 You want to know a word that I've learned that I just keep hearing ever since we started country brand and started moving deep into the agency world and that word is tech stack and I'm going to be real with you. It's something that I've heard a lot more since working with Sean and working on certain projects with my friends who are deep within the tech industry but to be real with y'all I never heard that word before doing certain things with country brand but now I hear about it all the time. What is your tech stack for the agency? What is your tech stack for your sales department? What is your tech stack for this thing here, that this, that and the third? If you're someone like me that's unfamiliar with that word and you don't know what a tech stack is, it's pretty much the basic system of applications and softwares that you feel like you need to run your business at your bare minimum. So what are these applications and softwares that gets the things done that you need to do for your business on a day to day basis? And that had me thinking that technically, technically we have a marketing tech stack. We have a baseline of apps and softwares and programs that I feel like we need order to do our job at 110% as music markers. So that's why I want to get into for this video. I want to walk you guys through our tech stack. What are some of the programs that we're using to get the job done so that hopefully you can pick up on a little bit of something. Let's get into it. It's the network. What's going on? My name is Kory. I'm a music marketing co-founder of country brand agency and today I want to talk to you guys about our tech stack. Now once again, if you're someone that's not super familiar with tech stacks and what that means, it's pretty much just a baseline of apps and programs and softwares that you need to do your job the way that you would like to do it. And like I said earlier in the video, I've realized that we technically have a marketing tech stack. So I want to walk you guys through that tech stack. What are we using? What are we using it for? And hopefully there's something that you can pick up on that may strengthen not your stack overall. Also, if you haven't yet checked out the newly launched brand man network, go and check it out. It's something that you don't want to miss out on. I personally think it's some of me and Sean's best work today. Like some of the content in there is just beautiful, you know, if I got to say so myself. So if you're someone that's interested in getting a deeper understanding of music marketing, actually learning some of the things that we do on a day-to-day basis, then check it out. I'll put the link to that in the description below as well. Now, the first thing that is a huge part of our marketing tech stack is really just various ad platforms. And as of me making this video, the main ad platforms that we use are the Facebook ad managers. So we can run ads on Facebook and Instagram, the Google ad manager. So we can run ads on YouTube, the Spotify ad manager. So we can run ads on Spotify and the Tik Tok ad manager. So we can run ads on Tik Tok now over time. There are other ad platforms that I am looking to move my team towards. But for right now, these four get the job done for us. And I'm a personal believer that you need to be running as one in spaces where you are the most active. So a lot of our clients are active on Instagram and YouTube and Tik Tok. So it makes a lot of sense for us to run those ad platforms. And two, the concepts don't change much between ad platform and ad platform. Like there are certain KPIs that each of them show. But for the most part, you're still looking at impressions and trying to get the cheapest amount of clicks and views and things like that. So I do believe that just by learning these based on of ad platforms, I will be able to have a good understanding of those other ad platforms. Once I jump into it and I'm saying that coming from experience, like the first ad platform I learned was the Facebook ad platform. And it made it a lot easier to learn the Tik Tok ad platform and the Spotify ad platform, even the YouTube ad platform, because of those baseline concepts that I had come to understand. And you guys know how much we preach about pay advertising and its utility. So of course, of course, most of my marketing text that is going to be different ad platforms. And over time, I really do want to add more on top of that. Like I want to be in the next three to five years, someone that can take over the whole internet space across a bunch of different platforms because I have a skill to know how to do so. And I will say this, you don't have to follow my ad platform stack. Exactly. You know, if you know how to use the Snapchat ad platform, go for it. You know, use the Reddit ad platform, go for it. Pinterest, most major platforms that have a really large audience have some type of advertising platform. And once again, if you understand one, then you really do understand the baseline concepts that will help you to understand the other ad platform. So by all means, copy mine if you feel like you need to. But don't be afraid to go out there and add some other ad platforms into your stack as well. The second big thing that I would say is a huge part of our marketing tech stack is various DSP analytics. Now, the two big ones that we use are Spotify for artists and Apple for artists. And the main reason that we're on there is because they're the two biggest streaming platforms out there. So more likely than not, we're going to be able to get a lot more and a lot cleaner data from those two platforms