How Top Performing Channel Sellers Improve Channel Partner Marketing

Every day, thousands of companies sell their products and services through channel partners such as franchisees, independent agents, and value-added resellers. Not only are indirect channel sales a significant part of the overall economy, many companies rely on them for more than half of their total revenues.

Channel vendors face the same marketing challenges that confront all types of business enterprises, but they also face challenges that companies with centralized marketing operations don't typically encounter. For many channel vendors, the single biggest marketing challenge is that many of their partners simply don't have the time, resources, or expertise to run effective marketing programs.

To address this challenge, channel vendors have implemented a variety of marketing enablement programs. There are three types of marketing enablement programs in use today - financial incentive programs, self-service partner portals, and managed marketing services.

These three types of programs are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are complementary components of an effective marketing enablement system. As the following diagram illustrates, companies with the best-performing channel marketing operations combine all three types of programs to equip their channel partners with the tools and resources they need to run successful marketing programs.

Each type of marketing enablement program provides specific capabilities that are critical for successful channel partner marketing, but none of these programs alone provides everything that is required for a high-performing marketing enablement system.

Financial Incentive Programs

For decades, channel vendors have used financial incentive programs to boost the marketing efforts of their channel partners. These programs have historically taken one of two forms - market development funds programs and co-op marketing (advertising) funds programs.

MDF and co-op programs are an essential component of any high-performing marketing enablement system because many channel partners don't have the financial resources to market effectively. However, MDF and co-op programs are not usually sufficient to significantly boost the marketing efforts of channel partners. The primary problem is that MDF and co-op programs are missing what many channel partners need most - help with planning, designing, and executing effective marketing programs.

Self-Service Partner Portals

For the past several years, channel vendors have been implementing a relatively new genre of web-based marketing automation technologies to simplify and streamline some marketing activities for channel partners. In the marketplace, several terms are used to describe these technologies, including distributed marketing automation, local marketing automation, partner relationship management, and marketing asset management.

The primary attribute of these technologies is a secure online portal site that enables vendors to manage marketing content resources and allows channel partners to perform a variety of marketing activities. These technologies provide powerful capabilities, but it's now also clear that they are not a complete solution for channel vendors or their partners. In fact, research has shown that fewer than 25% of channel partners use the partner portals provided by their channel vendors.

The main cause of the under-utilization is lack of time and expertise. Most partner portals are self-service solutions. They make it easier for channel partners to obtain marketing materials and customize those materials, but partners must still have the time and expertise to effectively use the materials that are available through the portal.

Managed Marketing Services

To increase the frequency and boost the effectiveness of their partners' marketing activities, a growing number of channel vendors are now adding managed marketing services to their marketing enablement systems. Managed marketing services typically include pre-packaged marketing campaigns, as well as campaign execution services. With managed marketing services, channel vendors give their partners access to a "marketplace" of complete, ready-to-execute marketing programs.

Managed marketing services make it easy for channel partners to run marketing campaigns. When partners want to run a particular campaign, they simply "order" it via an intuitive interface that mimics the shopping experience provided by consumer websites like Amazon.com. Once ordered, the channel vendor (or the vendor's marketing enablement solution partner) executes the campaign, making it completely turnkey for the channel partner.

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Effective marketing enablement  is critical for driving increased revenues from indirect sales channels. Marketing enablement programs that combine financial incentives, web-based marketing technologies, and managed marketing services are the current state-of-the-art for improving the marketing efforts of sales channel partners.

Promotion Alert - An important part of my work is developing marketing content for companies that provide marketing enablement solutions to channel vendors. I have a new white paper that discusses the issues covered in this post, and it's now available for licensing. If you'd like to learn more about our content licensing program, or request a review copy of the new white paper, send an e-mail to ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.

