Marketers are coming under increasing pressure to improve the efficiency of marketing campaigns and to do a better job of measuring the results of those campaigns. Senior management requires that marketing resources be optimized, and holds marketing management accountable for resources and expenses.
Enterprise software is increasingly sought as a tool that can improve the effectiveness and accountability of marketing programs and campaigns. However, many marketing executives are reluctant to stake their careers on this technology because it can be expensive, hard to implement, and doesn't always squarely address their initial requirements. In addition, enterprise marketing automation solutions can be difficult to blend with existing processes and tools.
The issues that drive the need for an enterprise marketing automation solution are related to an organizations increasing requirement to be efficient and accountable. Efficiency is best realized by providing focused messaging to the right prospect by means of the appropriate channels. Employing a manual approach to this process is not effective in a large business. A comprehensive marketing software tool incorporating a resource library is therefore required. Accountability is realized through effective tracking and analysis of results. Without an automated means of providing this data, campaign effectiveness and departmental ROI are nearly impossible to determine.
Useful communication with potential clients is essential to the success of a business. Customer relationship management, or CRM, needs to contain the information necessary to provide marketers with the tools they need to conduct highly targeted, relevant communications with prospects and customers. Precision marketing such as this is efficient and effective.
Determining the right enterprise marketing automation solution is extremely important. Initially, a business must examine their own marketing process and identify the objectives required at each step that need improvement. This might include shortening the sales cycle, improving response rates and reducing the cost per sale.
The next step is to take the list of objectives and expand it into a list of functional requirements. It is important to consider not only current requirements, but likely future needs as well. This will ensure that the selected solution will be able to adapt and grow as your marketing process grows increasingly comprehensive. It is also important to consider capacity parameters, such as the total number of leads, prospects, and customers that may ultimately be managed in such a system. You want a system that can comfortably handle the size, scope and segmentation of your data, as well as your functional requirements, but at the same time, you don't want to pay for capacity that you will never need, either in terms of features or the size of the data set.
It is important to bear in mind that several organizations within the enterprise will need to be on board and work with the new solution. These include Sales, which provides a valuable feedback loop on the quality of prospects, and which prospects become customers, as well as IT, which will need to provide technical support for maintaining and running the system. These organizations should be included and have a voice in the selection process.
There are several different scenarios under which an enterprise marketing automation solution can be deployed. Each solution type has potential benefits and drawbacks which need to be considered. Having an on-site solution provides the highest degree of configurability and security, but requires a higher initial expenditure due to hardware and software costs as well as the training and staffing expenses incurred. A second option is software as a service, also known as SaaS. This model differs in that the vendor is responsible for hosting and maintaining the hardware, software and client data. One benefit to this approach is a lower initial cost, although long term expenses can vary based upon the product and vendor. A third deployment option is called mid-source which is a blend of the two previously described models. It allows the customer to retain their marketing data in house while the processing or technical services are outsourced.
Once a marketing solution has been identified and implemented, an internal point of contact or responsible party must be identified to provide consistent daily management of the system as well as maintain open communication with the vendor. This will improve the success of the investment and can ensure that all the departments involved are not only engaged in the process, but are receiving the desired benefits as well.
A properly thought-out enterprise marketing automation solution that includes enthusiastic participation by all of the major stakeholders can greatly improve the operational efficiency of the marketing organization, helping to convert more leads into customers, and improving the organization's bottom line.
Kristin Hambelton is the Director of Marketing at Neolane. Neolane provides the only
enterprise marketing automation software specifically designed to manage, automate and optimize programs across traditional and emerging channels including direct mail, email and mobile.
