Most marketing professionals are expected to create and manage “big idea” projects – yet their departments’ resources are usually stretched too thin to execute them. The culprit is often lack of time – not because the big projects are too lofty – because too much time and energy is spent on all the “little things”.
Little things can lead to big problems
The little things are the tasks and small jobs that need to get done, but not by highly skilled and educated marketers and designers. Examples of little things: creating, ordering and managing business cards for the entire organization; managing the order process for operational print such as envelopes and letterhead; managing the distribution of products to all corporate locations or branches; going on digital scavenger hunts for assets; re-ordering promo and apparel items, and making minor edits on commonly used marketing and sales documents. These little things can add up to big productivity and staff morale issues and they use up too much valuable time and resources.
Free up time for your big idea projects
One of the best solutions to free up your team’s time and resources is to automate many of the little things through a custom portal. While portals are nothing new, technology advancements have enabled us to make more robust features accessible to marketing departments to free up time.
Why our clients automated the little things…
Following are two examples of how we’ve helped our clients free up resources to focus on their big goals.
One client was frustrated that their marketing staff was bogged down getting needed materials out to each of their branches. We built their portal to include everything a branch manager might need – templates for business cards, operational items, marketing items and promotional products – all under one digital roof. Today, branch managers log in, and order what they need. Once approved, our fulfillment process takes care of the rest. Their marketing department of 2 can now focus on re-branding some of their marketing pieces – a project that’s been on their “big idea” list for years.
Another client was using a dated system, and marketing had to wait for a significant number of internal requests before getting items into production. They wanted a faster and more responsive process that was “hands-off” for marketing, yet better served the needs of their employees. We launched their print-on-demand portal so locations now self-serve and place orders for exactly what they need when they need it. The efficient work flow allows the marketing department to now focus on building brand recognition as thought leaders in their market.
What “little things” are you ready to say goodbye to?