How to Boost the Performance of Channel Marketing

Every day, thousands of companies sell products and services through independent or quasi-independent channel partners such as franchisees, independent agents, or value-added resellers. Most companies that sell through channel partners operate in a distributed marketing environment. Distributed marketing refers to a marketing model in which both a corporate brand owner and channel partners plan and execute marketing campaigns and programs. The defining attribute of a distributed marketing model is that the "local" business organizations - i.e. channel partners - have some degree of autonomy when performing marketing functions.

Many B2B companies derive a significant portion of their total revenues from sales made by channel partners, and these companies face marketing challenges that firms with "regular" marketing operations don't typically encounter.

• Brand owners and channel partners often have different marketing priorities. Corporate marketers tend to focus on building the brand, while channel partners want to run marketing programs that will generate leads and drive short-term sales.
• Maintaining consistent brand messaging and brand presentation is extremely difficult when dozens or hundreds of channel partners are executing marketing programs.
• Many channel partners are small organizations that don't have the in-house expertise to create effective marketing campaigns and/or the resources to run campaigns as frequently as they should.
• Brand owners often have little visibility regarding the effectiveness of the marketing programs run by their channel partners.

Because of these and other challenges, channel marketing operations are often far less effective and efficient than they need to be, resulting in excessive marketing costs, poor response rates to marketing programs, and missed revenue opportunities for both brand owners and their channel partners.

To address the complexities of channel marketing, a growing number of companies are turning to a relatively new category of marketing automation technologies known generally as distributed marketing solutions.

A distributed marketing solution is a combination of technological capabilities and marketing support services that are designed to streamline and simplify marketing activities and processes for both channel partners and brand owners. At the most basic level, distributed marketing solutions are designed to facilitate two core marketing functions - the creation, execution, and measurement of marketing campaigns, and the management of marketing materials.

Distributed marketing solutions can provide brand owners and channel partners a range of important benefits. Specifically, they enable companies to:

• Increase the frequency of local marketing by making it easy for channel partners to create and execute marketing campaigns and programs
• Enhance the effectiveness of local marketing by making it easy for channel partners to create and use more customized marketing messages and materials
• Improve the consistency of brand messaging and presentation through the use of a centralized repository of marketing assets combined with controlled customization of those assets
• Reduce marketing support costs by eliminating the manual processes typically used to manage and fulfill requests for marketing materials and to manage materials inventories
• Reduce obsolescence waste by eliminating the need to acquire marketing materials in large quantities.

I've recently released a white paper that describes the challenges faced by channel marketers and explains how distributed marketing solutions work. The new white paper is part of our portfolio of marketing content resources for providers of distributed marketing/marketing asset management/web-to-print solutions. If you'd like to see a review copy of this white paper, just send an e-mail to ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.

How Much is a Marketing Asset Management Solution Worth?

Pressed by senior business executives to maximize the return on marketing spend, astute marketers are aggressively seeking ways to boost the productivity of marketing operations. They now recognize that increasing the efficiency of marketing operations can be a powerful way to stretch limited marketing budgets.

In response to these demands, many marketers are turning to marketing asset management solutions to streamline and enhance the productivity of the marketing supply chain. MAM solutions can enable companies to eliminate costs, significantly reduce obsolescence waste, and expand the use of customized, more relevant marketing messages and materials. For companies with distributed marketing models, MAM solutions can also enhance the marketing efforts of sales channel partners.

Despite these powerful benefits, however, many marketing and financial executives don't have a clear picture of how valuable a marketing asset management solution would be for their company.

How Marketing Asset Management Solutions Create Value

For a business organization, the value of any product or service is ultimately based on how it affects bottom-line financial performance. The best definition of value in a B2B setting is the total monetary worth of the benefits that a company obtains by purchasing and using a product or service. Essentially, this means that a product or service can create value for a business in three basic ways. It can enable the business to reduce existing costs, avoid future costs, or increase revenues. The value of a marketing asset management solution is based on these same factors.

MAM solutions will provide two broad types of benefits for most companies. One group of benefits includes those that improve the efficiency of the marketing supply chain. These benefits create value primarily by enabling a company to reduce existing costs or avoid future costs. The second group of benefits includes those that improve the effectiveness of a company's marketing campaigns and programs. These benefits create value primarily by enabling a company to increase revenues.

