As consumers have embraced social media in the Digital Age, they are conducting more research online than ever before.The digital environment is rapidly evolving, and navigating it requires the insight and collaboration of multiple departments.

According to iMedia Connection, it is estimated that manufacturers invest $50 to $520 billion dollars in co-op marketing programs annually. In comparison to the estimated total U.S. advertising spend this year of $153 billion, reports iMedia, that translates to a lot of money available for co-op programs, but much of this funding is “left on the table.” According to the article:

Marketing personalization touches everything from the digital media we consume such as our Netflix queues and viewing histories to the transactional business relationships we maintain with financial institutions and cell phone carriers. The level of personalization that can be delivered in marketing communications depends on what you know about your customers and prospects. As marketers in the era of big data, however, it’s critical that we differentiate between personalization that builds consumer trust and the kind that erodes it – all while showing respect for our targets. Here are some guidelines.

Last week, we shared 7 signs that could mean your marketing technology vendor isn’t measuring up. If you’re facing any of those challenges you may have decided it’s time to roll up your sleeves and change marketing resource management technology vendors. Here are some guidelines to help ensure a successful transition.

In our previous blog, The #1 Reason Marketing Technology Implementations Fail, we discussed how marketing service providers can stand in the gap between your marketing technology solution and your biggest challenge – finding time and resources to manage the solution you deployed. However, if your marketing technology vendor isn’t able to go the extra mile in the trenches to help you realize the full benefits of your marketing technology solution, then it may be time to change vendors. Here are 7 warning signs that something is amiss.

Just like a new political candidate on the campaign trail, marketing technology solutions make many promises and often don’t deliver. We want to believe in what the solution promises, but the reality is that the solution cannot be decoupled from its environment. If your marketing organization is already stretched thin, marketing technology alone won’t fix that, and you need to understand in advance all of the components required to manage a successful end-to-end marketing technology implementation. Here are some guidelines to help you make your marketing technology fly.

The insurance vertical faces several industry-specific challenges such as long sales cycles as consumers use the Internet to evaluate multiple vendors during pre-purchase, customers typically only buying one or two products from the total portfolio, and agent turnover. Marketing technology systems can help to combat these challenges by simplifying the process of coordinating insurance marketing initiatives with dedicated or independent agents.

With more consumers conducting pre-purchase research online, lead nurturing remains an important strategy in maintaining prospect interest during the early stages of the consumer decision journey, while content has gained momentum as an important sales support resource. This new environment creates a new model of collaboration between Sales and Marketing.

Just as in the Olympic Games, marketing technology implementations don’t always go as planned. A spectacular dive might be ruined by a big splash on entry, or a rough landing on a triple axis might compromise an otherwise perfect performance. Likewise, marketing technology solutions that seem great at first don’t always deliver. Your ROI could be negated if you end up growing your staff to support the technology or spend more than expected in incremental support costs. Whether searching for a marketing technology solution for the first time or looking to replace a solution that has fallen short, here is a checklist of considerations you need to address up front to avoid marketing technology pitfalls.

In part one of this series, we discussed how marketing resource management systems can be used to enable Sales to demonstrate thought leadership and help nurture leads through to close. In part two, we discuss strategies for getting your distributed sales channels engaged in using marketing technology systems to their full potential.