Today’s marketers have a lot of moving parts to manage. Because marketers are responsible for delivering creative campaigns that are cost effective, efficient, and produce valuable sales leads, they have become a more integral part of generating ROI to the same standards that other departments have traditionally owned.
Marketers must plan, create, and execute campaigns that are personalized and delivered across the channels most preferred by their customers. They must engage, nurture, and convert new leads with compelling campaigns throughout the entire customer journey, while ensuring these campaigns are delivered efficiently, adhere to brand standards, and are on budget.
And the truth is many marketers still use spreadsheets to track their marketing efforts. That just does not cut it anymore. Not only do important things slip through the cracks, but spreadsheets require a lot of effort to keep current.
If not a spreadsheet, then what?
A marketing resource management (MRM) platform can help marketers automate much of the administrative legwork they are required to perform, while taking advantage of portals that allow stakeholders and internal clients to request projects and track their progress in real time.
MRM platforms also help marketing teams collaborate more effectively through project management and review/approval workflows. Team members can share ideas and inspiration via showrooming tools and digital asset libraries to ensure that great work does not get lost in the shuffle. By automating core project and campaign operations, MRM helps ensure budgets are on track without compromising creativity.
Automation is your friend
Marketing automation is another area that enhances marketer and campaign effectiveness. Marketing automation solutions allow marketers to map out and automate predefined buyer journeys that can generate the greatest results for your business. These solutions analyze and report on the performance of activities across all channels and personas that provide marketers with the critical insights to adjust existing campaigns or create new ones to improve their success.
With a marketing automation platform, marketers can create a self-service library of easy-to-customize templates that can be used by the entire organization, which results in a more consistent customer experience across all interactions, instead of just standard marketing messages.
Lock-step with sales
By leveraging these technologies, marketers will realize an improvement in the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. But to truly set themselves apart, it is imperative to extend the technology to increase alignment with sales objectives. Data silos are a quick way to lose momentum on strong campaign-generated leads. Integrated marketing and sales technology can ensure that the process for handing off leads between departments works as flawlessly as possible.
Integrating marketing automation and customer relationship management (CRM) technology allows marketing to identify the hottest leads and opportunities so the sales team has the information it needs to effectively prioritize leads, enabling reps to close them faster. With full insight, including marketing touchpoints, sales teams can follow up on leads with a personalized and authentic approach that will seamlessly propel their experience with your brand.
The takeaway
Marketers are creative, resourceful, and dedicated to delivering high-quality campaigns that produce results. But failing to leverage modern technology, tasks can become overwhelming and cumbersome, which can lead to delayed campaign execution, budget issues, and more. With the right technology to automate previously manual processes, marketers can truly focus on making their brand a leader, with strategic, engaging, and creative campaigns.
Via MTA