Mapping marketing capabilities before shopping for tools

A capability map sets out what a marketing team needs to be able to do, regardless of the product that supports it. Build it from actual work: note current support for each ability and gaps that deserve investigation before you compare software.

Start with tasks

Ask people to describe recent work: preparing a campaign, publishing content, handling an enquiry or reporting a result. Follow each task from request to outcome, recording the information needed, where the person waited and what they had to correct. Include important exceptions, such as a change after approval or a customer record that cannot be matched.

Translate recurring tasks into abilities: “Send messages to an agreed customer segment” describes a capability, while “Buy an automation platform” names a possible solution. A capability may depend on a process, trained people and agreed data, as well as software.

Make a compact working map

Start with a table the team can challenge:

For a hypothetical campaign, one capability might be “pass a qualified enquiry to sales with the agreed source and consent information”. The current method might involve a form and a shared customer system. If staff repeatedly correct missing source values, check where those values are created and changed. Do not mark the capability as missing merely because a vendor uses a different feature name.

Key Elements of a Marketing Capability Map

Separate gaps from preferences

Ask whether the capability exists but is poorly understood, configured or staffed. Check whether the current tool can perform the required action under the organisation’s actual plan, permissions and configuration; until someone confirms this, record it as an open question. A request for a different dashboard layout differs from a missing outcome field.

Prioritise by consequence, not votes for favourite tools. A capability needed for an important campaign or a sensitive hand-off may deserve earlier attention than a convenient enhancement. Record dependencies as well: useful attribution reporting may require consistent campaign labels and a reliable transfer to the customer system.

Use the map to frame a decision

For a high-priority gap, write a use case another person can assess: starting data, the user’s action, the expected result and an exception that currently fails. Compare a process change, a change to an existing system and a new product against that same use case.

Review the map with the people doing the work and the teams receiving its output. For a shared system, check constraints with its owner before treating the map as a procurement brief.

Current Method vs. New Solution: Evaluating Capability Gaps