Customer Data
A CDP versus a CRM: where the responsibilities differ
Compare the working responsibilities of a CDP and CRM, then assign ownership for customer records, identity, corrections and audiences.
Archive
October 2026
Stack Planning
Assessing whether a team is ready for a CDP
Assess CDP readiness through one use case, essential data, a privacy assessment route and named operating owners, then choose the next step.
Tool Evaluation
Assessing whether a testing tool supports the team's data needs
Check identifiers, exposure and outcome events, reports, exports and data ownership before choosing a testing tool.
Tool Evaluation
Building a vendor shortlist without relying on feature counts
Shortlist marketing software suppliers by essential tasks, proposed edition limits and unresolved questions rather than advertised feature totals.
Costs & Contracts
Calculating stack cost beyond subscription fees
Build a marketing stack cost model that includes setup, variable charges, operating work and exit alongside subscriptions.
Costs & Contracts
Checking budget approval workflows in marketing software
A budget field does not itself control spending. Trace who requests money, what they must explain, who can approve it, and what happens when scope or price changes after approval.
Integration Design
Checking connector maintenance during vendor selection
Check a reporting connector’s change notices, sync health, repair ownership and historical recovery before choosing a vendor.
Tool Evaluation
Checking content permissions during a CMS trial
Use a role-by-role CMS trial to check who can view, edit, publish and administer content, including documented product limitations.
Customer Data
Checking how a vendor stores customer data
Check where a marketing vendor stores customer information and copies, who can access them, how recovery works and what happens at exit.
Customer Data
Checking identity resolution during a CDP evaluation
Use known record relationships, shared-identifier cases and a case log to assess CDP identity matching and profile reconciliation.
Tool Evaluation
Checking licence tracking for reused marketing assets
Before reusing an image, video, font or illustration, check the permission attached to that specific asset and intended use.
Tool Evaluation
Checking traffic allocation and reporting in an experiment platform
Audit eligible traffic, variation splits, exposures, metric definitions and live changes before acting on an experiment report.
Tool Evaluation
Checking which social metrics a platform can actually retrieve
Verify social metrics by network, account type, post format, definition, history and export before relying on a platform report.
Stack Planning
Choosing a stack owner when several teams share software
Choose a stack owner for shared marketing software by defining cross-team decisions, system owners, specialist roles and escalation paths.
Tool Evaluation
Comparing a live product demo with a prepared sales presentation
Learn what a marketing software presentation and live demo can each establish, how to set a common scenario and what still needs validation.
Tool Evaluation
Comparing asset libraries with full DAM software
Compare an asset library with a full DAM by the work people need to do, not the product category on the invoice.
Tool Evaluation
Comparing campaign planning tools with project management products
A campaign plan joins audience, message, channel, assets, approvals, spend and dates. A project tool can track those tasks, but the buying question is whether it …
Costs & Contracts
Comparing consolidation savings with migration effort
Compare avoidable future charges with migration, double running and ongoing work before combining marketing tools.
Costs & Contracts
Comparing contact-based, seat-based and usage-based pricing
Compare the billable units, limits and change rules behind contact, seat and usage pricing for marketing tools.
Tool Evaluation
Comparing editorial workflows in CMS products: corrections
Compare CMS workflows through draft, review, correction and release, with documented limits for WordPress, Drupal, Contentful and Webflow.
Tool Evaluation
Comparing feature testing with marketing page testing
Compare how feature and marketing page tests are delivered, assigned, measured and controlled before choosing a workflow.
Stack Planning
Comparing marketing dashboards with a data warehouse approach
Compare a direct marketing dashboard with a warehouse-backed reporting setup using joins, shared definitions, freshness and operating effort.
Integration Design
Comparing native connectors with an integration platform
Compare native connectors and integration platforms by coverage, field control, recovery, access and maintenance.
Tool Evaluation
Comparing scheduling, approval and listening capabilities
Use separate tasks to compare social scheduling, publishing approvals and listening coverage, with plan and data limits recorded beside each result.
Stack Planning
Content management systems for marketing teams
Choose a marketing CMS by checking editing, approval, reuse, localisation and export against the content your team publishes.
Stack Planning
Customer data platforms in a marketing stack
See where a CDP fits in a marketing stack, what it needs from source systems, and how to judge whether a specific use case justifies one.
Customer Data
Defining a source of truth for customer attributes
Assign authority for each customer attribute and decide how corrections, conflicts and stale copies are handled.
Stack Planning
Digital asset management for marketing
Digital asset management (DAM) gives a marketing team a controlled way to find, review and reuse approved creative files.
Tool Evaluation
Evaluating account permissions for a multi-brand team
Build an account-by-role matrix and check effective publishing, reply, reporting and administrator access across a multi-brand social team.
Stack Planning
Evaluating capacity planning for a marketing department
Capacity planning should reveal a clash before it becomes a missed launch. Start with the people and roles that constrain delivery—perhaps design, copy, legal …
Integration Design
Evaluating currency and timezone handling in reports
Evaluate reporting-day boundaries, source currencies, conversion rules and display formatting before combining marketing figures.
Tool Evaluation
Evaluating localisation support in a CMS
Assess CMS localisation through fields, fallbacks, market approvals, page settings and export, with documented product limits.
Tool Evaluation
Evaluating marketing software
Evaluate marketing software against real tasks, shortlist plausible options, compare supplier evidence and record what remains unproven.