To estimate the value of a marketing asset management solution for your business, you'll need to identify the benefits you'll obtain from the solution and then quantify the value of each benefit. The diagram below shows some of the marketing value chain benefits that companies typically obtain by using a marketing asset management solution.

I've just released a white paper that describes the benefits that a marketing asset management solution typically provides and explains how to measure the value of these benefits. If you'd like to obtain a copy of this resource, send an e-mail to ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.

Why Distributed Marketing Technology May Be Relevant for Your Company

My last three posts have discussed how technology can improve the productivity of distributed marketing. By the traditional definition, distributed marketing refers to a marketing model in which both a corporate marketing department and local organizations or business units share responsibility for performing marketing activities. The stereotypical example of a distributed marketing organization is a franchise network, but distributed marketing models are also frequently found in industries like insurance, financial services, and manufacturing.

In my earlier posts, I've described how distributed marketing technologies enhance the productivity of distributed marketing operations. These technologies enable corporate marketers to maintain brand consistency, while simultaneously allowing local marketers to customize materials to fit local conditions. Just as important, these technologies simplify and automate marketing processes and make it easy for relatively inexperienced marketers to develop and execute effective marketing programs.

The main point of this post is that the benefits provided by distributed marketing technologies are not limited to companies with "classic" distributed marketing organizational structures. In fact, the same technological capabilities can also improve the marketing efforts of virtually all kinds of companies. Here's why.

Its now abundantly clear that relevance is an essential component of effective marketing. To cut through the ever-increasing clutter of marketing messages that fill the environment and create meaningful engagement with potential customers, marketing messages and materials must be relevant.

The need to make marketing more relevant is the driving force behind a growing emphasis on "localized" marketing. In a recent survey by the CMO Council, 86% of marketers said they intend to look for ways to better localize marketing content. While most marketers are committed to increasing localized marketing, it is not a simple task. The reality is, it's difficult for marketers in a central marketing department to truly understand what's needed to make marketing effective in diverse local markets.

One solution, of course, is to decentralize marketing, to place the responsibility for making marketing decisions and running marketing programs with individuals who are "closer to the customer." Decentralized marketing is not a new idea, and global enterprises have been decentralizing some marketing functions for years. However, despite the obvious benefits, many companies have been reluctant to decentralize marketing for three primary reasons.

• Corporate marketers fear losing control of brand messaging and brand presentation.
• There is often a lack of marketing resources and expertise in branch locations or other local outlets.
• Decentralization can lead to duplicative or otherwise inefficient marketing processes.

These are the specific issues that distributed marketing technologies are designed to address.

The important point here is that the capabilities provided by distributed marketing technologies can enable any company to implement a more decentralized approach to marketing without sacrificing brand control or marketing process efficiency.

If your company can benefit from more relevant localized marketing (and virtually all companies can), you should carefully consider how "distributed marketing" technologies could improve your marketing efforts.

Read Part 1 of the series here.
Read Part 2 of the series here.
Read Part 3 of the series here.

How to Make Local Marketing Easier

This is the third of four posts dealing with distributed marketing. So far in this series, I've explained what distributed marketing is, described the major challenges facing distributed marketers, and discussed why technology is critical to improving the productivity of distributed marketing.

The diagram below shows that the distributed marketing automation "house" includes two core types of technological capabilities. In my last post, I discussed the marketing asset management component of distributed marketing automation. This post covers the technology tools used to streamline and automate customer engagement management activities and processes.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





One of the major challenges facing organizations that rely on distributed marketing is a lack of marketing resources and expertise at the local level. According to research by the Aberdeen Group, the lack of local marketing resources is one of the two biggest challenges for distributed marketing organizations. Because many local entities are small organizations or business units, this is compeltely understandable and probably unavoidable. One result of this lack of resources and expertise is that local partners don't market as frequently or extensively as they should to maximize revenues. 

