A methodology created by Diego Martinez
ToolMarketing turns software, a kiosk, infrastructure or a service into a marketing piece that delivers recurring value, learns from use and shapes the right offer at the right moment. The tool serves before it sells.
01The concept
Created by Diego Martinez, ToolMarketing is a methodology that turns marketing into a functional value-delivery system based on real utility, recurrence and intelligence. Instead of persuasion, promises or forced attention, an intelligent tool delivers value before, during and after conversion.
That tool is a marketing piece: it brings the tactics of attraction, interaction, nurturing, conversion and retention together in a single experience. While it is used, it learns from behaviour, understands the user’s problem and shapes the right offer. The sale becomes a consequence of utility.
The tool serves before it sells, works before it persuades and delivers utility before any offer.
The tactics are not fixed stages or a linear journey. They are activated by the tool’s behaviour, in a linear or non-linear way.
Brings users to the tool, through internal or external channels.
Direct use of the functionality.
Storytelling and copy based on real use.
An offer built from real interaction data.
Intentional return out of habit, value or need.
02Applied scenarios
The tool can be digital, physical or hybrid. What defines ToolMarketing is not the format but the marketing function the tool takes on.
Software stops being just a product and operates as an active marketing channel: it guides behaviour, learns from use and converts through utility.
Examples
The service stops being just execution and becomes a channel of continuous value: it delivers something useful before the sale, observes use in the physical world and builds relationships.
Examples
The infrastructure that supports the operation also becomes an asset for acquisition, distribution and intelligence: kiosks, spaces and physical systems start to sell.
Examples
03Pillars
The pillars are structural and non-negotiable. FIRE defines the value the tool delivers to the market. EPAT defines how it is planned, run and fed.
The value the tool delivers
Solves a real pain with practical action.
Has value even without conversion.
Stays useful over time.
Focus on action, flow and real use.
How the tool is built and run
Defining the pain, the goals and the action plan.
The paths that lead to conversion.
What runs autonomously.
How the tool is fed and interpreted.
04The core
The RVT is the core of the methodology. It isn’t a free tool, a lead magnet or a free product: it is built to do marketing. It can be digital, physical or hybrid and works as an autonomous channel for relationship, utility and conversion.
Practical delivery based on real use: calculate, organise, simulate, compare, guide.
The tool’s response to the user: messages, feedback, recommendations and contextual copy.
CCGO defines how the RVT is organised internally and how users move forward inside it.
A sequential, predictable flow.
Moving forward and back between steps.
Non-linear navigation driven by decisions.
An architecture that combines cycles, exchanges and graphs around goals.
Understanding the concept is the first step. Designing, building and running an RVT that sells requires method: strategy, processes, automation and traffic. This implementation is tailor-made, directly with Diego Martinez.
05Principles
The principles ensure that delivery does not depend on the sale, but on an autonomous experience of value.
The journey is a flow that talks with the customer, not just a feature on offer.
First the tool delivers value; the offer follows, inside the flow.
The tool sells through flows of utility, not forced persuasion.
No tricks: triggers used honestly preserve trust.
There is a legitimate problem, solved again and again.
The tool is an active channel of interaction, not disposable content.
ToolMarketing is not a free tool that captures leads. It isn’t freemium, it isn’t PLG and it isn’t a free tool. It is a piece that brings marketing tactics together and must be recurring.
06Innovation
ToolMarketing changes the unit of marketing: instead of campaigns and content that run out, a functional piece that works every day.
Marketing tactics stop being separate channels and live inside a single tool.
Instead of a static funnel: cycles, exchanges, graphs and orbits.
The audience is segmented by the function it uses and the problem it is trying to solve.
The tool learns from what users do, not from who they are.
Experience focused on action, not on capturing screen time.
Services, physical products and experiences can also be sold through a tool.
07Concepts
The terms that structure the discipline.
08The author
Creator of ToolMarketing. Strategist, designer and developer of functional marketing systems.
He combines business administration, marketing and technology. Trained in Business Administration and graduated in Systems Analysis and Development, he has worked at companies such as MSC, IBM, GPTW and Itaú.
After several unsuccessful attempts to sell online, he realised what was missing was a channel that delivered value before the sale. That pain became a method: the first tests with functional tools began in 2023 and, since then, he has been structuring and spreading the discipline.
Author of “Marketing de Ferramenta” (MARTTENZI, 2 December 2025, ISBN 978-6598960001) and other titles on Amazon.
Author pagePresented ToolMarketing on stage at HackTown, a festival of innovation, technology and creativity.
Open-access academic preprint: “Marketing de Ferramenta: a new strategy based on recurring value tools”.
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.15165196The conceptual foundation of the method is published in an open repository, with pillars, tactics and behaviours.
github.com/marketingdeferramentaSep 2023
First experiment: a team picker with an affiliate banner outperforms ads in engagement.
2023-2025
Dozens of tools tested across niches: the theory emerges, with pillars, principles and behaviours.
2025
Preprint published on Zenodo and the methodology starts to spread.
Dec 2025
Launch of the book “Marketing de Ferramenta” by MARTTENZI, on Amazon.
MARTINEZ, Diego. Marketing de Ferramenta: Uma nova estratégia baseada em ferramentas de valor recorrente. Zenodo, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15165196
See the book on Amazon09Frequently asked questions
It is a methodology created by Diego Martinez that turns software, a service, a kiosk or infrastructure into an intelligent marketing piece. That piece, the RVT, delivers recurring value, brings together attraction, interaction, nurturing, conversion and retention, and converts sales as a consequence of utility.
No. Marketing tools are the systems a team uses to do marketing: CRM, email automation, ad managers, analytics. ToolMarketing flips the logic: the tool itself is the marketing. It is used by the customer, not the team, and it is the tool that attracts, builds the relationship and sells.
Because lead capture is only the front door and, in traditional models, that is where value ends. In ToolMarketing the tool keeps working after the first use: it observes behaviour, understands the problem, shapes the right offer and drives the sale inside the experience itself. The lead is a consequence, not the goal. The metric that matters is sales conversion and recurring use, not the number of contacts on a list.
No. A free tool, like Software as Magnet, works as a magnet: it attracts, creates a one-off interaction and ends its job at capture. The RVT is an engine: it retains, nurtures, learns from use and drives the journey continuously.
No again. In freemium the tool is a limited version of the product and the goal is the upgrade. In PLG the product being sold is itself the growth channel. In ToolMarketing the tool is a marketing piece independent of the product: it can sell a service, a physical product or an experience and keeps delivering value even to people who haven’t bought yet.
Engineering as Marketing proposes building free software tools as an acquisition channel. It only fits the software part of ToolMarketing, Software as Marketing. ToolMarketing is broader: it includes services, kiosks and infrastructure and requires the FIRE and EPAT pillars, recurrence and the full set of tactics up to retention.
No. It can be software, a service, a kiosk or infrastructure, or hybrid, like a digital tool launched by a QR code in a physical space. What matters is the function: solving a real problem repeatedly and operating as a marketing piece.
Behaviour, not identity. The tool observes use, it doesn’t watch the user: it relies on anonymous tags and local storage to personalise the experience without collecting sensitive data. That intelligence is what makes good offers possible.
Yes, as long as there is a real problem to be solved repeatedly. There are already applications in health, education, finance, retail, automotive and services.
Implementation is tailor-made with Diego Martinez. Click any contact button on this page to open a WhatsApp chat.
Implementation
From strategy to operation, the RVT is designed for your business: learn from use, shape better offers and convert sales with recurrence.
The chat opens on WhatsApp with a ready-made message (sent in Portuguese).