Tool Evaluation
Evaluating version control for brand assets
Version control for brand assets should tell users which file is approved, what changed and what to do with copies already in circulation.
Stack Planning
Experimentation platforms
Choose an experimentation platform by checking delivery, assignment, measurement, privacy and the data your team needs.
Tool Evaluation
Checking whether one marketing tool can replace another for a defined task
Check whether one known marketing tool can replace another for a specific task, including users, exceptions and operating work.
Stack Planning
Identifying overlapping tools in an existing stack
Identify genuine overlap in a marketing stack by comparing users, tasks, data and outputs rather than matching feature names.
Integration Design
Mapping data flows before connecting tools
Map records, fields, triggers, corrections and failures before connecting marketing tools.
Stack Planning
Mapping marketing capabilities before shopping for tools
Turn real marketing tasks into a capability map that shows current methods, evidence of gaps and the next question to verify.
Consolidation
Marketing stack consolidation
Decide whether to combine marketing tools, account for dependencies and migration effort, then check whether the change improved operations.
Stack Planning
Marketing stack security and permissions
Map permissions, customer data, connected applications and recovery across marketing systems so each critical control has an owner.
Costs & Contracts
Marketing technology costs and contracts
Budget for the full cost of marketing software and review the terms that govern usage, changes, renewals and exit.
Integration Design
Marketing technology integration design
Design marketing technology integrations around data ownership, timing, failure handling and a checkable business hand-off.
Tool Evaluation
Marketing technology procurement
Bring evaluation evidence, proposed terms and specialist reviews together for a documented marketing technology purchase decision.
Stack Planning
Marketing technology roadmaps
Build a marketing technology roadmap that orders changes by outcome, dependency and campaign timing, with clear checks before release.
Stack Planning
Marketing work and resource management software
Marketing teams need more than a calendar when campaigns compete for the same people, approvals and budget. Work and resource management software should show which …
Stack Planning
Measuring whether consolidation actually simplified operations
Compare like-for-like marketing work before and after consolidation, including repairs, reliability, ownership and actual spend.
Stack Planning
Planning a marketing technology stack
Plan a marketing technology stack around real workflows, existing tools, data hand-offs and clear ownership before deciding what to change.
Stack Planning
Planning account recovery for business-critical marketing systems
Document authorised recovery routes for critical marketing accounts, protect emergency access and check how normal control is restored.
Stack Planning
Planning an exit from a social publishing tool
Inventory queues, drafts, accounts and reports; check export limits; and move scheduled posts with a controlled cutover.
Stack Planning
Planning content export before committing to a platform
Plan a CMS exit by checking export formats, media, relationships, locales and known omissions before signing.
Stack Planning
Planning renewals across several marketing tools
Create a marketing software renewal register with owners, notice deadlines, decisions and confirmation records.
Stack Planning
Planning stack upgrades after a business acquisition
Sequence marketing stack changes after an acquisition around live work, system ownership and the actual customer-data boundary.
Integration Design
Preserving necessary workflows during a stack reduction
Record essential workflows, map statuses and dependencies, and check each new route before retiring a marketing tool.
Stack Planning
Recording why a tool was selected or rejected
Document the options, evidence, rejection reasons and approval conditions behind a marketing software decision.
Stack Planning
Removing access when an agency engagement ends
Coordinate an agency handover, remove direct and indirect access, verify business control and record remaining data obligations.
Costs & Contracts
Reviewing a vendor's support and escalation process
Check support hours, severity, response promises and escalation ownership for the marketing software offer you are considering.
Stack Planning
Reviewing administrative access across marketing tools
Review effective administrator rights across marketing tools, groups, native accounts and connected apps, then verify each approved change.
Customer Data
Reviewing privacy and consent controls for testing software
Check cookies, identifiers, event flows, refusal and withdrawal behaviour when assessing testing software for an Australian team.
Stack Planning
Reviewing resource management reports before procurement
Ask a vendor for the decision a report supports, not just a gallery of dashboards. A useful resource report should show future demand against available people …
Stack Planning
Reviewing the stack against the next year's marketing needs
Compare next year’s marketing work with current tools, people and processes to decide what to keep, improve, investigate or watch.
Tool Evaluation
Scoring vendors against agreed business requirements
Use agreed criteria, evidence labels and clear rating anchors to compare marketing software offers without hiding essential conditions.
Tool Evaluation
Separating a vendor's roadmap promise from a shipping feature
Distinguish planned, preview, rolling-out and available software features before depending on a vendor promise in a marketing roadmap.
Stack Planning
Sequencing tool changes around campaign commitments
Plan marketing tool changes around committed campaigns with preparation, cutover and decision points that protect live work.
Tool Evaluation
Social management platforms
Choose a social management platform by checking publishing, approvals, account access, listening, reporting and exit options against your team's work.
Tool Evaluation
Structuring a marketing software proof of concept
Choose the uncertainty, set acceptance cases and record what a limited marketing software proof of concept establishes.
Tool Evaluation
Testing search and metadata in a DAM demo
Test DAM search with representative assets and questions from people who will use the library.
Tool Evaluation
Testing whether a reporting tool preserves metric definitions
Use a written metric definition and sample cases to check formulas, filters, aggregation, reuse and exports in a reporting tool.
Tool Evaluation
Writing a requirements list from real marketing tasks
Turn real marketing work into requirements suppliers can demonstrate, including outcomes, exceptions, essential conditions and evidence requests.