CrownPeak Technology’s Rob Rose explains how software-as-a-service can help online marketers do more with less effort.

As digital marketing comes into its own, online marketers struggle with two related issues: managing efficient campaigns against thin media budgets (aren’t they always too thin?) and leveraging an ever-growing mass of technology to help manage their efforts. 

The irony is that what makes digital marketing tactics so attractive -- measurability -- is what has made the ROI so increasingly difficult to prove. Put simply, assembling the right combination of software, services and management, for the right price, in the right timeframe is a job that no marketer relishes. Marketers are asking themselves a torrent of questions including:

• What solutions do I need to manage my online marketing efforts?
• How will those solutions work together?
• Do I need to bring in consultants to make it work together?
• How much software, hardware and technology do I really need to reach my marketing goals?

Marketers typically turn to their IT organization or consultants for answers. Many months, meetings and RFPs later the organization has transformed into a software development shop -- installing packaged software and writing custom integrations to make programs meet the marketers’ demands.

If only online marketers could streamline both the creation and management of digital content and marketing campaigns and provide ROI metrics without breaking the bank, and without spending months of IT’s time in integrating and managing software components. Well, they can, of course, and the answers can be found online -- just where marketers want to be. 

By deploying software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions as part of the digital marketing solution, marketers can get out of the software development business and get back into the business of marketing.

Consider history

Five years ago, organizations created and managed their online marketing presence in a completely different way. Companies built out websites with custom, integrated connections between their installed CRM application, web tracking software, content management/digital asset management systems and email marketing software. Sometimes it worked brilliantly, and sometimes it was a colossal failure. Most of the time, it was somewhere in between. Either the organization built too much software with features users never adopted or the marketers lived with feature limitations because they didn’t think of them during construction. Most online marketers can roll up their pant leg a la Robert Shaw in “Jaws” and compare scars they’ve received from failed technology projects.

So, marketers got burned -- and for a while, the brilliant sheen that had been the online marketing promise wore thin. Budgets were reallocated, companies fell away and the first commandment of digital marketing -- achieve return on investment -- was born. 

Then, a funny thing happened on the way to ROI…

The software-as-a-service model is certainly not revolutionary any longer. However, what’s still largely unknown is that nearly every piece of the digital marketing puzzle is now available as a software service. From web content management to site search to corporate blogging -- everything the digital marketer needs in their toolkit is available as an outsourced service. More importantly (and this is the real key), not only are these services managed and supported 24/7/365 but they can also be seamlessly connected with other software-as-a-service providers.  

Not surprisingly, the popularity of software-as-a-service is leading to market convergence. Larger companies are acquiring smaller ones (i.e.: CheetahMail purchasing Harvest Solutions -- a web analytics provider) while others are announcing direct integrations with partners such as WebTrends’ analytics and ExactTarget’s email campaign management tool.

Best-of-breed vs. suites

Convergence is upon the many vendors who play in the software-as-a-service industry. But as digital marketers look for hosted solutions the choice will quickly come down to this: Should I choose one “suite” that offers all (or most) of the solutions I need, or should I choose a “best-of-breed” approach and integrate individual solutions together?

For some, the “suite” model will surely be compelling as providers tout the “singular interface” and the “one-stop-shop” approach. But also consider the lessons learned from our IT history and how difficult it was to “unbundle” an under-performing solution. By taking a “best-of-breed” approach marketers can plug and unplug solutions as needed to continually evaluate ROI. 

For example, if the email campaign management vendor’s customer service fails to deliver on its SLA (Service Level Agreement), or if a more robust feature set is found in a competing product, the digital marketer can simply unplug the existing vendor and plug in another. And, as time goes by, the integration between those products will become further standardized -- making the re-integration process fairly painless, or at least less painful than trying to unbundle an integrated suite from a singular company.

When considering deployment of software services as a digital marketing tool, consider these five key principles:

1. Pick vendors that understand that “service” in Software-as-a-Service should be capitalized. The most important part of working with a SaaS vendor is the service. This includes promises like guarantees on uptime and response time for ongoing services, support contracts and the ability to work with people who will come to know your business. Your goal as a marketer should be to market your company’s product or service -- not manage technology.
   
   
2. Match the tactics and the tools. Once you’ve developed your website management and digital marketing strategy, the software systems should align with the tactics the marketer expects to use on an ongoing basis. A content management tool, for example, can manage assets across websites, online ad landing pages, banner campaigns, rich media email, affiliate marketing, digital asset distribution, online street teams and electronic press kit distribution. If these tactics figure into your online plans, a content management system that publishes and manages these assets for you and your partners can make tremendous financial sense.
   
   
3. Align costs with the effort. Marketers will also need to figure internal personnel costs to manage these vendors and assets. Look for software services that have the ability to integrate with other software services and guide your personnel to be vendor managers, rather than technology managers.
   
   
4. Leverage the tools -- adoption is imperative. Making your internal team comfortable with online marketing tools and how they work is key. Whether you pick a best-of-breed strategy, or a marketing suite, consider end-user training for all of the tools you’re using.  

It goes without saying that any online marketing strategy should always correspond with existing communications, branding and business strategy. When contemplating the integration of a new set of tools, do not allow sophisticated features or complex technology to distract from overall marketing goals. A marketing department’s technology needs are unique and often misunderstood, so a vendor with experience in providing marketing-related technology tools will empower the organization to implement tools that are faster, easier to customize and better equipped to meet the organization’s evolving needs. 

With the right set of tools in place, and some solid design for online marketing efforts, any organization can take advantage of the metrics, consistency and ROI that digital marketing affords. These benefits, in turn, will provide a significant boost to the brand as well as the bottom line. And keep the online marketer free of scars.

Rob Rose is vice president, sales and marketing, for CrownPeak Technology. Read full bio.