Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Making Localized Marketing Easy and Affordable

In my last post, I briefly described how marketing asset management solutions work.  These solutions automate many of the processes relating to the procurement, production, management, and distribution of marketing materials such as marketing collateral documents, promotional items, and point-of-sale materials.

Marketing asset management solutions can dramatically reduce the indirect costs associated with marketing materials, but they can provide many other benefits as well.  One of these benefits is to make localized marketing easy and affordable.

Marketers have long recognized that customizing marketing materials for specific audiences will increase relevancy and improve the effectiveness of those materials.  One proven application of this tactic is known as localized marketing.  Localized marketing is just what it sounds like - the practice of customizing marketing materials for local audiences.  In can be as simple as adding local contact information to otherwise standard marketing collateral materials or as complex as creating an entire promotional program (direct mailers, print ads, point-of-sale materials, etc.) that is customized for a specific geographic market or buyer segment.

Unfortunately, localized marketing has traditionally been cumbersome, time-consuming, and costly.  Marketers who wanted to reap the benefits of localized marketing were usually forced to make an unattractive trade-off between keeping control of the brand and excessive costs.

Marketing asset management solutions can eliminate the barriers to localized marketing.  By using customizable templates for marketing materials, MAM solutions enable corporate marketers to retain control of brand messaging and brand presentation, while simultaneously enabling front-line marketers (salespeople, local store/branch managers, dealers, franchisees, etc.) to customize marketing materials to fit their marketing needs.

Would a marketing asset management solution make sense for your company?  To find out, read our white paper titled, Is a Marketing Asset Management Solution Right for My Company?  Request your copy by sending an e-mail to ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.

2 comments:

  1. Nice article on the explanation of why a good MAM system is important - especially for decentralized marketing decisions.

    Its important to note that although there are many systems that catalog assets for local-level customization, true engagement and adoption in getting the channel to use these platforms is through the marketing automation behind the engine. The less work required from the local-level user, the more successful it will be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jared,

    Thanks for your comment! I agree wholeheartedly that ease of use is a critical attribute of a good marketing asset management solution.

    ReplyDelete