One of the first things I do as a Growth Consultancy or Marketing Consultant is to understand how you collect, store, share and use data.
There is an alternative - you can build a lightweight "stack" of marketing tools - many of which are free and do the job they are designed to do very well. So, for most startups, building a marketing stack that’s both agile and cost-effective is essential.
While large, all-in-one marketing platforms may offer comprehensive solutions, they often come with unnecessary features, high costs, and limited flexibility. Enter the microservices approach—modular systems that allow you to select and integrate the best tools for each specific function in your marketing funnel.
By leveraging microservices, startups can build a scalable marketing stack that integrates only the tools they need, saving costs and providing room for rapid adjustments as the business grows.
Let’s walk through how you can build a simple marketing stack using microservices, with a focus on integration.
1. Start with Your Data Layer: Using Segment
Segment acts as your data infrastructure layer. It collects and unifies data and events from various sources, like your website, mobile app or emails and then sends this data to something else.
The beauty of Segment is that it allows you to send this data to other tools in your stack, as long as they can accept this data - your opportunities are virtually endless.
Here’s how to set it up:
Step 1: Create a free Segment account and install Segment’s JavaScript library on your website or app. This will allow you to track events such as signups, logins, or specific in-app actions (e.g., “clicked upgrade” or “added to cart”).
Step 2: Define the key customer events you want to track, such as user signups or trial activations. Each of these events will trigger marketing actions down the line.
Step 3: Segment automatically stores this data and can send it to other tools, like Mailchimp for email automation, or a Google Sheet for tracking performance.
Why Segment? Segment simplifies data management by keeping everything organized in one place. You avoid the hassle of syncing data manually across platforms, and it ensures data consistency when you connect to new services.
2. Sending Automated Emails with Mailchimp
Now that you have customer data flowing into Segment, let’s use it to trigger emails in Mailchimp. For this example, let’s say you want to send a welcome email to users after they sign up on your website.
Integrating Segment with Mailchimp:
Step 1: In Segment, navigate to “Connections” and add Mailchimp as a destination. Segment has pre-built integrations, so you don’t need to code—just configure a few settings.
Step 2: In Mailchimp, create an automated email campaign for new signups. You can use Mailchimp’s template builder to craft a welcome email.
Step 3: When a user signs up on your website, Segment will automatically detect the “signup” event and send this data to Mailchimp. This triggers your welcome email without any manual intervention.
Mailchimp can also track email performance, like open and click-through rates. This data can be sent back to Segment or a tracking tool of your choice, such as Google Sheets.
3. Tracking Results in an Easy-to-Use Database with Metabase
Keeping track of marketing results in spreadsheets can become unwieldy and is pretty painful and a bit, well, useless. Instead, a more efficient and scalable approach is to store your data in a database and use a powerful yet simple-to-use tool like Metabase to query and visualize the results. This method offers a structured way to manage your data without the complexity and cost of enterprise CRMs.
Using a Database for Storing Results:
Step 1: Set up a lightweight, cloud-based relational database such as PostgreSQL or MySQL on a platform like Heroku, AWS, or Google Cloud. These services provide affordable, scalable options, with many offering free tiers for startups.
Step 2: Using Segment or a tool like Zapier, you can automatically send relevant marketing data—like email performance metrics (opens, clicks, and conversions)—into the database. You can also store customer events and acquisition data from Segment here, giving you a central source of truth for all your marketing activities.
Step 3: Organize your database tables to reflect the core aspects of your marketing funnel—e.g., a table for users, one for email campaigns, and another for customer actions (signups, upgrades, etc.).
This structured data storage provides a far more scalable solution compared to spreadsheets and gives you access to real-time insights that can grow with your startup.
Using Metabase to Query and Visualize Results:
Step 1: Install Metabase, an open-source business intelligence tool, which makes querying your database accessible even if you’re not a data expert. Metabase can be hosted on your own server, or you can opt for their cloud-based service, which offers simplicity and quick setup.
Step 2: Connect Metabase to your database. This is a straightforward process that involves entering your database credentials. Once connected, Metabase will automatically pull in your data tables, allowing you to start querying immediately.
Step 3: Use Metabase’s intuitive query builder to analyze the performance of your campaigns. For example, you can create reports that show:
How many users opened your welcome email.
The conversion rate of trial users who clicked through from an email campaign.
A breakdown of customer signups by source (e.g., organic, paid ads, email).
Why Metabase? Metabase allows you to create powerful, custom reports without needing a dedicated data team. It turns raw marketing data into actionable insights by providing easy-to-read dashboards, graphs, and reports.
You can track everything from email engagement to customer retention, helping you make informed decisions based on real-time data. Plus, it's designed to be simple enough that anyone on your team can use it without technical expertise.
Practical Use Case
Let’s continue with our earlier example of using Segment to track user signups and engagement.
Data Collection: Segment records key events (e.g., user signups, email opens, and feature engagement) and sends this data to your database.
Automated Email Campaigns: Mailchimp triggers a series of emails based on user actions, like a welcome email or a re-engagement email for inactive users.
Tracking Results in the Database: Each email’s performance metrics—such as open and click-through rates—are stored in your database, along with trial conversion data.
Visualizing with Metabase: You log into Metabase, run a query to see which email campaign is driving the most conversions, and visualize the results on a dashboard. This data is now easily accessible to your team, allowing you to adjust your strategy on the fly.
By storing your marketing data in a dedicated database and using Metabase for querying and reporting, you have a powerful, scalable system that grows with your business. You avoid the limitations of spreadsheets while gaining deeper insights into your marketing efforts.
4. Why Microservices Beat Big Platforms for Startups
When building a marketing stack, the ability to pick and choose the best tool for each job allows startups to remain agile, focused, and cost-effective. Let’s summarize why microservices are the superior choice:
Flexibility: You can integrate and disconnect services based on your current needs. If Mailchimp becomes too limited as your email volume grows, you can switch to a more advanced tool like SendGrid or Drip without disrupting the rest of your stack.
Cost Efficiency: Large marketing platforms charge for features you may never use. With microservices, you only pay for the specific tools you need, and many of these services offer affordable plans for startups.
Scalability: As your business grows, you can upgrade individual services without overhauling your entire system. Need more detailed analytics? Drop in Google Analytics or Amplitude. Need advanced lead nurturing? Swap Mailchimp for Customer.io or Braze.
5. Practical Example: Driving Conversion with Microservices
Imagine you’re running a SaaS startup offering a 30-day free trial. You want to guide trial users toward conversion, and using microservices can make this process seamless.
Data Collection: Segment tracks key events, such as “sign up for trial,” “login,” and “engaged with core feature.”
Email Automation: Mailchimp sends a welcome email immediately after sign-up and follow-up emails based on engagement (e.g., a reminder if the user hasn’t logged in after 5 days).
Tracking Results: Each email’s performance is tracked in Mailchimp, and this data is exported to Google Sheets for internal analysis, or sent to an open-source CRM for further lead nurturing.
Scaling: As your company grows, you might decide to add a more advanced analytics tool like Mixpanel or an AI-powered lead scoring tool. Because each service is modular, adding or upgrading tools is a simple process.
Ready to Build a Microservices-Based Marketing Stack?
Book a free Book a Free Growth Discovery call.
Growth(by)Gardner - a Growth & Marketing Consultancy.
As a Marketing Consultant, Growth Marketing Consultant and Fractional CMO for your startup I focus on helping startups create scalable growth, leveraging lean marketing principles, lightweight microservices and 18 years experience in growing successful companies to help your startup grow.
Want to see what I can do for you? Book a Free Growth Discovery call.
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