What CEM Technologies Do

The customer engagement management technologies in distributed marketing automation solutions simplify marketing processes and empower local marketers to effectively and efficiently plan, execute, and measure the results of advertising and marketing campaigns and programs.

Customer engagement technologies build on the capabilities of marketing asset management by using customizable templates that enable local marketers to easily create advertisements and other marketing campaign materials. In general, the capabilities provided by customer engagement technologies fall into three broad categories.
 

Campaign Planning/Management

This category typically includes tools for planning and scheduling marketing campaigns and the tasks required to develop and execute those campaigns.
 

Campaign Execution

In addition to using templates to create campaign materials, most distributed marketing automation solutions enable local marketers to execute e-mail marketing campaigns either directly or through a link to an e-mail service provider. For direct mail campaigns, the solution will typically enable local marketers to upload mail lists, select recipients from the corporate database, or purchase a mailing list from a third party provider.
 

Campaign Performance Measurement

Distributed marketing automation solutions typically include tools that enable local marketers to measure the performance of their marketing programs. Some solutions provide corporate marketers access to this performance data, and some will also enable a local marketer to see the results obtained by other local marketers from particular campaigns. This capability enables "best practices" knowledge to be shared across the distributed marketing network.
 

Benefits of CEM Technologies

The cutomer engagement management technologies in distributed marketing automation solutions make it easy for local marketers to create and run marketing campaigns and programs, and they will usually reduce the cost of those programs. Therefore, these technologies encourage local marketers to run marketing programs more frequently, and increased local marketing will drive higher revenues for both the local entity and the corporate brand owner.

By supporting extensive and cost-effective customization of marketing messages and materials, CEM technologies also enable local marketers to create and run more relevant and therefore more effective marketing programs.

Finally, CEM technologies enable corporate marketers to maintain control of brand messaging and brand presentation, while simultaneously allowing local marketers to develop and run programs that fit local market conditions.

In my next post, I'll discuss why distributed marketing automation technologies can benefit organizations that aren't currently using a "classic" distributed marketing model.

Read Part 1 of the series here.
Read Part 2 of the series here.
Read Part 4 of the series here.

How Marketing Asset Management Improves Distributed Marketing

This is the second of four posts discussing how to improve distributed marketing operations. In my last post, I explained what distributed marketing is, and I described the major challenges facing distributed marketing organizations. I also made the point that you simply cannot maximize the productivity of distributed marketing without the right technology tools, and I introduced the model of distributed marketing automation depicted in the following illustration.

 

 

As this diagram shows, a distributed marketing automation solution contains two major technology toolsets - marketing asset management (MAM) and customer engagement management.

The marketing asset management component of a distributed marketing automation solution is the primary tool for managing the marketing assets and materials used in distributed marketing activities and programs. These materials will typically include marketing collateral documents, print advertisements, promotional items, and point-of-sale materials.

What MAM Technologies Do

 Marketing asset management technologies enable corporate marketers to maintain control of brand messaging and brand presentation, while simultaneously allowing local marketers to easily customize marketing materials to fit their specific needs and market conditions. MAM technologies also streamline and automate the process of procuring marketing materials.

The principal features of MAM technologies include:

• Central asset repository - A centralized repository, or library, that contains digital versions of the marketing assets used by the brand owner in distributed marketing activities and programs
• Online catalog/ordering system - A catalog of marketing materials that local marketers can access via a secure website. The MAM system will also enable local marketers to order (and, if appropriate, pay for) marketing materials.
• Customizable templates - Templates of marketing materials that identify which content elements of each item can be modified and which elements cannot be changed. For those elements that can be customized, the template will provide a set of pre-approved customization options. To customize an item, a local marketer simply selects a template and chooses the desired customization options.