than we will the other streaming platforms. But once again, majority of the DSPs have some type of analytics platform. Like I know Pandora has one. I know SoundCloud has one. I believe Amazon Music has one. All of them don't have one. Like I'm looking at you title, but a good majority of them do have some type of analytics platform. So feel free to use whichever one houses the majority of your fan base because that's where you're going to get the most of your clean data from. And the big thing that we use these DSP analytics for are one to see if our advertising and marketing is working beyond the ad data. You know, because I've said it before in previous videos, it's very possible to have a good advertising campaign in a bad overall marketing campaign. Like it's very easy to still have something that's converting really cheaply, but then people still aren't converting government to your music for whatever reason. So we look at those things to see like, hey, are we getting the cheap customer click and then our people actually taking action on the DSPs and moving beyond that. Now, the other thing that we use them for is just playing market research. Who are their fans? What do they look like? What are they listening to? This helps us to narrow down our targeting whenever we are doing advertising and help us narrow down our influencer list when we're starting to get into influencer marketing. So DSP analytics are super huge for us. Once again, Spotify for Arts and Apple for Arts are the two biggest ones for us. But if you have access to others that give you a lot of data, then Bob means added into your stack. You just need that data. The third biggest thing that I would say is a huge part of our marketing tech stack is just various social media platforms. And when I say this, I really mean the big ones, you know, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, a little bit of Pinterest here and there. But for the most part, just those and I as a marketer really believe that if you are not someone that is actively paying attention to these various social media platforms and the cultures that are moving on these platforms, then overall, you won't really be able to execute on good marketing plans because at the end of the day, what you're trying to do is literally influence internet culture. And how can you influence a culture that you don't understand? I can tell you how many people have come to us wanting to run TikTok campaigns, but they don't understand the culture of TikTok. So their ads don't hit the same way. Their content doesn't hit the same way. Not because it's not good content, but because it's not good content for the community and the culture of people that's hanging out over there. Same thing with Twitter, same thing with Instagram. Every single social media platform has its own culture. It has its own jokes. It has its own way of doing things. And I just feel like in order to be a high level marketer, you have to at least understand each of them a little bit. You know, like I don't 100% get Snapchat culture, but I know enough about it that I can put together a good ad if I had to or enough that I could put together a pretty good influencer campaign if I had to. So what I try to do is I make it a habit to spend at least an hour on these different social media platforms every single day. If I can, if not every day, then at least every week. But usually the main ones like TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, I'm definitely spending at least an hour on those every day, just scrolling through content, looking at memes, looking at different video content, looking at other artists, like seeing what's going on, like peeping out the culture and seeing if there's any jokes or anything that we can use in our own content or using our marketing campaigns. So I would say that if you're someone that hasn't made it a habit to do so, you don't have to spend all of your time looking at every social media platform like I do. But at least the ones that you have identified as your priority platforms make it a habit to spend at least an hour. So every day on those because you need to, right? Like how are you going to influence these people if you don't understand these people? So various social media platforms are a huge part of our tech stack. Once again, you cannot be a high level marketer if you don't understand social media and understand these different social media platforms. The fourth thing that I would say is a huge part of our tech stack is a smart link generator. Now, the smart link generator that we like to use is one called ToneDen. Now, I like ToneDen mostly because I've been using them for like three or four years. And at this point, they've just gotten a lot of extreme brand loyalty out of me. But the thing that we use ToneDen for is to once again, see how our ad data or our marketing data is translating beyond just the advertising platform. So going back to my earlier example, if I have an ad that's performing at, let's say a 50 cent cost per click, I want to know how those people are converting beyond just the cheap ad traffic, right? Like I want to know, hey, once these people click beyond the ad, what are they doing? Are they going to Spotify? Are they going to YouTube? Are they going to Apple or SoundCloud? Or are they not going anywhere? Do they get to the landing page and then just leave? These are things that I need to know as a marketer in order to fully optimize and get the best results for the client or at least the results that they want to get. So that's what ToneDen comes in. ToneDen allows us to not only see what percentage