Guest Blog

By David Potter, Vice President, Professional Services, Distribion, Inc.

David Potter

One of the basic assumptions this blog makes is that its readers are marketers who are interested in improving their multi-channel marketing results through almost any means possible.  Another is that there is a place for technology in almost any distributed marketing organization – that it in any situation where there is a centralized corporate marketing department and one or more field or local marketing and sales organizations that use marketing materials created by corporate marketing to reach local prospects and customers.

But is that an accurate assumption?  Can technology really help any company sell more products, do more with fewer resources, and control costs? Maybe — maybe not.  In general, I think that the answer is a qualified “yes”.  Individual situations vary, of course, but  the one constant I see in nearly every organization that Distribion works with is the pressure to improve results and manage to a bottom line.  It seems that every year, it has gotten harder, taken more time, and required more information to get the budget approved.

And when the budget is for marketing operations activities, such as a marketing automation solution, digital asset management system, or distributed marketing platform, the questions about value, return on investment, and spending priorities get even more pointed and difficult.

So how do you decide if there is a technology solution out there that will deliver the results you need?  Or make a business case for spending on marketing automation tools?  Over the last six months, I’ve looked at that question from several viewpoints, and talked to a number of people on both the buyer and vendor side of the process.  What I’ve found is that management is increasingly asking for realistic projections of the cost savings, performance improvements, and revenue you can realize by adding the technology you want to buy.  Of course, management also wants to know how the technology you want to purchase will help you close more sales.

Our professional services team has worked with many clients on very specific assessments that identify the specific results they can achieve by automating and streamlining complex multi-channel distributed marketing processes.  If you’re among them, and you’d like to follow the format we’ve worked out, click here to request access to the flip book.

Technology can deliver results in many companies, especially those in regulated industries such as financial services, insurance, and health care where compliance is important, and in those with a distributed sales organization where corporate marketing wants to empower local sales and marketing while maintaining control of brand and regulatory standards.  If that sounds like your organization, and you’re still struggling with manual marketing processes for approvals, content delivery, updates, training, and localization or personalization for collateral, email, and other marketing assets, then you might want to take a hard look at a multi-channel marketing automation platform as you’re working on your 2012 budget.