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We’ve looked previously at the numerous benefits of on-demand marketing software – solutions that growing numbers of Marketing teams are using to improve their collateral production processes.

Delivering improved compliance, consistency, efficiency and speed of production, it’s not surprising that martech has a growing fan base among time-pressed Marketers.

But once you’ve made the decision to invest, what do you need to consider? What key factors should you think about when choosing a martech solution?

How to select the best martech solution for your business

If you’ve decided to make the move to a martech solution, to improve the efficiency and robustness of your collateral production, how do you ensure you’re choosing the best option for your needs? We’ve compiled four key questions to ask when weighing up solutions and suppliers.

1. What do you need your martech to do?

Some martech solutions offer nimble artwork creation. Others are designed to protect your brand identity. Others major on templated solutions, giving simple options for designing your core collateral. If you’re very lucky, you will find one that can do all three with ease.

Think about your objectives – what are you looking for in your martech? Is one area more important to you than another; would you forego user-friendly artwork creation in favour of a more template-oriented solution?

You might be looking for faster artwork creation, improved regulatory compliance or better collaboration between your teams or offices. Marketing automation can deliver all of these, and more – but not all solutions will be able to provide everything you’re looking for. Having a clear idea of your priorities can make the selection process much easier.

2. Who will be using it?

Think about the skillset of those you want to make use of the solution. Are they all design experts? Often, one of the reasons firms want to introduce marketing automation and template solutions for collateral is that people are going ‘off-piste’ and designing their own materials – usually with off-brand or non-compliant results.

If this is one of the impetuses for investing in martech, it needs to be part of your decision process. You want to avoid a complex or unintuitive solution – what you buy needs to be user-friendly. How straightforward is it to find templates and existing documents?

Your solution needs to allow anyone – not just your brand or artwork specialists – to access, update and create marcomms materials if it’s to deliver real benefits to your business.

3. Do its advantages extend beyond the Marketing team?

Chances are, you’ll need to ‘sell in’ the idea of investment in a martech solution to your board or exec. If you can identify and shortlist a solution whose benefits go beyond improving your own team’s efficiency, you’ll be far more likely to secure the budget you need.

Martech can deliver significant cost and efficiency benefits across the business. A few years ago, a study by Nucleus Research into the ROI potential of marketing automation found that:

• It reduces the administrative overhead by, on average, 3.4%
• It increases Marketing teams’ productivity by between 1.5% and 6.9%.

If you’re a regulated business, compliance is also essential. Does your solution improve the rigour of your marketing compliance processes? Does it increase efficiency for the Compliance team as well as for Marketing? Can your Sales and other teams easily use it to create the collateral they need?

The best solutions will enable you to create not just marketing materials, but business development proposals, stationery and other business documents.

Are you shortlisting solutions that can deliver on all of this?

4. Does the supplier match up to the solution?

When you choose a martech solution, remember that you’re buying not just a solution but a supplier as well. Ask:

• Whether your supplier has a strong track record and history of delivering automated solutions
  – what’s their history and heritage?
• If they’re able to evidence satisfied customers, with testimonials and case studies?
• What training you’ll receive, and what back-up is available. Is there 24/7 ‘plain English’ client support?
• What credentials do they have around security? Is your collateral held on a highly-secure platform?

Ensuring your chosen supplier can support you in your automation journey is vitally important. Make sure the service levels match up to the technical elements of the solution.

Get it right when making decisions on martech

The benefits of marketing automation and templated solutions are well-recognised. You can save significant time, improve brand consistency, reduce your admin and increase regulatory compliance.

The arguments for greater automation in marketing are compelling. Making sure you select the best solution for your business is the crucial step in achieving the benefits martech can deliver. Hopefully, this blog has given you some ideas of how to get it right when you’re choosing martech software.

Nothing in this document should be treated as an authoritative statement of the law. Action should not be taken as a result of this document alone. We make no warranty and accept no responsibility for consequences arising from relying on this document.