Why Marketing Technology Needs To Be Future-Proofed

This can be a large expense for any business, especially if the money is being paid in single installments. Is it really necessary to spend more money on these investments to get the most out of their technology? A business should be thinking about what they actually need rather than what they want. 

All too often we see customers investing in the latest technologies without sitting back and determining whether it will genuinely help to improve their own marketing efforts. Just because everyone is talking about a certain technology does not always mean it will be able to make your life easier as a marketer. All businesses have different goals and objectives, and these must be factored into all marketing technology-related decisions.

Once it’s been identified what technology is right for your business, then it’s time to consider how your business can ensure it gets the most out of that technology on a long-term basis to deliver results well into the future. This is why it’s important to take a more proactive approach towards the relationships with your technology vendors. By maintaining frequent contact with these vendors, customers can be informed of the latest products as soon as they’re released while also ensuring that all support contracts remain current.

To strengthen this customer-vendor relationship, many businesses elect an internal champion — an active ambassador and the main point of contact for the vendor, who has time allocated in their day to make sure the system is running smoothly. All employees using the system can then pass on any feedback to this internal champion, who will escalate it to the vendor.

Taking this a step further, businesses should also be allocating budget and resources to ensure they stay on top of their process, as this is also constantly evolving to meet customer demands. As well as technology if they want to maintain a good ROI in years to come. We like to call this"continued learning". For example, perhaps the internal champion attends a training workshop every six months to learn about the latest features and see what might be beneficial for their business.  

These learning workshops can then be cascaded down to other employees, so everyone receives the training they need to not only maintain their skill-set but evaluate both software features and business process when completing the feedback loop.

When it comes to marketing technology, businesses are ultimately looking for peace of mind. If they’re going to invest in the latest marketing technology, they want to be reassured that it is going to work properly and deliver benefits without a hitch. At IO Integration, we can take this responsibility and ensure that businesses are able to continue squeezing the most out of their investments by maintaining upkeep and performance. This then leaves businesses to focus on what’s more important — delivering operational success. Improving Productivity and Growth Through Automation.

Companies just like yours are investing in digital workflow tools, asset management technologies and approval solutions; which are all designed and delivered with the aim of streamlining operations.