of our ad data is converting over to DSPs, but it also allows us to see what platforms are these people converting to. So once again, I can say, hey, you have a 60% conversion rate and majority of your traffic is going to Spotify. This ad is doing great for building out your Spotify. But I can go, hey, your ad has a 62% conversion rate but most of your traffic is going to Amazon Music. It's not going to be great for going to Spotify but people are still going somewhere. So as a marketer, I need to know that data. Like just, I need to know it. And once again, you don't have to use ToneDen. Like I use any smart link generator will work. Just make sure it allows you to one pixel your link so you can keep a really detailed tracking on that data. And then two, I would say go for one that's either like free or super inexpensive because you're probably not going to be making a lot of smart links. So you don't need to pay for the highest tier of every smart link generator. We need it because we run so many campaigns that we're literally making dozens of smart links a month. But as a artist who's maybe doing what, maybe two or three releases a month, depending on what you're doing, you don't really need to pay for the super expensive package. But big thing is it needs to be able to be pixel and it needs to allow you to link out to various platforms at the same time. And also I would say, make sure you find one that allows you to brand it and make it look visually nice. You hit those three things that any smart link generator would do. But like I said, we like to use Tone Den. Tone Den has done good by us for the last couple of years and I don't really see us switching anytime soon. The next thing that I would say is huge in our tech stack is a platform called Chartmetry. Now, if you've been following this channel for a while, the following channel for a while, you've probably heard us mention Chartmetry a lot. And for those of you that don't know what Chartmetry is, it's pretty much this analytics tool that's used by A&Rs, record labels, publishers and marketers like myself. Now, the thing that we use it for is one to get this sort of macro view of all of our clients and see how they're growing across things that we're not able to check. So one of the big things that we do look at, like I said earlier, is Apple for artists, Spotify for artists, the various social media data and then like our ad data, right? But there are some platforms that we're not able to track as granularly, like let's say something like a Pandora or something like, I don't know, Amazon or something like their TV appearances. So Chartmetry allows us to not only look at the micro data across the different platforms. So how are you growing on Instagram? How are you growing on Spotify? But also macro and see how all of those things are stacking up all together. So once again, we may go, dang, this campaign sucks because this art Spotify isn't growing. But then we may look at that Chartmetry and see, no, man, that's Shazam's and that Pandora stream shot up once this ad was turned on. Maybe for whatever reason, people just didn't wanna go to Spotify. They wanna go to Pandora or go somewhere else. So that's the main thing that we use Chartmetry for is once again to just get a macro look of all of our clients and their growth so we can just see how are things been impacted by the things that we're doing. The second thing that we use Chartmetry for is for market research. Now, if you've ever used Chartmetry, then you know the great thing about Chartmetry is that you can see the data of any artist, like any artist from Drake down to your cousin that just started rapping last week, you know what I'm saying? And what makes it a great market research tool is that you can go in there and you can look at what playlist or your related artist on so you can figure out what playlist to pitch yourself to. You can see what markets they're starting to bubble in so you can figure out what to start running your ads to. And sometimes I just like to look at their growth over the last X amount of months to kind of get a sense of what is reasonable growth. So I'm looking at like, hey, Lil Nas X is going his Spotify at a two to 3% increase a month. Okay, cool. We may be doing it on a smaller level for a particular client, but that's why I don't try. So I think it's really good for those of you who need to do deep level market research, which really all of you should be doing deep level market research. And it does a really good job of putting everything out there for you to be able to do that deep level market research. So Tri-Metric has been a huge, huge portion of our marketing tech stack. We do have the paid version, you know, so I got flex a little bit, you know what I'm saying? We do got the paid version, but it do have a free version out there that does get a lot of the job done. So don't feel like you have to pay for it if you want to check it out. But I do recommend you go and check it out. The next thing that I would say is a huge part of our marketing tech stack is an app called InShot. Now InShot is a video editing app that can be used on a phone or on a tablet. And we pretty much use it for meme campaigns and viral style campaigns. So whenever we have a meme we have to create, whenever I have to make some of those, you know, text over video style posts, I'm going to InShot, you know? And this is another one of those platforms that probably does have an alternative out there that works just as good, if not better. So by all means, don't feel like you have to use it. Go find something that you like or use whatever you