How Marketing Asset Management Enhances Distributed Marketing

The marketing asset management component of a distributed marketing automation solution provides several financial and operational benefits. For example, MAM technologies will:

• Eliminate the internal costs of processing and fulfilling requests for marketing materials
• Reduce the time required to process and fulfill requests for marketing materials
• Enable corporate marketers to maintain effective control of brand messaging and brand presentation
• Simplify and automate the process of creating customized marketing materials, thus lowering customization costs. In addition, MAM technologies expand the degree of customization that can be done, thus allowing local marketers to create more relevant and compelling marketing materials.
• Reduce the use of obsolete marketing materials
• Reduce the costs of marketing materials obsolescence

Marketing asset management can drive significant improvement in the productivity of distributed marketing. But for a complete solution, you also need tools for automating the creation of marketing campaigns and programs. I'll discuss this aspect of distributed marketing automation in my next post.

Read Part 1 of the series here.
Read Part 3 of the series here.
Read Part 4 of the series here.

How to Make Distributed Marketing More Productive

Thousands of companies sell products and services through regional or local outlets. These outlets may be branch offices or company-owned retail stores, or they may be related but independent business organizations such as franchisees or independent agents. In many cases, the local organization or business unit shares responsibility for marketing with the corporate marketing department. When both corporate and local marketers make marketing decisions and perform marketing activities, we call this distributed marketing.

This is the first of four posts about distributed marketing. In this post, I'll describe some of the major challenges facing distributed marketing organizations, and I'll introduce a model that describes the components of an automated distributed marketing system. In the next two posts, I'll describe how the right technology tools can make distributed marketing more productive. The final post will discuss why distributed marketing concepts have become important for organizations that don't use a classic distributed marketing model.

Distributed Marketing Challenges

Organizations that use distributed marketing face the same marketing challenges as everyone else. They must manage communications across a growing number of marketing channels, create and deliver more relevant marketing messages and materials, and improve marketing productivity to maximize the return produced by every dollar invested in marketing.

These challenges are formidable enough on their own, but companies with a distributed marketing model also face challenges that organizations with centralized marketing operations don't typically encounter. In a recent study by the Aberdeen Group, survey participants were asked to identify their top two distributed marketing challenges. By a large margin the top two challenges were:

• Maintaining the consistency of our brand (56% of respondents)
• Lack of marketing expertise at the local level (48% of respondents)

Because of these and other challenges, distributed marketing operations are often less effective and efficient than they need to be.

A Model for Distributed Marketing Automation

The good news is, technologies now exist that can enable companies to improve both the effectiveness and the efficiency of distributed marketing operations. As a practical matter, you simply can't maximize the productivity of distributed marketing without the right technology tools.

In the marketplace, these technologies can be called marketing asset management, distributed marketing automation, or local marketing automation. We'll refer to these technologies generically as distributed marketing solutions.

Distributed marketing solutions enable companies to:

• Streamline and automate the creation, procurement, customization, and distribution of marketing materials, including marketing collateral documents, promotional items, and point-of-sale materials
• Streamline and automate the creation, customization and execution of advertising and marketing programs by local marketers

To enable corporate and local marketers to achieve these objectives, distributed marketing solutions provide a range of functions and capabilities. The "house" diagram below depicts the major components of a distributed marketing solution.

 

 

As this diagram shows, a distributed marketing solution is built on a foundation that includes a sound distributed marketing strategy and a solid technology infrastructure. Distributed marketing solutions also contain two critical technology toolsets - marketing asset management and customer engagement management.

 

In my next post, I'll discuss the role of marketing asset management in a distributed marketing solution.



 

Read Part 2 of the series here.

Read Part 3 of the series here.

Read part 4 of the series here.

Should All Marketing Become "Distributed" Marketing?

Distributed marketing refers to a marketing model in which both a corporate marketing department and local business units or channel partners make marketing decisions and perform marketing activities. A distributed marketing model will often exist when a company sells its products or services through a network of regional or local outlets. Distributed marketing models can exist in virtually all kinds of companies, they almost always exist in franchised businesses, and they are frequently found in industries like insurance, financial services and manufacturing.

The defining characteristic of a distributed marketing model is that the local business units or channel partners have some degree of autonomy from the corporate marketing department when performing marketing functions.

