Each year, the Stackie Awards honor the most innovative and thoughtfully designed marketing technology stacks in the industry. And in 2025, Vendasta proudly joins the winner’s circle.

Our martech stack stood out alongside global brands like Nationwide, Springer Nature, and Verizon, earning recognition from Scott Brinker, editor at Chiefmartec, and the broader martech community.

We’re thrilled to share the story behind our award-winning stack—and how it reflects our commitment to building AI-powered, performance-driven solutions for our partners and their customers.

Table of Contents

• What Are the Stackie Awards?
• Why Vendasta’s Martech Stack Stood Out in 2025
• Inside Vendasta’s Martech Stack
• How Martech Powers the Entire Customer Journey
• The State of Martech in 2025: Key Trends Shaping the Future
• FAQs

What Are the Stackie Awards?

Founded by Chiefmartec’s Scott Brinker in 2015, the Stackie Awards invite marketing teams from around the world to submit a single slide that visually represents how they organize and think about their martech stack.

It’s more than a creative exercise—it’s a celebration of marketing operations excellence. 

Over the years, entries have come from renowned brands like Microsoft, Cisco, AB InBev, and the Washington Post. And now, Vendasta.

As Brinker noted in his LinkedIn announcement, the Stackies aren't just about visual appeal—they reward stacks that deliver real business results. We couldn’t agree more.

Why Vendasta’s Martech Stack Stood Out in 2025

Our martech stack isn’t just a collection of tools—it’s a strategic ecosystem designed to fuel end-to-end customer acquisition and engagement.

What makes our stack unique?

• It’s centered on AI-powered automation across every stage of the funnel.
• It supports cross-functional collaboration across marketing, sales, support, product, and finance teams.
• It’s a living reflection of how Vendasta helps thousands of partners streamline operations and grow SMB relationships at scale.

We don’t just use AI—we build it. Our AI Employees and automation tools are deeply integrated into our stack, enabling smarter decisions, faster workflows, and better customer experiences.

Inside Vendasta’s Martech Stack: AI-First, Scalable, and Unified

At Vendasta, we don’t just talk about martech innovation—we live it. Our 2025 Stackie Award-winning marketing technology stack is the operational backbone that powers everything from lead generation and sales automation to customer retention and revenue growth. 

Here’s a deeper look at each of the six pillars of our martech stack and how they deliver real value to our partners—such as digital marketing agencies, franchisors, and MSPs—and the SMBs they support.

1. Automate: AI & Workflow Automation

Goal: Leverage AI to increase efficiency, personalization, and scale. 

Stack Components:

• Vendasta AI Employees: Scalable, always-on digital workers that proactively handle lead generation, nurturing, follow-ups, reputation management, and more.
• Vendasta Automations: Build powerful workflows across sales, marketing, and fulfillment. Automate onboarding, review requests, email campaigns, and more.
• OpenAI & Google Vertex AI: Supercharge personalization with cutting-edge generative AI capabilities built into the platform.
• Zapier: Easily integrate Vendasta with thousands of other apps to streamline cross-platform workflows.

Why It Stands Out:

Vendasta’s automation layer turns hours of manual work into minutes of AI-powered execution so teams can focus on strategy, not repetitive tasks.

2. Attract: Advertising & Promotion (Top of Funnel)

Goal: Drive awareness and demand with AI-powered ad tech and SEO. 

Stack Components:

• Vendasta Social Marketing: Manage and schedule multi-platform social campaigns with ease, complete with AI-generated content.
• Vendasta Local SEO & Listings: Get found by nearby customers. Automate listings across dozens of directories for consistent NAP data.
• Vendasta Advertising Intelligence: Track and compare ad performance across multiple channels with real-time, visual reporting.
• Vendasta MatchCraft: Streamline campaign management with AI that automatically allocates budgets, adjusts bids, and drives better results across search and social ads.
• Google Ads & LinkedIn Ads: Run hyper-targeted PPC campaigns integrated directly into the platform.
• Vendasta AI Content Creator Employee: Instantly generate high-performing ad campaigns, social media posts, and blog content tailored to your goals and audience.

Why It Stands Out:

From organic search to paid ads, Vendasta helps you attract the right leads faster, cheaper, and with less manual work.

3. Convert: Commerce & Sales (Mid-Funnel)

Goal: Turn leads into customers through smart sales automation. 

