If you’ve been reading our posts for a while now, you’d realise we’re big believers in integrated marketing stacks. However, as we’ve pointed out again and again, it’s how marketing stacks are managed that has the ability to make all the difference.

We may be based in Australia, but our eCommerce team has looked far and wide to determine the benefits of an integrated marketing technology stack. A new model has filled us with extreme excitement in recent times - this model manages functionality and its emergence across IT departments is unmistakable. This new model is called microservices. So what does this term describe exactly?

Microservices involve an approach where large applications are broken down into miniscule, autonomous and near atomic pieces. These pieces are loosely coupled before eventually being combined. Unfortunately, we can’t claim credit for microservices here in Australia - the concept has been used extensively globally for quite a while now.

The microservices model is used by Google, Amazon and Facebook just to name a few of the online giants taking full advantage of microservices. In fact, they’ve been running microservices for over a decade now. Here’s a little fun fact that just might make you think twice the next time you go ahead and search via Google:

Each time you search for a term using Google, it uses over 70 microservices before it returns any result.

What is of particular interest to us in regards to microservices is that the same benefits actually apply to integrated marketing technology stacks. In a nutshell, a simple marketing app or enterprise software, is broken down into a small set of functionality pieces. From there, you can stack different functionalities and build pretty much anything you want. In our books, it’s a little bit like LEGO (and just as fun if you ask us).

So why are we so keen to jump on the microservices bandwagon? Well, when our e-commerce team takes a measured look at the 4 key benefits of microservices, we quickly see that only a minimal amount of tweaking is required to illustrate the benefits of an integrated marketing technology stack. They include:

Benefit #1 - They’re agile

When an array of apps are connected via validated APIs, marketing teams can quickly and easily integrate and exchange relevant marketing data. This equips marketers with the power to quickly create meaningful reports without any need for complex change management processes. And more importantly, without the need for any complex and sometimes failing IT integration.

Benefit #2 - They’re efficient

The use of integrated apps result in a far more efficient use of infrastructure all round. Why? Put simply, your team will only need to select the apps that serve their purpose best. This results in far higher adoption rates that would make any enterprise software company on the planet downright jealous. There’s no need for any expensive and potentially failing change management or consultancy projects either.

Benefit #3 - They’re resilient

When you disperse a number of apps across various teams, you’re eliminating one single point of failure for a central platform. The result: a marketing stack that performs a lot better, has limited downtime and has the ability to scale seamlessly on demand.

Benefit #4 - They’ll lead to an increase in revenue

Now we bet we got your attention! When it comes to business, regardless of whether you’re based here in Australia or elsewhere, your ultimate goal is to make as much revenue as possible. Faster iteration and repetition processes and less downtime equates to increased revenue. What more could you ask for?

Keen to learn more? Of course, we don’t expect you to have any in-depth knowledge or to understand everything we’ve outlined above. That’s what we’re here for!

We work with a range of businesses, from traditional retailers to those with an e-commerce only focus. If you’d like to discuss how a marketing stack can help your business, get in touch by contacting our friendly team today. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.