this? Use cases provide the answer.

Use Cases Structure the Roadmap

What is a use case? A use case outlines the ways in which users will apply a technology in a given scenario; in other words, they describe the ideal state of the end-use by your team(s). Use cases should be visual, descriptive, and establish actual applications to serve as a guide for stakeholders as they make strategic decisions. 

Think of it this way: a use case transforms your technology from various disparate features and functions to an integral part of your marketing strategy. And as we discussed in an earlier article about stack readiness, defining use cases provides structure around your marketing roadmap. Your roadmap’s purpose is to increase the maturity of your martech usage. Your use cases are the signposts along the way that indicate whether or not you’re reaching maturity, and what’s needed now and in the future to get you there.

Defined use cases will help you answer strategic questions about your technology, such as:

• What problem will this technology solve?

• What current process will this technology impact? 

• How proficient does each marketer need to be with this technology?

Finally, use cases offer an effective way to pressure test your technology, integrations, and desired outcomes. Outlining use cases gives you the full picture of how everything is working together so you can better understand the what and how behind your technology when making strategic decisions. Without use cases, your martech will struggle to reach its full potential.

Using a Template for Your Use Cases

Over a third of marketers say that one of their biggest challenges in 2023 will be implementing technology effectively. Use cases can help ease the burden, but creating use cases can be a hurdle for teams in and of itself if the practice hasn’t been well established.

How can marketing leaders start creating effective use cases? In our experience, applying a simple use case template can be beneficial as you start on your journey to applying use cases to your martech stack. The chart below provides a sample use case template that breaks down programs, goals, and technology. 

Your use case should answer two fundamental questions:

1. What is the goal of each program?

2. How does your technology help you achieve it?

In this example, your use cases will start to emerge as you map how the technology converges across your nurture, digital, and event marketing streams as applied to engaging, accelerating, and expanding your customer base. 

How does the application of a use case play out? Let’s break it down.

Use Cases In Action: Chatbots

As we demonstrated with the template above, use cases help define how you think about the same technology differently in each instance where it's applied. The objectives as well as the measures of success might be different across each varied instance. 

The point of defining use cases is to parse these out and bring them into the open. It’s answering the fundamental question: How does the use or goal of that technology change in order to meet the goals of the particular program that you’re executing it on? 

For example, many teams buy a chat solution so SDRs can man the chat and use it to set meetings, right? Of course you want to offer up live chat and instant meeting-setting to the right brands at the right level of your marketing funnel. However, meeting-setting or live engagement might only just start to tap the surface of how the chat tool could benefit your organization. 

Defining use cases with the template above can paint the full picture of your chat’s potential. 

• For example, when leveraged for events, the chat tool can be used to draw attention to the event and even register someone on the spot. 

• As a part of your digital strategy, the chatbot might be used to capture individuals who land on your homepage and redirect them to the landing page for your campaign. 

• For customer expansion, the chatbot could help promote the next product or solution you think your customers need to expand their investment and success with your company.

Buying the chatbot alone does NOT automatically mean your team has a strategy behind it. The team that defines these use cases (and future ones) can ensure that the right teams have access to the tool, are using its functionality to the fullest, and are prepped to prove the ROI of the tool once it comes time for renewal. 

Use cases provide the business case for martech, and are a fundamental component of any successful martech program. Stay tuned with our Martech Masterclass series as Inverta’s experts next dive into how to unlock the full value of your martech stack by combining individual technology use cases into fully integrated, multi-channel use cases.