Companies with a distributed marketing model have traditionally faced challenges that organizations with centralized marketing don't typically encounter.

• Corporate and local marketers have different priorities. Corporate marketers focus on maintaining consistent brand messaging and presentation, while local marketers want marketing programs that will drive sales for their location or business.
• Local marketing partners often lack the resources to run effective marketing programs on a consistent, frequent basis.
• Companies often lack the ability to measure the performance of local marketing programs.

The good news is that technologies now exist that will enable companies to address these challenges and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of distributed marketing operations. Most significantly, these technologies enable corporate marketers to maintain control of brand messaging and brand presentation, while making it easy for local marketers to create and use marketing messages and materials that are customized for their specific needs and markets. (Note:  If you'd like to learn more about distributed marketing automation, contact me via e-mail at ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com to request a copy of our new white paper, How the Right Technology Will Supercharge Distributed Marketing.)

Not only will these technologies optimize distributed marketing operations, they can also create new possibilities for companies that don't currently use a distributed marketing model.

Marketers now recognize that "localizing" marketing content has become critical for marketing success. In a recent survey by the CMO Council, 86% of marketers said they intend to look for ways to better localize marketing content. When asked to identify the major obstacles to effective localization, 30% of survey respondents said understanding local market dynamics and variables, 23% cited measuring campaign effectiveness on a local level, and 22% said finding knowledgeable local market resources and experts.

The reality is, it's difficult for marketers in a central marketing department to truly understand what's needed to make marketing effective in diverse local markets. One solution is to decentralize marketing, to implement something closer to a distributed marketing model. Many companies have not taken this approach because corporate marketers fear losing control of brand messaging and brand presentation and because of the other challenges traditionally associated with distributed marketing. Now, the right technology tools can effectively address these concerns.

A more collaborative relationship between corporate and local marketers will enable companies to leverage both corporate marketing expertise and local market knowledge and insights. Distributed marketing technologies can make this kind of decentralized and collaborative marketing model a realistic and practical alternative for many companies.

It's Time to Fix the Marketing Supply Chain

Improving the productivity of the marketing supply chain probably won't be near the top of most marketers' list of new year's resolutions for 2012. Marketers are facing extraordinary pressures to drive increased revenues and maximize the return produced by every dollar invested in marketing. So, it's understandable that they focus most of their attention on developing more effective marketing campaigns, creating more compelling content, and generating more qualified sales leads, rather than on "mundane" issues like the production and distribution of marketing consumables.

In reality, however, the marketing materials supply chain represents a large, and largely untapped, source of both cost savings and revenue-enhancing improvements. The marketing supply chain in most companies is highly fragmented and filled with manual, inefficient processes that result in excessive costs and a lack of both responsiveness and reliability. If not completely broken, the average marketing supply chain is dysfunctional and in serious need of repair.

Research by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and Forrester Consulting (part of Forrester Research) shows both the economic significance of the marketing materials supply chain and the opportunities for improvement.

• A majority of companies spend at least 20% of their marketing budget on marketing consumables, and almost a third of companies devote at least 30% of their marketing budget to such materials. (CMO Council)
• Four out of five companies distribute marketing collateral documents and similar materials to salespeople and other sales channel participants, and a majority of companies distribute such materials on at least a weekly basis. (22% distribute on at least a daily basis) (Forrester Research)
• Just 25% of marketers have performed a comprehensive analysis of the costs and process efficiencies in their marketing materials supply chain, and only 11% have implemented new workflow systems to reduce costs and inefficiencies. (CMO Council)
• Fifty-nine percent of salespeople and other sales channel participants still rely on e-mail to request marketing materials, and nearly half (47%) still rely on telephone requests. (CMO Council)
• Sixty-five percent of salespeople say they over-order and stockpile marketing materials because it takes too long to receive ordered materials. (CMO Council)
• Only 17% of companies are using eStores or sales portals to support their marketing fulfillment process. (Forrester Consulting)

The good news is that companies no longer need to tolerate an ineffective and inefficient marketing supply chain. Marketing asset management technologies, combined with on-demand manufacturing capabilities and state-of-the-art warehousing, inventory management, and fulfillment services, can eliminate waste from the marketing supply chain, while simultaneously improving responsiveness and reliability.

