Distributed Marketing Automation Buyer’s Checklist
Buyers searching for the best distributed marketing platform to solve the marketing automation problems that are unique to a multi-channel distributed marketing environment come at the problem from different starting points. So, while there is no “one size fits all” solution that will work for every company, there are a few items to add to every buyer’s checklist. The top four boxes to check when considering a distributed marketing platform are: Centralized, Rules-Based Compliance + Local Customization, Personalization Closed-loop Marketing Analytics “WOW” Factor: What Can You Do AFTER Purchasing That You CAN’T Do Now? Industry-Specific Integration, Performance The first two items on Read More
Drawing a Distributed Marketing Strategic Roadmap
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about two topics: The increasing complexity of sales organizations. How sales costs are outpacing revenue growth. In highly regulated industries like insurance, health care, pharmaceutical, and financial services, where distributed marketing channels are the norm, it’s even more important to look at ways to resolve these issues – and increasingly, companies are looking to technology to deliver increased productivity across the sales organization. Technology was once viewed as having only a tactical role in sales enablement, but companies that take a more strategic view of marketing automation have a better chance of Read More
Connecting the Distributed Marketing Dots to Drive Revenue
Research giant IDC says that 80% of the content that marketing generates isn’t used by the sales team – and the percentage is even higher in complex distributed marketing and multi-channel environments. In addition, customers tell researchers at Forrester that sales reps aren’t prepared for their initial meeting 50% of the time. Last, but hardly least, sales people surveyed by Gartner say that marketing leaves them guessing about what customers want to know at least 50% of the time. Clearly, there’s a massive disconnect going on within many distributed marketing organizations, or the primary technology research firms wouldn’t each be Read More
5 Compliance Best Practices
Whether you work in insurance, health care, education, or retail, there are compliance issues that you have to deal with in your day-to-day marketing activities. If you work in a large, distributed marketing organization, with multiple communications channels, and many links in the marketing and sales chain, the process of making sure that every message delivered in every media complies with brand, corporate and regulatory standards can seem daunting. But it doesn’t have to be. A well-designed distributed marketing automation solution can streamline and automate many of the compliance headaches that we all face. Here’s a list of five best Read More
Don’t Gamble with Marketing ROI
Insurance is one of the most complex distributed marketing challenges, largely due to the regulatory environment and multi-layered sales channel. At the annual Life Insurance Conference in Las Vegas this week, members of several insurance trade organizations are gathering to talk their industry’s future under the theme, “All in for Life Insurance”. That title is particularly appropriate given the sales environment as business come out of the recession amid a rapidly changing sales environment. And, of course, it’s also appropriate given the location for the conference: in the heart of the Las Vegas strip, at Caesar’s Palace. Hundreds of attendees Read More
10 Blogs We Can’t Live Without
There are plenty of blogs out there, and many of them have great content. So how do you decide which ones are worth subscribing to via RSS or even reading regularly? It all boils down to relevance. For us, there are about 50 blogs we follow, but there are 10 of them we read every time something new is published. Here’s our short list of the blogs we can’t live without (in alphabetic order). We’ll publish links to more great blogs from time to time. Another DAM (Digital Asset Management) Blog Bill Tyson’s Strategy in Action blog Brian Vellmure’s CRM Read More
The End of the Sales Funnel: Now What?
Software and hardware vendors have learned the hard way that the traditional “sales funnel” for technology no longer involves much selling. In fact, it’s no longer a selling process at all. It’s a buying process, in which the vast majority of decision makers research products and reach out to technology vendors while screening out most attempts by technology vendors to contact them. As many as 90% of technology purchases are instigated by the buyer – not the seller – according to most estimates. Empowered customers are repeating this pattern in other industries as well, notably insurance, banking, financial services, and Read More
DAM Compliance: Using software to minimize compliance hassles
Digital marketing has forever changed the way companies communicate with employees, resellers and partners, prospects, and customers. It’s faster, more personal, and less expensive than ever before. With digital marketing assets, it’s possible for corporate marketing to create the campaign, and allow local marketing teams (franchise owners, field sales, independent agents and resellers, brokers – anyone who sells the company’s products or services) to personalize or customize it with just a few mouse clicks. That flexibility comes with a whole new set of corporate compliance headaches. Luckily, a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution can streamline the process and enforce brand Read More
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Welcome to www.DistributedMarketing.org – a site dedicated to promoting advancements in distributed marketing technology.
Why TV’s Mad Men Would Fail Today
The hit TV show Mad Men is TV’s look back at the world of traditional marketing. In the 1960’s, a handful of white, male ad agency executives in New York controlled nearly everything the public saw and heard in the media. They showed us glamorous images, and told us what the product was and how it was going to help us – and we responded by buying exactly what they were selling. That was then. Now, anyone foolish enough to try the same approach would fail miserably. There are three key reasons for that. To start with, consumers have choices Read More
