Marketing is a core business function that influences whether your venture succeeds or fails. It connects you to people, relays your organization’s values, and explains why they should consider your brand. Without your marketing team, it would be so challenging to compete and thrive in the non-profit and business sectors.
For the past decade or so, marketers have been relying heavily on different technologies to plan, develop, and launch effective campaigns. As the field transitions to automating the majority of processes, organizations need to know how to use the advanced tools and methods effectively. This blog can help you identify technology bottlenecks and provide tips on addressing them.
Bottleneck #1: Outdated Systems
Have you had your hardware and software for a long period of time, say, five years or more? It’s definitely time for additional technical investment. Using legacy systems that are slow and lack modern features causes more delays that hamper productivity. A central processing unit or CPU bottleneck causes your marketing teams to spend more time than they should in completing their tasks, which leads to missed opportunities.
Technology evolves at a rapid pace. Modern systems allow developers to regularly test their products for quality and scalability. For example, load testing evaluates application performance under normal and peak usage situations. Developers can spot and address operational process bottlenecks faster than before.
In doing so, they prevent the accumulation of tech debt, producing software products that get better instead of deteriorating over time. As a result, end users, including your marketing team can maximize the benefits of your information technology (IT) resources, regardless of your business model.
Once you’re ready to upgrade, don’t hesitate to find Charleston computer support firms if you’re in North Carolina. Local IT service providers offer efficient solutions because of their familiarity with the marketing and technology environments in your location.
Bottleneck #2: A Fractured Marketing Technology (MarTech) Stack
If you think using technology can solve all your marketing woes, think again. Facilitating seamless business processes requires more than addressing outdated systems or network bottlenecks. Common bottlenecks will persist unless you know how to make your tools and resources work seamlessly together. Disconnected systems prevent your marketing team from developing effective campaigns, as they can’t use data to segment audiences or personalize messages.
As the field covers several subsectors, your marketing team should integrate all data into one cohesive platform. Without this capability, your marketers will struggle to get a holistic view of user-profiles and campaign performances. Either they must transfer data manually or switch between two to three platforms constantly to reconcile them.
It pays to find IT companies in Chicago or similar firms in your area to optimize your IT set-up and tech stack. These companies help you get the most return on investment (ROI) based on your business goals. IT experts can likewise address various system and application bottlenecks.
Bottleneck #3: Improper Automation (or the Lack of It)
Marketers look at several aspects to understand the audience, develop campaigns, and craft targeted messages. Their job involves repetitive tasks like updating customer data, sending emails, and posting on social media channels, to name a few. These routine activities take time away for strategic and creative thinking.
It’s for this reason that startups and larger companies must automate certain tasks. In doing so, they can launch marketing campaigns faster and free up more time for business process innovations.
However, inefficiencies caused by lack of or improper automation can lead to lower team morale. The key is in determining whether your business’s needs match well with the functions and capabilities of the tools and platforms you’re hoping to use.
Bottleneck #4: Inefficient Workflows
Sloppy marketing processes and workflows can prevent teams from using technology effectively. Systemic bottlenecks can sometimes be a ‘you’ problem. For example, some organizations, including larger companies, have slow or unclear approval and collaboration policies. This deficiency can negatively affect your marketing team’s performance and does not help you avoid common marketing mistakes.
Since marketers aren’t autonomous teams, companies must push to simplify their activities without compromising the output quality. A seamless process is crucial as a marketing team often relies on multiple internal and external contacts—content creators, product teams, designers, and sometimes legal experts to review materials.
The first step in addressing inefficiency-related bottleneck issues is to revisit your company procedures. Identify which areas are bogged down by delays and why. Then, think of how you can improve and simplify the procedure. Always check the performance of innovation systems and practices you’ve put in place.
Bottleneck #5: Poor Data Quality and Analytics Capabilities
Artificial intelligence or AI-powered marketing tools have changed how teams craft and execute campaigns. These platforms exist not just to automate. They’re great at analyzing business metrics and human behavior to spot performance bottlenecks and predict market trends and campaign effectiveness. Algorithms can even suggest ways to optimize them.
Even so, AI relies on high-quality data to provide the best outcomes. Anything less can lead to inaccuracies or biased results. Similarly, marketing teams may be sitting in mountains of data without knowing how to act on them. Without access to reliable data in real-time or advanced analytics tools, they couldn’t extract actionable insights. This deficiency could lead to poor marketing campaign decisions.
To turn this around, practice stringent data governance policies and continuously monitor data quality. You need the help of a skilled data scientist to guide you toward proper implementation.
Bottleneck #6: Integration Issues
Not all marketing tools are created equal. Some have limited or complex integration capabilities. A broken application programming interface (API)—a tool that connects two or more software—can worsen the situation. When this happens, you need technical expertise and support to connect disparate systems.
Invest in an all-in-one solution, but guarantee compatibility first. You can contact developers to discuss your specific needs and ensure that the product fits your needs. You don’t have to learn about technical platforms and programming languages to do this. Developers and vendors can explain technical subjects in simpler terms.
Think of it this way, integration is to machines as collaboration is to people. Effective communication across all team levels is crucial, and for this, you must speak a common language. Integration problems are similar to communication issues in a team context. You can’t work as a team unless you’re on the same page.
Bottleneck #7: Insufficient Training and Support
Team members must have proper training on using your tech stack effectively. Those who haven’t may struggle to perform even the most basic tasks. When this happens, your marketing team needs timely tech support to get things going.
Individuals possess different levels of technological proficiency. Ensure that your applicants know how to use the tools that you have by including usage experience as a requirement in your job announcements. Then, provide business context onboarding and to new hires. Once in, you can schedule regular training or one-on-one sessions for those who need it. You can also consider hiring IT-managed services to provide round-the-clock support.
Tying It All Together
These seven tech failures aren’t just minor inconveniences. They’re suffocating your team’s output. While apps and technologies can help, you must conduct bottleneck alleviation strategies to eliminate the root causes of these problems. Reducing friction in marketing processes doesn’t always require technical expertise. Sometimes, improving your internal processes and communication efforts can do wonders.
You don’t have to do this alone, though. You can always ask for innovation inputs and solutions from IT experts. The bottom line is to treat your marketers as your core team as they can be the key to your business’s success. Allow them to work smarter, not harder, using MarTech tools.