The 2026 Tech Audit: Is your marketing stack helping or hurting you?

In our previous blog, Candace shared 10 questions to ask yourself for your mid-year marketing audit, this time, we’re tackling a tech audit.

Why you should audit your tech stack

Change

Technology is changing and evolving everyday, so it falls on us as users to adapt and keep up with those changes.

Cost

A lot of tools cost money, so doing a tech audit can help you save money in the long run by consolidating and removing any tools that are no longer needed or useful to you.

AI

Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay and SO many people are using AI tools when it comes to their marketing. 

The Audit

So, how do you decide what stays and what goes? The first thing you should do is make a list of all of the tools that you’re using. Once you’ve taken inventory of everything, here’s a checklist to help guide you.

Is it used often?

Be honest with yourself about how often you use each tool. If you’re only using it once in a while, it may not make sense to keep it. 

Price

Who doesn’t want the option to possibly save some money, right? Jot down the price of any paid tools you are using.  When you consider all of the points outlined in this guide, they should be able to help you decide whether you can continue to justify the price of any paid tools.

Do you have other tools that do the same thing?

When you look at the tools you’re using, do any of the features overlap? Are you using multiple tools and apps that do the same thing?

Is it effective?

Ask yourself, is this tool actually effective? If it’s not working the way you want it to, it’s probably not worth keeping.

Can AI replace part of its function?

I’m going to be honest. I don’t like encouraging people to use AI, but, as I already said, whether we like it or not it’s here to stay and it can be useful. So when you’re looking at the tools you use, consider whether AI can replace part of or all of its function. With that said, I do feel the need to put a disclaimer here. If you are using AI, you should still maintain a human touch. For example, it’s great for idea generation, but I wouldn't rely on it for creation, especially if creative tools are part of your marketing stack. 

Let’s say you are using a paid version of Canva or design software to create marketing materials (like posters, brochures, etc.), social media content, and more. Lot’s of people use AI to create images for these purposes and you may be considering doing the same. Personally, I would caution against using AI for this purpose for a variety of reasons. For one, images created by AI often steal from other creators and designers. It’s also often viewed as “AI slop.” When it comes to written content, a lot of people can spot something written by AI (even if you change up a few words here or there) and they feel like it’s lazy, dishonest, and sounds like every other thing written by AI.

What next?

Once you’ve considered all of the above, you can think about what to keep, what to consolidate, and what to eliminate. 

If there are tools that you use often, are worth the price, are effective and can’t be replaced by AI, then those are the ones you want to keep. If there are tools that overlap, consider which are the most useful and most cost effective and then eliminate whichever makes the most sense to drop. If you have tools that aren’t effective, aren’t used much, or can be replaced, those are the tools you can consider eliminating altogether.

We’re almost at the midway point of the year, so it’s the perfect time for an audit as we prepare for the later half of the year! And again, in case you missed it, definitely check out our mid year marketing audit as well!