How To Select the Best Distributed Marketing Software for Your Company

When handling enterprise-level marketing, maintaining consistent brand standards can be a struggle. Individual entities might create their own branding strategy, which could conflict with the efforts of the larger company. To prevent this from happening, marketers harness the power of technology. The key is finding the best distributed marketing software that meets the needs of all users.

What Is Distributed Marketing Software?

Distributed marketing management software facilitates collaboration across disciplines and locations. It strikes a balance between maintaining one, cohesive brand and allowing for the customization of marketing elements. These customizations could result from variations in the following factors:

• Location
• Language
• Local culture
• Local offerings

Distributed marketing software is most suitable for enterprise-level marketers handling 50 or more distributed end-users. Its ability to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration fuels growth for these organizations.

Why Do Companies Need Distributed Marketing Software?

Branding plays an essential role in building a business, but what happens when a business is composed of several parts? Common examples include franchises and companies with several different product lines. Here’s how using distributed marketing software can help.

1. Communication

Clear and effective communication can go a long way toward reducing inefficiencies and eliminating confusion. The best software accomplishes this by empowering brand managers in the distributed network to create, store, personalize and measure marketing strategies.

2. Efficiency

Coordinating marketing efforts at the enterprise level can quickly become inefficient, time-consuming and confusing. With so many moving parts to keep track of, organizations need distributed marketing software to streamline the process.

3. Localization

In the 1990s, McDonald’s brought its hamburgers to India. Cows are sacred in Indian culture, so localization efforts ranged from chicken versions of beef burgers to entirely vegetarian locations. Distributed marketing software makes it possible to create localized ads for businesses in similar situations while still preserving the parent company’s cohesive branding.

What Should Managers Look for in a Distributed Marketing Software?

When your business can lean on resources that go above and beyond, the value of it becomes priceless. Consequently, before you start looking for new software, take some time to determine what your business goals are and the specific software features that help facilitate them. Then, consider the following.

1. Reliability

Find a company that has been in the business for awhile. Due to their seniority, not only will the software be polished but so will their experience in how they consult with their clients. The longer they’ve been around, the more use-cases they’ve seen. After discovering your goals for implementing a DAM solution, a reliable company can easily provide you with solutions and suggestions on how you want to use your DAM within your organization. If you try several DAM companies at once, be sure to keep written notes so you can keep track of which ones had specific features that you found valuable to achieving your DAM goals

2. Global Integration

Not all distributed marketing software has the capabilities to handle assets across locations. Ensure you have one that does. Even if you don’t currently need this functionality, choosing a software provider that offers it ensures agility and flexibility for your business.

3. Multi-Channel Capabilities

Most distributed marketing software options focus on handling print media and emails. Ten years ago, this might have been enough. Modern businesses require greater capabilities. Ensure the software you choose can also handle social media and other forms of digital mediums.

4. Customizability

You have worked hard to create a business that diverges from the cookie-cutter formula your competitors have created. Choose a distributed marketing platform that allows you to make customizations that help it to better meet your needs.

5. Hands-On Assistance

Most software developers offer the basic resources your workers need to figure out how to use the system. In some cases, it may be enough, but wouldn’t your business benefit from a more hands-on, long-term relationship approach to implementation? Being able to reach out directly to the company makes it easier to shorten the learning curve and tackle problems that arise.

How Can Managers Incorporate a Distributed Marketing Platform Into the Business?

Obtaining all the benefits is also heavily dependent on how well you incorporate the distributed platform into marketing and operations. The specific process will depend on the software you choose and the features it provides. Even so, these general tips can assist with any platform choice:

• Determine ahead of time the many different tasks that can be simplified with the platform and restructure those job tasks to include the software.
• Track new software capabilities and make changes to work processes as the need arises.
• Train brand managers and all marketing professionals to ensure familiarity with the product.

At Marcom, we specialize in distributed marketing software. We would be happy to show you how our approach to Distributed Marketing can streamline your workflows and achieve your company goals. Request a Personalized Demo with our team today.