Distribion, Inc. Unveils New Social Media Marketing Automation Bundle During the LIMRA 2012 Social Media Conference

This week in Boston, MA, LIMRA held its Social Media Conference where members from Distribion, Inc. presented their never before seen Social Media Marketing Automation Bundle. During the meeting, they also showcased their proprietary Quick Start Program. Distribion is a strategic partner to the LIMRA organization offering large enterprises under the insurance and financial services umbrella a new way to reach customers through their distributed marketing automation platform—a software that allows corporate marketers and local sales the ability to access branded, compliant-controlled sales collateral, and then leverage and distribute campaigns over multiple channels at once, such as email, direct mail, Read More
Four Signs You Need Marketing Automation

Marketing is a complex process that relies on many systems, people, and resources to function smoothly. If one part of the system breaks down, it creates a bottleneck that slows down the whole process. Add in the layers of complexity that come with a multi-channel distributed marketing environment, and the results can be a maze that is hard to navigate and costly to manage. Often, marketing automation is the cure. But how do you know if your marketing processes need a marketing automation fix? Marketing automation may be the cure for what ails your marketing operation if more than two Read More
Making the Case for 2012 Marketing Budgets

The year is half over, and that means it’s time for many of us to start building the business case for 2012 marketing spending. If you want to get management approval to buy a technology solution for your multi-channel marketing organization, start by looking at the purchase from your CEO or CFO’s perspective. Nothing you can say will make a CEO or CFO happier than hearing about the areas in the marketing process where you can reduce program costs while increasing ROI. So structure your business case in language that makes sense to your audience. Start by showing them just how Read More
Survey Says: Familiarity, Ease-of-use, and Cost Trump “Cool” for Marketers

Familiarity, ease-of-use, and cost trump “cool” when marketers decide which communications channel to use. That’s the take-away from a recent survey which looks at some of the factors that weigh into a marketer’s decision on which communications channel to use. Pity the poor marketer who has to decide how to make the best use of time, money, and resources. The number of communications channels available to marketers has skyrocketed over the last 20 years, from about 10 in 1990 to more than 25 today. A newly minted marketing MBA in 1990 would have been familiar with these marketing channels. Newspapers Magazines Collateral Read More
What Channels Deliver the Best Results?

In the first quarter of 2011, Gleanster conducted the Multi-Channel Marketing Management Survey in which CMO’s were asked to select the two most effective communications channels. Traditional marketing tools beat out newer tools by a wide margin. Why? The survey report concludes that one of the major reasons is that most companies have not yet invested the time required to develop expertise in best practices, execution and measurement for social media. In highly regulated industries like financial services, health care, and insurance, the percentages were even higher, with 91% or more of the survey respondents picked “traditional” marketing methods like email, microsites Read More
5 Signs You Need a Distributed Marketing Platform

In nearly every corporation, marketing is one of the last business areas to be automated. According to a presentation by IDC Executive Advisory Service analyst Rich Vancil in September 2010, less than one in three companies have a complete marketing automation solution in place. This means that streamlining complex marketing processes with automation may be one of the last places where companies can squeeze more efficiency out of the resources they have. Is your company a candidate for a distributed marketing automation solution? Here are the top 5 signs that technology may deliver a great return on investment. Your prospects are getting Read More
Distributed Marketing Platforms are a “Must Have” for Sales Success

When IBM announced its purchase of Unica last year for $480 million, the company’s press release said that the enterprise marketing management software market was worth $2.5 billion and doubling in size on an annual basis. Why is the market for distributed marketing platforms growing so rapidly as overall marketing budgets are still recovering from the recession? Because technology helps marketers win the race to provide sales with the tools they need to win business. It’s really that simple. Just one in three large companies (with revenue over $5 billion) reported in an IDC survey that they had completed their Read More
Putting the Sales Enablement Pieces Together

Sales enablement is the delivery of the right information to the right person in the right format to assist in moving sales opportunities forward. Sounds pretty simple, right? It isn’t. Assembling the right sales message is a complex process in a large distributed marketing organization — especially in regulated industries. Four or five distinct processes and roles are involved, and without clear planning and a smooth process built on a technology platform designed to streamline the process, it can seem nearly impossible. Marketing creates the information. Management (legal, compliance, HR) reviews it. Marketing publishes it (through a sales portal, Read More
Marketing is Dead

Marketing is dead. Before rejecting the idea, think again. The truth is that only a tiny fraction of a marketer’s time is actually spent on marketing – that is, on creating demand for a product or service, shaping the brand, and supporting sales. How is that possible? Just look at the number of communications channels a marketer has to manage in today’s multi-channel world – and add to each communications channel the necessity for planning and budgeting, delivering or implementing, tracking and reporting on each one. Add managing the process of distributing marketing and sales support materials in an indirect Read More