Marketing software packages offer a complete solution that contains CRM software, Campaign and event management tools, marketing database, budget and expense management, and much more. A good product will help increase marketing effectiveness, help manage timelines, and help bring added discipline while still allowing necessary flexibility to a marketing team. In today's competitive times, all businesses are looking for ways to make their marketing dollars go farther and be more effective. These tools can help.
Some of these products are web based, while others are installed directly on your PC. Some are a strictly marketing solution which works with your existing CRM and ERP systems, while others offer a suite of applications designed to meet all your marketing needs.
Features included with marketing applications:
- Email marketing
- Direct marketing
- Complete Customer Relationship Management product including
- Contact details
- Customer Transactions: responses, interactions, orders, contracts, etc.
- Third party data: demographic, psychographics, lifestyle, etc.
- Modeling data: scores, deciles, RFM, purchasing propensities, etc.
- Marketing resource management
- Campaign management
- Event management
- Research and analysis tools
- Marketing database
- Response and performance measurement
Major Vendors in the Marketing application arena include:
- Everest Software
- SalesForce
- Aprimo
- Sunbear Software
- Marketing Pilot
Factors to consider when making your software selection include:
- Status of Sales force – Localized, spread all over, internet only, etc.
- Training of sales force and marketing group – all must use it or it doesn't work
- Integration requirements with your current system
- System resources: Not usually an issue, but sometimes small business environments are on over-taxed hardware already.