To determine how much your company would benefit from an improved marketing supply chain, you need to perform a comprehensive audit that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of your current supply chain. Such an analysis will also enable you to quantify the cost savings and other benefits that an optimized supply chain would provide. You'll probably be surprised by the results. Even in relatively small companies, we've seen benefit values that reach well into six figures.

We've developed a process for quantifying the major cost savings that a "marketing asset management solution" will produce. This doesn't take the place of a comprehensive supply chain audit, but it is a good way to begin your evaluation. If you'd like to see a sample version of our cost savings calculator, send an e-mail to ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.

How to Choose the Right Marketing Asset Management Solution

Implementing a marketing asset management solution is a big step for most companies.  Not only does it represent a significant financial investment, it also requires you to change the processes you use to acquire, manage, and distribute marketing materials.  In some cases, it can change how you execute direct marketing campaigns and programs.

To select the right MAM solution, you need to determine what capabilities and functionality you need and then make sure you ask prospective solution providers the right questions.

There are four key issues that all companies should address when evaluating potential MAM solutions.

Solution Use and Scope - How will the MAM solution be used?  Put another way, what kinds of materials will be included in, and managed through, the MAM solution?  How you answer this basic question will determine how many and what kinds of individuals need access to the solution, and it will greatly influence what functional capabilities you need in your solution.  The obvious answer here is marketing materials (marketing collateral documents, promotional items, point-of-sale materials, etc.).  When you're evaluating potential MAM solutions, however, consider what other kinds of materials your solution could be used to manage.  Some examples would include:

• Direct marketing campaign materials
• Sales support materials (presentations, proposal templates, etc.)
• Administrative/technical/human resources documents
• General business supplies

Solution Reliability and Responsiveness - How reliable and responsive must the MAM solution be to meet your needs, and will prospective solution providers offer appropriate service level guarantees?  For most companies, the two most important performance attributes of a marketing asset management solution are system uptime and order turnaround time.  These attributes are critical because the success of your MAM deployment ultimately depends on the willingness of your users to rely on the MAM solution for their needs.  If your users know that the solution will be available when they need it and that the materials they order will be delivered quickly, they will be more likely to use the solution consistently.

Incorporation of Business Rules - Can the MAM solution be customized to incorporate and enforce your business rules and control mechanisms relating to the acquisition and use of marketing materials?  A capable solution provider should be able to customize the MAM solution to incorporate the control mechanisms you need, but this issue should be addressed early in your evaluation process.

Reporting Capabilities - Does the MAM solution provide all of the reporting capabilities that your company needs?

Of course, your evaluation process should not be limited to these four issues.  Your company's particular characteristics and needs will point to other issues that you should address when selecting a marketing asset management solution.

To help jumpstart your evaluation process, we've just published a white paper that contains twenty-three critical questions you need to ask when choosing a marketing asset management solution.  If you'd like to review a copy of our new white paper, send an e-mail to ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.

Is a Marketing Asset Management Solution Right for Your Business?

Prompted by growing demands from the corner office, marketers in all kinds of companies are seeking innovative ways to improve marketing productivity.  Today, a growing number of companies are turning to marketing asset management solutions to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing function.

A comprehensive marketing asset management solution combines technology tools, manufacturing capabilities, and fulfillment services to automate and streamline many of the processes relating to the acquisition, management, and distribution of marketing materials.  MAM solutions can also provide a powerful platform for creating and executing direct marketing campaigns and programs.

