← Back to framework
Tools / Bucket 5

Marketing technology

CRM, automation, tag management. The stack keeps growing. The skill is deciding what matters and simplifying.

Tools and platforms

/HubSpot

CRM, email automation, landing pages, and reporting in one platform. Good for mid-sized teams. Free tier is generous. The risk is feature bloat, where you pay for features nobody uses.

hubspot.com
/Salesforce

Enterprise CRM. Powerful but complex. Usually requires a dedicated admin. If your company uses it, learn to navigate it because all your customer data lives there.

salesforce.com
/Email automation (Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign)

Trigger-based email sequences. Cart abandonment, welcome series, re-engagement. AI handles the timing and segmentation. You write the strategy and the content.

klaviyo.com
/Google Tag Manager

Manages tracking code on your website without needing a developer for every change. If you cannot tag it, you cannot measure it. Essential for connecting your analytics to reality.

tagmanager.google.com
/Zapier / Make

Connects tools that do not natively talk to each other. When a form is submitted, add to CRM, send Slack notification, trigger email sequence. Automation glue.

zapier.com

What AI does vs what you do

AI handles
  • Automate workflows across platforms
  • Trigger actions based on customer behaviour
  • Flag data quality issues
  • Surface unused tools and features (shelfware)
  • Integration and data syncing
You decide
  • Decide which tools are worth having
  • Simplify the stack (bigger is not better)
  • Spot shelfware: tools you pay for but nobody uses
  • Own data quality (garbage in, garbage out)
  • Recognise when misconfigured tracking is giving you wrong numbers

Skills to develop

/Tool selection judgment
/Stack simplification
/Shelfware identification
/Data quality ownership
/Tracking and tag management basics
/Systems thinking (how tools connect to each other)

AI can automate the connections between tools. It cannot decide which tools are worth connecting in the first place. Adding tools is easy. Simplifying takes judgment.