Stack Components:

• Vendasta Yesware: Automate your outreach with personalized email campaigns, real-time engagement tracking, and built-in analytics reporting.
• Vendasta CRM: Automate pipeline management, streamlines contact engagement, and empowers teams to close deals faster with AI-driven insights.
• Vendasta Sales & Call Recordings: Automatically capture and analyze sales conversations for coaching and compliance.
• Vendasta AI Voice Receptionist: Handles inbound phone calls 24/7—capturing leads, answering FAQs, and intelligently routing calls to the right contact or team.
• Vendasta AI Chat Receptionist: Engages website visitors in real-time through live chat, capturing lead information and answering questions using data from the business profile.

Why It Stands Out:

By integrating CRM, email, and call intelligence, Vendasta equips sales teams to close more deals, faster—all with AI doing the heavy lifting.

4. Engage: Content & Experience (Activation & Retention)

Goal: Deliver personalized, seamless experiences that drive loyalty. 

Stack Components:

• Vendasta WordPress Hosting: Fully managed, white-label WordPress hosting built on Google Cloud with multisite capabilities and centralized management tools.
• Vendasta Campaigns: Automate email marketing with behavior-based triggers, AI-personalized messaging, and built-in analytics.
• Unbounce: Launch high-converting landing pages quickly with easy-to-use templates and A/B testing features that help you optimize campaign performance.
• Chameleon: Improve product onboarding and feature adoption with in-app tours, tooltips, and surveys that guide users toward meaningful engagement and retention.
• Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Canva: Collaborate and produce compelling visuals and brand assets using industry-leading design tools integrated into your workflow.

Why It Stands Out:

From the first interaction to long-term retention, our tools keep users engaged, informed, and moving through the funnel.

5. Optimize: Data & Analytics (Performance & Growth)

Goal: Track what matters and optimize every touchpoint. 

Stack Components:

• Vendasta Reputation Management: AI-powered review monitoring that helps you stay on top of customer feedback across platforms to protect and grow your local reputation.
• Vendasta AI Review Manager Employee: Automatically generate thoughtful, on-brand responses to customer reviews—saving time while building trust and loyalty.
• Google Analytics, PostHog, Hotjar: Understand user behavior across websites and apps to improve UX, funnel performance, and conversion paths.
• SEMrush & Ahrefs: Analyze keyword rankings, backlinks, and SEO opportunities to drive sustained organic growth and outpace the competition.

Why It Stands Out:

With visibility across every channel, you can make better decisions, faster, and prove the ROI of your efforts with confidence.

6. Manage: Internal Collaboration & Operations

Goal: Power operational excellence behind the scenes.

Stack Components:

• Vendasta Inbox: A unified communication hub that keeps internal teams and clients aligned with real-time messaging, task assignments, and context-rich conversations.
• Vendasta Payments: Simplify client billing and revenue operations with automated invoicing, recurring payments, and integrated reporting tools.
• Stripe: A trusted, scalable payment processing solution embedded into your workflows to securely handle transactions, subscriptions, and global payments.
• Zendesk, Jira, Canny: Coordinate customer support, product feedback, and development workflows with tools that keep your service, engineering, and success teams in sync.

Why It Stands Out:

You can’t scale chaos. This part of the stack ensures every department, from finance to support, is connected and efficient.

How Vendasta’s Martech Stack Powers the Entire Customer Journey

Vendasta’s martech stack isn’t just a best-in-class collection of tools—it’s a unified, AI-powered ecosystem designed to drive results at every stage of the customer journey.

Here’s what sets it apart:

• Unified under one platform to eliminate silos, boost team productivity, and simplify complex workflows.
• Purpose-built for partners like marketing agencies, franchisors, and MSPs, who need to deliver repeatable, scalable results for SMBs.
• Infused with AI at every step—from lead generation to engagement, conversion, and retention.
• Customizable for any business model, whether you're managing a single brand or hundreds of locations.

And it’s not just theory—it’s working in practice.

Take a look at the diagram below to see how our stack automates the entire customer journey using AI. From the moment a potential customer interacts with a paid ad or business listing to the point they leave a review or become a repeat customer, Vendasta’s platform orchestrates every touchpoint with generative AI, conversational AI, and AI-powered analysis. 

Every action—from follow-ups to form routing, appointment booking to NPS feedback—is intelligently automated to drive conversions and loyalty without the manual lift.

With Vendasta, you’re not just getting a tech stack. You’re getting a proven, AI-driven customer journey engine that helps you attract, convert, and retain customers (for you and your clients)—automatically. 