In the right situations, MAM solutions can produce significant and valuable benefits.  For example, they can enable companies to:

• Eliminate the internal costs of processing and fulfilling requests for marketing materials
• Eliminate the costs of storing marketing materials and free up valuable building space for other uses
• Reduce the time required to process and fulfill requests for marketing materials
• Greatly reduce the waste (and cost) of marketing materials obsolescence
• Reduce the use of obsolete marketing materials by salespeople, channel partners, etc.
• Simplify and automate the process of creating and producing customized (and therefore more relevant and effective) marketing materials
• Simplify and automate the work required to create and execute customized marketing campaigns and programs in distributed marketing environments

You may be asking:  "All this sounds great, but how can I determine if a marketing asset management solution would be a good investment for my business?"

The final determination should be based on a thorough examination of your company's marketing needs and the characteristics of your existing marketing supply/distribution chain.  This examination will allow the benefits of a marketing asset management solution to be estimated and quantified based on your unique circumstances.

We've developed a self-assessment tool that's designed to help you begin the process of deciding whether a marketing asset management solution would make sense for your business.  This short questionnaire/scorecard is not intended to be comprehensive, and it doesn't answer all of the important questions.  The objective is to provide a preliminary indication about whether a marketing asset management solution would be a good investment for your company.

If you'd like a copy of our self-assessment questionnaire, send an e-mail to ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.

How Marketing Asset Management Improves Marketing Results

A growing number of companies are implementing marketing asset management solutions to improve marketing productivity.  MAM solutions combine technology tools, manufacturing capabilities, and services to streamline many of the processes relating to the procurement, management, and distribution of marketing materials.  They can also provide a powerful platform for creating and executing advertising and marketing programs, particularly direct mail and e-mail marketing campaigns.

Most discussions about marketing asset management solutions focus on how they can reduce costs and improve the efficiency of the marketing supply chain.  However, MAM solutions can also improve the effectiveness of marketing activities and programs in three major ways.

Less Use of Obsolete Materials

The obsolescence of marketing materials is a big problem for many companies.  In a recent survey by the CMO Council, 40% of respondents said they waste 20% or more of their marketing materials because of obsolescence.

The direct financial costs of obsolescence waste are bad enough, but the consequences of using obsolete marketing materials can be even worse.  In a highly competitive business environment, sales can easily be lost if prospects are provided outdated information.  And unfortunately, the use of obsolete materials is all too common.  In the CMO Council survey, 51% of marketers admitted they had sent materials to customers or prospects that contained outdated content.

Marketing asset management solutions reduce the use of obsolete materials by combining "virtual warehousing," on-demand manufacturing, and rapid fulfillment to eliminate the underlying causes of obsolescence.  With a marketing asset management solution, materials are stored in digital form so they can be easily and quickly updated, and MAM solution providers manufacture most materials on an as-ordered basis, so there is no need to maintain inventories that can become obsolete.

More Relevant Marketing Materials

Marketing asset management solutions also improve marketing effectiveness by enabling the creation and use of more relevant marketing materials.  Marketers have long known that customizing materials for specific audiences will make them more relevant and effective.  Unfortunately, however, using customized materials has usually forced marketers to choose between losing control of the brand and incurring excessive costs.

MAM solutions make customization easy and cost effective while simultaneously enabling corporate marketers to keep control of brand messaging and brand presentation.  The key to this controlled customization is user-friendly templates that identify what components of a marketing item can be customized and provide a set of pre-approved customization options.

Simplified Distributed Marketing

The third way that MAM solutions boost marketing results is by making it easy to create and execute effective marketing campaigns and programs in distributed marketing environments.

Distributed marketing  refers to a marketing model in which both a central marketing department and "local entities" perform marketing activities.  The defining characteristic of a distributed marketing model is that the local marketing entities have some degree of autonomy from the "home office."  When the local entities are franchisees, resellers, or other independent channel partners, they may have complete marketing independence.  A big challenge, therefore, is to persuade channel partners to market as aggressively as they should.

MAM solutions boost results in distributed marketing organizations by enabling local marketing partners to customize marketing programs to fit their specific needs and by making it simple for local marketing partners to create and execute those programs.

I've just published a white paper that describes these benefits in more detail.  If you'd like to review this paper, send me an e-mail at ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.