Marketers today are fending off challenges from all fronts. Expectations have never been higher, and the job has never been more complex. From managing multiple programs across an ever-expanding network of channels to fulfilling constantly evolving objectives-today's marketers have to juggle changing priorities and reduced budgets while remaining bold, creative and responsive.
White paper Integrated Marketing Management
Trends and Leaders Driving New Integrated Marketing Strategies
Marketers today are fending off challenges from all fronts. Expectations have never been higher, and the job has never been more complex. From managing multiple Marketers who develop programs across an ever-expanding network of channels to fulfilling constantly evolving objectives-today's marketers have to juggle changing priorities and an Integrated Marketing reduced budgets while remaining bold, creative and responsive. Management strategy Fortunately, marketers do have one powerful ally in their corner: technology. will deliver a 50% higher Recent advances in marketing automation enable marketers to regain control ROMI (Return on Marketing of today's complicated marketing environment and create integrated marketing Investment) by 2014 than programs that are easily measurable. Essentially, automating the science of marketing empowers marketers to convert raw facts into actionable insights that those who do not. can:
>> Drive focus and early value. Automation allows marketers to extract relevant information from the constant deluge of digital data.>> Build measurement into the process. You can't manage what you don't measure, and automation helps develop metrics and benchmarks.>> Show results. These days, accountability is key. Automation enables deeper analytics which in turn, help demonstrate ROI.>> Collaborate and integrate. Once aggregated and analyzed, data is easier to communicate and share. This allows for the creation of marketing programs that are truly integrated.>> Innovate. Automation creates the awareness required to optimize future campaigns.
Despite this long list of benefits, however, many marketers are reluctant to embrace automation. Marketers have traditionally shied away from advanced statistics and obscure computations and have recognized that automation has its limits. For example, it is impossible to automate critical marketing fundamentals, such as positioning, content and strategy, so it's tempting to downplay contributions While marketers have a automation can make in other areas. Can automation platforms fit into an established workflow and help deliver true integration? Can they really make a wide range of automation difference while enabling marketing to thrive as creative, independent thinkers?choices today, the lack of The answer is yes. Automation provides plenty of opportunities to make marketing's integration among market- job easier. Areas where automation can help companies streamline include: ing technologies is a bar- >> Routine creative reviews and reportsrier to insight across the >> "Lights-out" conversational dialogues online>> Asset tracking and managementintegrated pipeline... >> Integrating insights from progressive and real-time profiles of consumers and buyersJonathan Block, Vice President and Service Director More marketers are moving beyond managing provisional processes, ad hoc SiriusDecisions applications and "taped-together" technologies to true Integrated Marketing processes. According to a recent Gartner report titled "Focus on Integrated (Rather Than Enterprise) Marketing Management," marketers who develop an Integrated Marketing Management strategy will deliver a 50% higher ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) by 2014 than those who do not.
"While marketers have a wide range of automation choices today, the lack of integration among marketing technologies is a barrier to insight across the integrated pipeline," explains Jonathan Block, Vice President and Service Director at SiriusDecisions. "True sales and marketing integration will blur the boundaries between systems and roles, but technology will never demonstrate sufficient ROI without a focus on skills and processes."
Collecting data from the digital fire hose isn't difficult. What's difficult is making sense of that data and building cross-functional awareness. Marketing automation applications can gather statistics about visitors, prospects, leads and opportunities, and often add input from the sales process, too. By improving access to this data and sorting out the signal from the noise, automation streamlines business processes and provides marketers with insights to improve their go-to-market campaigns.
ENHANCE SALES AND MARKETING SYNERGYResearch indicates that as many as 80% of the B2B leads passed on to Sales are dropped. In additio... [download for more]
