Skip to main content
SoftwareReviews Provider Services

Select a Marketing Management Suite

A best-fit solution balances needs, cost, and capability.

Client Challenge

  • Time, money, and effort are wasted on channels and campaigns that are not resonating with your customer base.
  • Email marketing, social marketing, and/or lead management alone are often not enough to meet more sophisticated marketing needs.
  • Many organizations struggle with taking a systematic approach to selection that pairs functional requirements with specific marketing workflows, and as a result they choose a marketing management suite (MMS) that is not well aligned to their needs, wasting resources and causing end-user frustration.
  • For IT managers or marketing professionals, the task to incorporate MMS technology into the organization requires not only receiving the buy-in for the MMS investment but also determining the vendor and solution that best fit the organization’s particular marketing management needs.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • An MMS enables complex campaigns across many channels, product lines, customer segments, and marketing groups throughout the enterprise.
  • Selecting an MMS has become increasingly difficult because the number of players in the marketplace has ballooned. Moreover, picking the wrong marketing solution has a direct impact on revenue.
  • Determine whether the investment in an MMS is worthwhile or the funds are better allocated elsewhere. For organizations with a large audience or varied product offerings, an MMS enables complex campaigns across many channels, product lines, customer segments, and marketing groups throughout the enterprise.

Impact and Result

  • Maximize your success and credibility with a proposal that emphasizes the areas relevant to your situation.
  • Perform more effective customer targeting and campaign management. Having an MMS equips marketers with the tools they need to make informed decisions around campaign execution, resulting in better targeting, acquisition, and customer retention. This means more revenue.
  • Maximize marketing impact with analytics-based decision making. Understanding users’/customers’ behaviors and preferences will allow you to run effective marketing initiatives.

Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to approach selecting an MMS, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Name Actions
Select a Marketing Management Suite – Executive Brief
Select a Marketing Management Suite – Phases 1-3
Select a Marketing Management Suite – Phases 1-3

1. Launch the MMS project and collect requirements

Assess the organization’s fit for MMS technology and structure the MMS selection project.

Name Actions
Select a Marketing Management Suite – Phase 1: Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements
MMS Readiness Assessment Checklist

2. Shortlist marketing management suites

Produce a vendor shortlist for your MMS.

Name Actions
Select a Marketing Management Suite – Phase 2: Shortlist Marketing Management Suites

3. Select vendor and communicate decision to stakeholders

Evaluate RFPs, conduct vendor demonstrations, and select an MMS.

Name Actions
Select a Marketing Management Suite – Phase 3: Select Vendor and Communicate Decision to Stakeholders
MMS Request for Proposal Template
MMS Vendor Demo Script
MMS Requirements Picklist Tool
MMS Selection Executive Presentation Template

Onsite Workshop: Select a Marketing Management Suite

Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Do-It-Yourself Implementation

The slides in this Best Practice Blueprint will walk you step-by-step through every phase of your project with supporting tools and templates ready for you to use.

Project Accelerator Workshop

You can also use this Best Practice Blueprint to facilitate your own project accelerator workshop within your organization using the workshop slides and facilitation instructions provided in the Appendix.

Module 1: Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements

The Purpose

Determine a “right-size” approach to marketing enablement applications.

Key Benefits Achieved

Confirmation of the goals, objectives, and direction of the organization is marketing application strategy.

Activities Outputs
1.1 Assess the value and identify the organization’s fit for MMS technology.
1.2 Understand the art of the possible.
1.3 Understand CXM strategy and identify your fit for MMS technology.
1.4 Build procurement team and project customer experience management (CXM) strategy.
  • Project team list.
1.5 Identify your MMS requirements.
  • Preliminary requirements list.

Module 2: Shortlist Marketing Management Suites

The Purpose

Enumerate relevant marketing management suites and point solutions.

Key Benefits Achieved

List of marketing enablement applications based on requirements articulated in the preliminary requirements list strategy.

Activities Outputs
2.1 Identify relevant use cases.
2.2 Discuss the vendor landscape.
  • Vendor shortlist.

Module 3: Select Vendor and Communicate Decision to Stakeholders

The Purpose

Develop a rationale for selecting a specific MMS vendor.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • MMS Vendor decision.
  • A template to communicate the decision to executives.

Activities Outputs
3.1 Create a procurement strategy.
3.2 Discuss the executive presentation.
  • Executive/stakeholder PowerPoint presentation.
3.3 Plan the procurement process.
  • Selection of an MMS.

Testimonials

Ben pointed me in the right direction, extremely helpful given my marketing and sales knowledge is limited.

Alfred H. Knight Holding viaWorkshop

Ben is extremely knowledgeable and communicates in ways both IT and business can consume. Financial impact is hard to quantify just yet.

American Bankers Association viaWorkshop