Running an enterprise marketing campaign is no simple task. These days, marketing management is more complex than ever before, as organizations look for ways to productively manage work and sort through the dizzying assortment of channels and technologies that today’s digital marketers must face.
Modern marketers are faced with several critical challenges. They must pull actionable insights from an ocean of research data, create messages with a personal feel for widely diverse audiences and manage wide-ranging campaigns and projects to ensure quality and consistency throughout.
Even with a fully-staffed department and an unlimited budget (not that such things really exist), these challenges would be impossible to meet without advanced marketing management tools. Today’s marketing agencies and in-house organizations alike typically rely on a suite of high-performing apps and services to help them track and organize their ever-expanding lists of deliverables.
Here’s a quick look at the most significant (and essential) marketing tools available today.
Research Tools
Research data is the raw material from which enterprise marketers develop their strategies and campaigns. Once difficult to come by, consumer data is now so abundant that the challenge lies in sifting through the endless stream of numbers to find the facts and statistics that truly matter. Research and reporting tools, not surprisingly, are among the most important of all marketing management tools. These tools analyze everything from web traffic to how often products are mentioned in online forums, helping marketers find opportunities and allocate their internal resources for maximum effect.
A/B Testing Tools
Before an organization invests thousands (or millions) of dollars on media buys and ad placement, it wants to be sure that it is moving forward with its most effective copy and graphics. For years, A/B testing has been the preferred method for comparing website content, layouts and other elements of marketing campaigns. While this was once a labor-intensive process, modern testing tools can streamline the process and deliver high-quality, real-time insights on what is working and what isn’t.
Presentation and Infographic Tools
Most marketing managers are not experts in graphic design—that’s why they hire agencies to provide them with branding, visual content, ads and other materials to connect with consumers. However, marketing teams are often called to create presentations or graphics on their own, usually when there’s an immediate and unexpected need. Standard presentation software can be used to create basic images and decks, but they can be difficult to use and are limited in capability. Most enterprise marketing teams use additional presentation and infographic development tools that help even beginners create high-quality, compelling material on the fly.
Marketing Project Management Tools
Running a multi-faceted marketing campaign involves tracking dozens of deadlines and monitoring the productivity of in-house staff, contractors, vendors and other external parties. Luckily, managers can use cloud-based tools like Planview AdaptiveWork to take the confusion out of marketing project management. With intuitive communication and reporting and collaboration tools, a good project management solution will help any marketing team focus on the task at hand.
Want to learn more about today’s most effective marketing management solutions? Check out the many benefits of Planview AdaptiveWork’s suite of project management solutions.
