We’ve compiled five smart business approaches for marketing tech companies. These strategies have already been used by several of our martech clients in order to bolster their software development efforts.

1)      “Right size” teams: During the software development cycle, needs will not remain constant; one week you might need scale your team numbers down, and the next week you might be frantically trying to scale up as technology and business needs dictate. While you could hire as required, that process is often time consuming, tedious, and expensive. Martech companies are new and nimble; their software development processes have to match that business reality. Working with an external, fully stocked team of different professionals means there’s no need to worry about hiring and benching waves of different employees throughout the development process.

2)      Multiple skillsets: Similar to “right size” teams, it can be difficult to find “right fit” teams with the right mix of skillsets for various requirements and different stages of your product lifecycle. Your campaign planning tool, lead scoring platform, or SEO optimizer may need a specific type of developer, a designer, or a team of QA testers – but you shouldn’t have to worry about the HR hassle that would be required to hire and bench multiple employees as your needs change. Instead, just work with the extended team to deliver whatever skills you need for that phase.

3)      24/7 availability: A global presence means that while your team is sleeping, another can be working. This allows you to cut in half the amount of time needed for product lifecycles. One of the number one reasons to contract out more time-consuming tasks is to take advantage of extended work hours. For example, a QA testing team can test your product through the night and send bug reports in the morning. Your team would then start the day with the necessary information already in their hands, rather than wasting time by having to do testing themselves. Given the sophisticated depth of martech software, its algorithms, and data volume, quality testing is one task where you don’t want to cut corners – but you can certainly figure out how to do it more efficiently.

4)      Free up your IT team: Different aspects of software development can be extraordinarily time consuming and stressful, especially when it’s lumped in with somebody’s existing job duties. If you alleviate some of these tasks – such as customization, support, or maintenance – by assigning them to an external source, then your team will be able to focus on their own core skills instead. This will minimize workplace tensions and increase productivity – both by speeding up production and reducing the overall strain on your internal structure.

5)      Lower costs: While budget isn’t be the only motivator in seeking a vendor, it definitely plays a factor. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, “businesses can dramatically reduce costs and improve their competitive position” simply by extending their teams out. If you’re a martech company, you’re likely to be a startup, externally funded, or a new business line of an existing agency. In either scenario, budget matters. Focus on driving revenue, rather than increasing your expenses for development.

With the constantly changing marketing technology landscape and an increasing number of solutions, companies are innovating both in terms of business models and software development. Have you considered smarter business strategies to decrease your time to market and reduce overall development costs?