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The benefits of the right martech solution are well-documented

• Streamlined campaign management
• A faster collateral production process
• Reduced external design and print costs
• Improved brand and regulatory compliance

If you are looking to improve marketing efficiency, increase brand consistency and reduce waste, implementing a marketing automation solution can make a significant difference.

So in theory, getting approval for an investment in martech might seem like a no-brainer.

But of course, not everyone is part of your marketing team. Often, the costs and inefficiencies the team experiences aren’t obvious – or a priority – to the rest of the business.

Aside from initial design agency and print costs, many of the costs of producing marketing collateral are hidden. The cost of the team’s time, for instance, wasted on inefficient review and approvals processes or on re-creating previous documents lost due to sub-optimal digital asset management. The money wasted on dozens of brochures printed ‘just in case’, which then languish, unused, in cupboards.

As a result, these inefficiencies and poor uses of marketing professionals’ time frequently go unnoticed. Little wonder that the need to improve marketing processes, reduce admin and cut waste is often low on the to-do list.

But any marketer who has seen the benefits of on-demand marketing software understands the plus points – and will be keen to secure an investment in a solution that can deliver so much in terms of time- and cost-savings.

So; how do you go about communicating the benefits to your senior decision-makers. How can you get buy-in for a marketing automation project?

How to get the buy-in you need

It’s clear, then, that inefficient marketing processes can slow your speed to market and negatively impact your effectiveness.

But this isn’t always enough to persuade the powers-that-be that you need to invest in marketing software. The good news is that, with on-demand martech, the benefits extend far beyond the immediate marketing team, with benefits across the firm. All of which help to support your case. A good marketing solution means that:

• Sales support and business development materials – proposals, presentations and pitch documents – can be produced far more quickly, with highly-professional results
• If you’re a regulated business, compliance team approvals are faster, simpler and can be in-built, reducing your potential for regulatory breaches
• Cost-savings benefit the entire organisation – an increasingly important consideration in challenging times

With this the case, getting your firm excited about marketing automation should be easy.

But when you’re trying to pitch an investment to your senior leadership, it always helps to have some ammunition in your armoury. So here are our top 7 tips for getting buy-in to your automation project:

1. Highlight the time and money you can save through increased efficiency

By using agile artwork creation and smart templates, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing collateral. A martech solution enables you to store all your documents online and update them at the click of a mouse – simplifying project management and workflow.

2. Explain how automation helps win new business

Getting products to market faster helps you steal a march on your competitors. More professional sales documents – accurate, compelling pitches and presentations – can dramatically improve your hit rate when it comes to winning new business.

3. Demonstrate the direct cost savings

Imagine being able to access your entire suite of marketing collateral online – and then being able to update it yourselves.

Martech enables you to save money on design and print via smart document management and instant snapshots of current stocks. Make edits in-house and only print what you need.

4. Showcase the positive impact on brand

A consistent brand identity has many benefits for your business. Martech software supports your brand efforts, improving compliance, preventing people derailing your brand identity by creating their own, off-brand materials and, and mandating sign-off from nominated people before collateral is published.

5. Evidence the benefits for sales and compliance as well as marketing teams

Marketing automation has benefits far beyond the marketing team. Sales teams respond faster to tenders; win rates are increased via easy-to-use presentation templates and easy access to the latest corporate data.

If you’re regulated, compliance team admin is significantly reduced, with your compliance officers able to focus on the proactive and strategic aspects of governance – not paperwork.

6. Explain how automation reduces your risk of regulatory non-compliance

And because martech solutions can make compliance sign-off central to the marketing process, you minimise the chances of non-compliant content. Your risk of fines, reputational damage and potential penalties – financial and otherwise – for your business leaders is dramatically reduced.

7. Show that it can help to improve your firm’s approach to ESG

Environmental and social governance is an increasing concern for all businesses. Demonstrating a responsible approach to the wider community isn’t just the right thing to do, it is increasingly the right commercial decision too, as firms look to do business with ethically sound partners.

Marketing software can enable you to gain sight of and improve the ESG credentials of your entire marketing supply chain – another compelling reason for investment.

Making the case for marketing software

Clearly, then, there are strong arguments for investment in martech solutions. The benefits extend far beyond improving marketing team efficiency, with cost- and time-savings across your firm. If you are building a business case for martech, good luck – let us know how you get on.

You can read more about Enable, Perivan’s online agile artwork creation, brand management and smart template software solution, on our website.

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.