Keeping up with market trends while driving customer interest is a challenge for many marketing teams. For small businesses and multinational corporations alike, maintaining an agile marketing strategy can seem like a daunting task.
Having a smart and reliable marketing platform can make all the difference.
A marketing platform combines tools with technology capabilities to better analyze and manage daily marketing activities. Modern tools utilize technology to forecast, analyze performance for campaigns, help strategize and to make more informed decisions.
But the sheer number of platforms available can make selecting a rather difficult choice - so here’s what you should look for in a marketing platform:
Automation Tools
Business automation tools are making it easier than ever to streamline processes and improve productivity, which can be immensely useful in marketing. While the term “automation” likely brings to mind rows of robotic arms on an assembly line, automation is just as prevalent and useful in handling digital tasks, through robotic process automation (RPA) tools. These digital “bots” are ideal for handling repetitive, rules-based tasks - from simple things like retrieving data from a database to more complex tasks like analyzing customer data or automatically initiating a customer retention campaign.
A marketing platform that integrates these types of automation options is great for lean teams, and can help you implement an agile strategy with fewer resources. By automating high-volume, time-intensive tasks, you can not only get them accomplished more quickly and accurately, but also free up your staff to focus on higher-value creative tasks.
Omni-Channel Campaign Management
There are more ways to reach audiences than ever before, and modern marketing strategies need to take advantage of all of them in the most effective ways possible. While every platform may require unique messaging or cadence, the best marketing campaigns are able to span across multiple media to create a cohesive and recognizable experience, with each touchpoint reinforcing the others.
A quality marketing platform will allow you to manage broad, multimedia campaigns from one centralized hub. From email and SMS messages, to landing pages and social media content, to old school print and direct mail materials, everything should be accounted for under one platform. Look for an option that incorporates not only omni-channel delivery, but response options, and that provides performance reporting to help you identify what’s working and what needs to be adjusted.
A single sign-on gives you access to list and template management, materials management, omni-channel delivery options, manual and automated response tools, and campaign spend and performance reporting.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Your company's relationships and interactions with customers are crucial, and a CRM gives you greater flexibility and control over these interactions, while also enabling you to extract insights that can help you continually improve your services. This can make for an invaluable piece of your overall marketing strategy, helping you identify key drivers of customer behavior and tailor messaging to the highest-value needs. The system helps companies maintain steady and defined connection with customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability in the long run.
This can be as simple as setting up email sequences to reach out to your customers at defined days and time. This improves your customers' experience with your brand while giving you more time to focus on other tasks. With many marketing solutions and marketing platforms, CRM is usually included.
Cost, Plans, and Ease of Use
The next important factor is considering how user-friendly the platform is to use and navigate through. The platforms mostly offer free trials so users can go through and understand the abilities and if it is the right fit. You should consider the features, limitations of the platforms, ease of use, and reporting and analytics aspects.
Beyond this, you should also consider customer service. In the long run, you don't want to be stuck with a company that doesn't work quickly to resolve your issues.
A marketing platform is a solution that supports various functions within the realm of marketing, giving you a bird-eye view and greater control of every aspect. Exela’s Marketing Automation Solution gives you the ability to better manage your digital front and have greater control, while growing your customer base and business.
