The marketing technology (martech) landscape continues to grow, with no signs of stopping. According to Chief Martec, there are now 14,106 martech platforms available, which represents a 27.8% growth from last year alone.
With such an overwhelming number of options to choose from, how do you make the best choice for your business?
A Request for Proposal (RFP) is a key tool that allows you to thoroughly evaluate platforms based on the criteria that matter most to your organization so you can make an informed decision. A well-constructed RFP ensures that you’re not just choosing the vendor that looks good on paper but also a solution that meets your real-world needs.
Only 39% of organizations report being satisfied with their RFP process, so if you’re searching for the right martech platform, here are our tips for setting your team up for success.
4 Crucial Tips for a Successful RFP
1. Identify your requirements and weight them accordingly. Before issuing an RFP, take the time to clearly define what you need in a martech platform and why. Start by outlining your specific business goals, whether they’re improving personalization, automating campaigns, or activating your customer data. Once you’ve identified these requirements, prioritize them based on importance. Assign weights to each criterion so that you can objectively evaluate different platforms on what you’ve identified as the highest priorities.
2. Determine your timeline and budget. Software evaluations can easily consume your team’s precious time and resources if you enter them without a plan, so make sure you have a budget in mind and a clear timeline with an anticipated launch date. Depending on how quickly you need to migrate to the new system, consider hiring professional services to serve as your partners during implementation.
3. Stay organized with project management. Managing several or even dozens of vendor responses can become overwhelming if you don’t have a method to stay on track. Use a spreadsheet or project management tool to collect information, compare features, and evaluate how each platform stacks up against your wishlist. This way, it’s much easier to collaborate with colleagues and refer to a single source of truth.
4. Reduce bias with quantitative scoring. Bias can creep into any decision-making process, and you don’t want the success of your martech RFP to be sabotaged by aggressive sales tactics or clouded judgment. To keep the playing field level, use a quantitative scoring method like a Likert scale to rate each platform on the criteria you established at the outset. This will ensure that all decisions are data-driven, making the final selection a surefire success.
RFP Evaluation Criteria
Now let’s take a closer look at the key areas you’ll want to evaluate during the RFP process. We recommend analyzing the following three functions:
1. The platform, meaning the product itself
2. The partnership you’ll have with the vendor
3. The price and what value is included in the overall cost
We’ll walk through each of these areas and offer specific questions you can ask as you conduct your research.
The Platform
To select the right platform to suit your needs, make sure the technology is easy to use, built for customer data, open and flexible with your current stack, and AI-powered for the future of marketing innovation.
Easy to Use
Your martech platform should be intuitive and simple to navigate, especially for non-technical team members. Empower your marketing team with sophisticated yet streamlined automation, segmentation, and experimentation tools.
- How simple is the drag-and-drop interface?
- Can you quickly build campaigns across multiple channels?
- How easy is it to automate a journey?
- Is it marketer-friendly, or does it require technical resources?
Built for Data
Your customer data is the lifeblood of your marketing campaigns. Achieve ROI in record time by activating the entirety of your data—from all sources—to deliver the highest level of personalization and orchestration.
- How does the platform ingest and store data?
- What’s expected during the data migration process?
- What levels of personalization are possible?
Open and Flexible
A modern martech platform should enable you to build your tech stack your way with optional SDKs, open APIs, and custom send controls to establish real-time data exchange.
- Will the platform complement my existing stack?
- How robust are the platform’s APIs?
- What other tools does the platform natively integrate with?
AI-Powered
Martech platforms today are leveraging artificial intelligence to increase performance and efficiency with predictive audiences and insights, content generation tools, and user-level optimization.
- Can the platform automatically determine the best send time, frequency, or channel?
- Can segments be identified based on custom goals?
- Can brand sentiment be determined based on user behavior?
- Does the platform assist with generative copy creation?
The Partnership
Your relationship with a martech vendor should feel like a true partnership, with a team that is committed to your business success and works with you on the strategies and tactics to bring your vision to life.
Support
Stellar customer support should include a variety of services, including customized onboarding and a designated account team with experienced practitioners who are focused on driving business outcomes.
- What tiers of customer support are offered?
- Will you work with a dedicated customer support manager?
- What’s the process of submitting support tickets or feature requests?
- Do you provide self-paced learning and certifications?
Trust
The right partner should instill trust from day one, listening to you and ensuring your evaluation and implementation is transparently executed in accordance to your needs.
- Can you speak to other customers during the evaluation?
- Does the staff lead with transparency and authenticity?
- Do you and your team feel respected and valued in each conversation?
The Price
While the sticker price is important to making your final selection, it’s important to weigh the business value that the platform will deliver. Look for vendors who can explicitly calculate their value by scaling efficiency and achieving cross-channel uplift.
- Can you save on costs by consolidating channel-specific platforms?
- Can the platform reduce the amount of technical resources required?
- How is value and ROI calculated?
To define the Iterable difference, try out our new Value Calculator to build your custom business case.
The Choice Is Yours
Upgrading your marketing technology stack can be a stressful endeavor, but with these tips and questions to ask, we hope your next RFP leads to huge success.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into evaluating martech platforms, we’ve got you covered. Download our guide, How to Determine MarTech Function From Fiction, to take the guesswork out of the evaluation process.
Got your shortlist of martech platforms and want to take Iterable for a spin? Schedule a custom demo today.