are already using if you like it, you know, just the same. But I like InShot because I've been using it for so long that now I've stacked up like a meme content library for myself. So it's very easy for me to go through my posts and be like, hey, that joke worked for this client. Let's use it again for this client. Or like, yo, I like the header that I use on that post. That's a five header. I'm gonna give it to this client. So that's one of the main reasons that I stick to InShot. But once again, if you have a video editing app that you prefer, then use that. But as a marketer and as an artist, you're going to have to edit a lot of video content. And you're probably gonna want to edit it on the fly because you're probably moving around on a thousand different things at once. And this is why InShot just rang supreme to me. It works on my phone. It works on my iPad. It gets the job done quickly. I have templates built up and it's great. You know, and it's pretty cheap. I think I only pay like maybe three bucks for it. And I have a license for it forever. You know, so you can't really be that. Three bucks for forever. Come on, man. But if you are using something like an Adobe Premiere or Spark or whatever alternative is out there, then like I said, keep using it. I don't feel like you gotta switch because of me. But if you're not using a video editing software or app, you need to plan for one. So I would recommend checking out InShot. And the last thing that I would say is a huge part of our marketing tech stack. And I'm actually going to lump these things together because they kind of go together. Like not really, but kind of, you know what I'm saying? But not really, but kind of. And those programs are community, super phone and drip. Now community and super phone are texting applications that allow you to talk to your fans and engage with them through a pre-made phone number that you get when you sign up. Now this is really great for someone that's looking to add SMS marketing to your campaigns or if you are looking for a deeper way to engage with the fans that you already have. And the reason that I say both of them is that I really do like both of them. Like for the most part, they do things really well. They each have their own pros and cons that puts them a little bit ahead of the others in different ways, but I really do like both of them. And I've been thinking about making a comparison video between super phone and community. So if you're interested in that, drop it in the comment section below. It may be something I get working on, you know what I'm saying, soon. But once again, we do use both of them. Like we use super phone more on a day-to-day basis when talking to clients and even doing our own SMS campaigns. And then we use community for the clients that have access to it and who are already pre-established within it and like the work pattern of it. But once again, if you're an artist who's looking to add SMS campaigns into your marketing in general, then both of those get the job done pretty well. So I recommend checking out both of them. Now, Drip is an email automation platform that allows you to collect emails from leads and potential leads. And then to also send out automated emails whenever you need to. So like if you've ever gotten an email from Brammer Network, then nine times out of 10 you got to email through Drip that chance it up. Now, if you're someone that's using something like a MailChimp, then this is what I have to say about MailChimp. It's cool, I know it's like email platform 101 for most people is how I got into email marketing is what got me started. But we hit a point to where we felt like we outgrew MailChimp and the price for the services didn't quite match what we were looking to get for what we had currently. So that's what made us transition over to Drip. Right now, we honestly love Drip. You know, it's working as of me making this video. And who knows, there may be a point in time where we feel like we outgrew Drip. We may move on to another email automation platform. But for right now, Drip gets the job done. And if you're someone that feels like they've outgrown MailChimp, then feel free to look into it. Now, I'm sure there are other email providers out there or other email platforms out there that do the job just as well. So if you already have your preferred email platform then do not feel like you have to switch because of me. We like Drip. Drip gets the job done the way we like to get it done. And we're gonna keep using Drip once again until it stops doing what we need to do. So there it is guys. Those are all the applications and softwares that are a part of our marketing tech stack or at least all of the ones that I can think of right now. Trust and believe if I think of any others, there will be a part to this video. Now, other than that, I'm curious to see what are some applications and softwares that are part of your marketing tech stack? What are those programs that you feel like you need a hundred percent to do the job the way that you would like to do it? Please jot those in the comment section below. You never know when you might be helping me out or helping up another artist in the community and like, man, you might be helping me like I said, man. Like I'm always looking to improve on my marketing tech stack. If I can take it from a three to a five, hey, I'm with it, man. Now, other than that, if you feel like you learned anything today, please like and share this video. Hit those post notifications as well as I wouldn't want you guys to miss anything. Once again, my name is Kory and I'll see y'all next time.