While marketers usually look first to customer facing applications when making technology acquisitions, taking into account the entire marketing value chain--from strategic brief to a personalized communication--is the best way to look at achieving marketing ROI. Too often, investments in customer facing technology fail to account for operational burdens created upstream in the marketing process.
W H I T E P A P E R MARKETING PRODUCTIVITY REDEFINED
WHITE PAPER
NOVEMBER 2007
What Lies BeneathNo, this isn't the script for a new horror movie, but it does describe the challenge that many marketers face when trying to improve the productivity and performance of their department. While marketers usually look first to customer facing applications when making technology acquisitions, taking into account the entire marketing value chain--from strategic brief to a personalized communication--is the best way to look at achieving marketing ROI. Too often, investments in customer facing technology fail to account for operational burdens created upstream in the marketing process. The reality is that "what lies beneath" is an extremely important part of the marketing story and can make the difference between a horror movie and a sturdy foundation that underlies any successful project.At Aprimo, our approach is to take a holistic approach in how we define marketing productivity. In working with some of the world's most successful organizations, we see that the real answer to the definition of productivity has two dimensions--efficiency and customer impact.
Ef Marketing f Productivityiciency C u s t o m e r I m p a c t
Figure 1.1 Productivity is attained by optimizing impact and efficiencyOften, marketers make investments by taking into account only one dimension. For example, costs become problematic and a new set of financial controls are put in place. While marketing become more efficient (maybe), the cost is paid in terms of restricted creativity and ultimately reduced impact on customers. Likewise, an effort to implement the latest technology purported to deliver highly segmented and compelling messages to customers, may also create enormous demands upon the creative team to provide all of the new content and offers that are required to feed the new machine. Looking at the whole value chain with an eye to move to the top right of our quadrant is the way to deliver true breakthrough results to your business sponsors. This approach allows for an assessment of the cost and benefits of moving from a marketing strategy through to a closed sale or qualified lead. Creating a highly efficient process that encourages collaboration, tracks the costs of each activity, reduces waste and rush charges, enables your marketing organization to move upwards along the efficiency dimension. Crafting on-brand messages, using content proven to work with your target audience, and localizing your marketing pieces to communicate highly relevant messages pushes you to the right along the Customer Impact axis. By moving to the upper right, you will have an unprecedented opportunity to deliver great results.W H I T E P A P E R
Improving Marketing ExecutionLet's take a look at some key points in the marketing process where better execution can lead to reduced cycle time, improved cost effectiveness and ultimately a bigger impact on customer behavior.1. Improving communication - Ideally you want everyone in your organization to understand what their role is in executing a marketing campaign or activity. This starts with the distribution of the strategic brief and other materials that describe the intent, goals and objectives of the activity. This needs to include the brand marketer, marketing finance, marketing operations and members of your agencies and suppliers who increasingly serve critical roles in the execution of marketing campaigns.
And once the program is underway, ongoing communication becomes even more critical. A change in one part of the process affects all of the downstream tasks and deliverables. Therefore, the ability to manage real-time decision branching and multiple review cycles is a critical component to this process. By communicating in a real-time fashion, all affected parties can make adjustments and align themselves to the updated plan. You won't lose additional time and resources because someone failed to learn about the critical adjustments that they should have made.
Reviewers have real-time access to the right version and can annotate and cast their vote online.
2. Conquering the creative review - Creative reviews can be the great enemy of a marketing schedule. You often depend on individuals who do not share your passion to get the marketing program ready to launch. Failing to get the right signatures can expose your company t... [download for more]