The State of Martech in 2025: Key Trends Shaping the Future

The newly released State of Martech 2025 Report from Chiefmartec reveals a marketing technology landscape that’s more expansive—and complex—than ever before, now featuring over 15,000 solutions, marking a 100X growth since 2011.

This explosion in tools reflects a rapidly evolving market where agility, automation, and AI are no longer optional—they’re essential.

Key takeaways from this year’s report:

• AI-native platforms are on the rise: Tools are being built with AI at the core, not just added on later. This shift enables more powerful automation, personalization, and predictive insights across the funnel.
• SEO tools saw 24% growth—the fastest of any category: As organic visibility becomes more competitive, marketers are investing in smarter, data-driven tools to gain an edge in search rankings and local discovery.
• “Hypertail” stacks are emerging: Teams are moving away from bloated software suites and instead crafting lean, purpose-built stacks using low-code and no-code tools tailored to their exact needs.

How Does Vendasta Align With the Future of Martech?

Vendasta’s martech stack is built for this next era:

• AI-first: Our AI Employees and automation tools power real work—from prospecting and onboarding to review responses and campaign creation.
• Composable: Our platform lets partners build flexible, custom stacks using modular tools and automations—no developers required.
• Scalable: Whether you're managing one client or hundreds of locations, Vendasta helps you streamline operations and deliver consistent results.

In a martech ecosystem growing more complex by the day, Vendasta empowers partners to cut through the noise with a lean, integrated, and AI-powered stack that drives performance at scale.

Your Blueprint for Scalable, AI-Powered Growth

We’re proud to join this year’s Stackie winners and even prouder of what the award represents: a commitment to innovation, efficiency, and empowering the people behind great marketing.

Our mission is to equip marketing experts with everything they need to help small businesses thrive. 

Whether you’re a digital marketing agency, franchisor, MSP, or another partner supporting SMBs, Vendasta is here to help you attract, engage, and retain customers through smart technology and AI-powered tools.

Ready to see our award-winning platform in action? Book a demo to explore the Vendasta platform today.

Martech Stack FAQs

1. What is a martech stack?

A martech stack is a collection of marketing technology tools that work together to help businesses plan, execute, and measure their marketing efforts. It typically includes tools for automation, content marketing, CRM, analytics, social media, and SEO.

2. How do I choose the right tools for my martech stack?

Start by identifying your business goals and current gaps. Choose tools that align with your marketing automation, content marketing, data analysis, and project management needs, while ensuring they integrate well with your existing ecosystem.

3. What role does AI play in the modern marketing tech stack?

AI plays a transformative role in the modern marketing technology stack by enabling automation, personalization, and predictive insights at scale. From content creation and campaign optimization to customer segmentation and real-time analytics, AI helps marketers make smarter decisions and deliver better results faster.

4. What makes Vendasta’s martech stack unique?

Vendasta’s unified, AI-powered martech stack covers the whole customer journey—from attracting leads to retaining loyal customers—with automation and intelligence at every step.

5. How does Vendasta use AI in its martech stack?

We use AI to power automation, personalization, and data-driven decisions across marketing, sales, and customer engagement. Our AI Employees perform real tasks like follow-ups, prospecting, review generation, and reporting.

6. What is marketing automation and how does Vendasta handle it?

Marketing automation refers to the use of software to automate repetitive marketing tasks. Vendasta’s platform includes automation for emails, campaigns, onboarding, review requests, and more—freeing teams to focus on strategy.

7. Can Vendasta’s martech stack help with SEO?

Yes. Our tools like Local SEO & Listings, Reputation Management, and integrations with SEMrush and Ahrefs help partners boost search visibility and manage SEO at scale.

8. Does the stack include social media tools?

Absolutely. Our Social Marketing tool allows users to manage, schedule, and publish content across multiple platforms, complete with AI-generated captions and optimization tips.

9. How does Vendasta support project management within the stack?

Vendasta’s stack integrates tools like Jira and Canny, and includes Inbox for communication and Automations for workflow orchestration, making project management more efficient.

10. Who is the Vendasta martech stack built for?

Vendasta’s martech stack is purpose-built for digital marketing agencies, franchisors, MSPs, and SaaS resellers who support small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It’s designed to help these partners scale digital marketing, streamline operations, and drive measurable growth—all powered by Vendasta’s intelligent AI employees and automation tools.