Companies are often challenged with applying market insights gained from tactical segmentation. But once target segments have been identified, how do you maximize segmentation within your marketing promotions strategy?

There is an ongoing debate between Sales and Marketing departments that parallels the question of the chicken versus the egg. Which department drives the activities of the other? Who wags the tail of the dog? The answer is neither. Because organizational success is contingent on the activities of both functions, it is extremely important for Marketing to build cross-functional relationships that improve collaboration with all of the internal customers Marketing supports – a subject addressed in more detail in the new DocuStar Marketing Organizational Leadership Blog Series.

While social media continues to gain headway, continuity, or drip campaigns (email, direct mail or a combination) still remain a highly effective approach for nurturing prospects towards increased engagement and interaction with your brand. When coupled with an online element, such as URLs, PURLs or QR codes, measurement tools offered through marketing resource management (MRM) systems can deliver powerful analytics to optimize the sales cycle – providing a wealth of data to improve customer segmentation and content personalization.

It is important for marketing to be both tactical and strategic. As a deadline-driven and fast-paced function, however, marketers tend to juggle multiple high priority projects at various stages in the campaign management lifecycle, and it can be challenging to make time for strategic marketing planning and innovation – especially given today’s environment of staffing and budget constraints. Tactical execution without the strategy component will render marketing initiatives less effective, but strategy cannot exist in a vacuum either. Here are five simple approaches for making time to be innovative while gaining better command over tactical functions.

Many marketing departments focus on messaging to prospects to generate sales and then halt communications once the prospect becomes a customer. However, communicating with new customers once the sale has closed is critical. This is when continued relationship-building is more important than ever in order to build loyalty and increase the potential for future sales.

Overseeing brand compliance in communications with customers and prospects can be challenging for any organization, and especially challenging when going to market with a distributed sales force or through third party dealers and distributors, but brand consistency across these channels is critical. Even details that may seem subtle, such as logo size, brand colors and the tone of any messaging communicated with your branding can dramatically impact how your organization is represented by your company’s remote brand ambassadors. With a Marketing Resource Management (MRM) system, you can streamline and automate the process of creating polished, customized brand impressions. Here’s how.

In today’s dynamic marketing environment, it is increasingly important to be able to localize and personalize your marketing messages. Lately, there’s been a lot of marketing buzz about “Big Data” as a means to deliver personalization. If it feels a little nebulous, you’re not alone. A 2011 IBM CMO study (n=1,700) found that 71% of CMO’s feel unprepared for the data explosion.
Many organizations understand the benefits of big data, but don’t have the budget for centralized platforms and advanced analytics. Even when budget is not a barrier, implementing the analysis tools for big data can be complex and lead to long implementation timelines. In the interim, harnessing your organization’s existing data (even if imperfect) with a Marketing Resource Management (MRM) system can be a cost-effective step towards successful localized marketing.

A personalized greeting on a corporate holiday card can set your business apart. That personalization can sometimes be a little tricky if you want to include messages and signatures from your remote sales staff. Many companies have a sales force in the field. It is perfect for building close relationships with your prospects and customers, but adds obstacles to a broad campaign like the corporate holiday card. This is the fifth blog in our series to help you carry out a successful corporate holiday card campaign. Whether you have individual sales representatives spread across your region or sales teams located in remote field offices, here are some ideas to help you send an effective, yet personal, holiday card.