HOW TO LOWER YOUR OPERATING COSTS WITH A CLOUD MARKETING PLATFORM SOLUTION

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1 HOW TO LOWER YOUR OPERATING COSTS WITH A CLOUD MARKETING PLATFORM SOLUTION CLOUD MARKETING FORUM RAINMAKER WHITEPAPER SERIES BENEFIT #3: LOWER OPERATING COSTS

2 The Idea in Brief A Cloud Marketing Platform minimizes the time spent on disjointed communications and manual processes of pushing out product, marketing and promotional content via a web-enabled solution. Cloud Marketing Platform solutions provide print-on-demand capability combined with digital asset management which significantly lowers graphic design, print production, shipping and warehousing costs. Keep reading to learn How to better manage marketing consumables and promotional materials How to better manage and control go-to-market effectiveness How to reduce the obsolescence of marketing collateral and other marketing consumables How to give flexibility to sales reps to customize or personalize marketing support materials at the field level while still controlling brand and message Over one-third of all printed materials never reach their intended target. The Problem: Collateral Obsolescence and Waste Recent research from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council illustrates the problem: The shelf life of marketing consumables and promotional materials has never been shorter or more challenging to manage. Marketers are spending billions of dollars producing, warehousing and shipping marketing literature, packaging, documentation, point-of-sale displays, premiums, giveaways, signage and hand outs for all channels of market contact and engagement. How well this portion of Marketing Operations is managed and controlled can materially impact go-to-market effectiveness, as well as the optimal use of marketing dollars in creating business value and competitive advantage. 1 Because of the economics of traditional print production methods, companies tend to purchase marketing collateral documents in large quantities, which increase the likelihood that documents will become obsolete before they can be used. Among companies that track the obsolescence of marketing collateral documents and other marketing consumables, the average rate of obsolescence was 35 percent. 2 Dynamic Marketing Systems, All rights reserved. 2

3 In short, over one-third of all printed materials never reach their intended target. Or worse, out-of-date or inaccurate marketing materials are sent out to customers and prospects. And there is little flexibility in terms of sales reps being able to customize or personalize marketing support materials at the field level. The Solution: Optimize Your Marketing Supply Chain B2B marketers have begun to focus on optimizing their marketing supply chain. Marketing supply chain is the term used to describe all of the activities and processes that are required to support the marketing function. So, for example, coordinating the work of external marketing services firms such advertising agencies, and managing the procurement, production, and distribution of marketing collateral materials all become subject to a supply chain audit. Marketers have recognized that improving the efficiency of their marketing supply chain can be a powerful way to lower operating costs. The equation is relatively simple. The dollars saved by increasing the efficiency of the marketing supply chain can be redirected to campaigns and programs that generate increased revenues. The potential for cost savings becomes even clearer when we consider the number of people and firms that request marketing collateral documents and the number of unique collateral documents that companies use. A B2B company may have dozens of outside sales reps and hundreds of channel partners dealers, wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers representatives, and/or retailers all of whom make frequent requests for collateral documents. In addition, a B2B company may use dozens of marketing collateral documents. When you consider the number of documents that can be involved and the number of people who need those documents, it s easy to see that a company could be processing and fulfilling thousands of requests for marketing collateral documents every year. 3 How to Do It One of the easiest ways to optimize your marketing supply chain and improve your Return on Communication Investment (ROCI) is the implementation of a Cloud Marketing Platform. Here is an example of how a Cloud Marketing Platform works to lower operating costs and to streamline communications within your marketing supply chain: Dynamic Marketing Systems, All rights reserved. 3

4 Is It Worth the Investment? If you want to really evaluate whether or not a Cloud Marketing Platform is right for your company, here are some suggested steps: First, you identify and describe all of the processes that are involved with the creation, procurement, management, and distribution of marketing materials, and then you assign costs and other performance measures to those processes. When performing a supply chain analysis, it is often helpful to prepare flowcharts or maps of significant processes in order to make them more visible and understandable, but the real heart of the analysis is simply gathering the right information. The second major step in estimating the value of a marketing asset management solution for your business is to determine how the solution will affect your existing supply chain processes. Which of your existing processes can be completely eliminated? Which processes will be changed? How will these changes to your supply chain processes impact your costs and revenues? For example, virtually all solutions will enable you to eliminate the internal activities associated with processing and fulfilling requests for marketing materials from salespeople and/or sales channel partners. If you are currently spending $50,000 per year performing those activities, that $50,000 cost savings becomes one element of the value of an automated solution. ROI Analysis: Don t overlook the internal component of what it costs to manage your current processes. The total amount of the cost savings and/or revenue increases that you identify sets the upper limit of the value of an automated solution for your business. With the value of the benefits measured and quantified, you can easily determine the estimated return on investment that will be produced by a prospective Cloud Marketing Platform solution. 4 Dynamic Marketing Systems, All rights reserved. 4

5 Summary Cloud Marketing Platforms can help companies significantly reduce their operating costs by optimizing their marketing supply chain. This virtually eliminates collateral obsolesce and waste, reduces their carbon footprint and increases their efficiencies. Cost savings from process improvement can be used to stretch their marketing budget and increase marketing ROI. For More Information For more information or a demo of our Stratus Cloud Marketing Platform, please go to or us at rainmakers@dymasys.com if you re ready to Lift Your Marketing Support into the Clouds. Notes 1. Mapping + Tracking: The Optimized Marketing Supply Chain (CMO Council, 2010). 2. Define Where to Streamline (CMO Council, 2009). 3. Is a Marketing Collateral Management System Right for My Company (Point Balance, 2010). 4. How Much Is A Cloud Marketing Platform Worth to My Company? (Dynamic Marketing Systems, 2011). Dynamic Marketing Systems, All rights reserved. 5