What Is Marketing Information Management?
Marketing information managementrefers to the act of compiling, organizing, storing, analyzing, and reporting analytics based on marketing information and data. Marketers can compile this from data studies, sales numbers, campaign results, marketing research, and other types of data projects.
Information managementof marketing data keeps facts and statistics organized, which can help determine strategy plans, business decisions, and other company-wide settlements. If you leave marketing information unmanaged, it can be more harmful than beneficial.
What Is a Marketing Information System?
Amarketing information systemis the ideal approach for marketing information management. In short, this system is responsible for keeping your marketing information organized and actionable.
These systems are enabled by developments in the broader field ofmanagement information systems(MIS), which allow marketers and other business partners to gather large volumes of data and analyze it with sophisticated analytical tools. Additionally, this system provides companies with a numerary basis for decisions.
Why Is Marketing Information Management Important?
Marketing information management decreases the chance of skewed data and uninformed decisions. Because marketing data frequently covers a variety of topics — customer demographics, competitor analysis, campaign analysis, etc. — it can be easy to confuse data points, leading to overspending and incorrect forecasts.
投资于一个营销信息管理系统stem can lower the possibility of negative effects, which increases a company’s possibility for growth.
What Is Marketing Information?
Marketing informationis data that companies can track, organize, and analyze. There are three main types of marketing information: internal data, competitive intelligence, and marketing research.
Internal Data
Internal datarefers to the information that comes from within a company, such as sales records, inventories, and product costs. This type of information can provide valuable insights into company capabilities and product success.
有限公司mpetitive Intelligence
有限公司mpetitive intelligence— also known asmarketing intelligence— refers to external insights from third-party sources, such as trade journals or industry associations. This intelligence enables companies to better understand the landscape of their individual sector as well as competitive forces at work.
Marketing Research
Marketing researchrefers to project-based research that seeks to answer specific marketing questions. This type of research provides insights into the broader marketing information framework and is a powerful tool when combined with internal and external data.
Marketing Information Management: 7 Benefits
There are many different ways that marketing information management systems can benefit companies. Seven key benefits of information management include ensuring better business understanding, design and product insights, internal team guidance, enhanced data access, emergency preparedness, improved lead conversions, and expanded sales and profits.
1. Increased Business Understanding
Marketing campaign tracking systems can often be inadequate or have limited effectiveness when taken in isolation. Using a marketing information management system can help companies avoid problems caused by inadequate campaign tracking systems and gain a better understanding of the following elements:
- Customers:A marketing information system can track customer demographics, attitudes, behavior, buying cycles, taste profiles, brand recognition, and product approval.
- Markets:Marketing intelligence included in marketing information systems provides insight into market niches, industries, and competitive landscapes, which can help you size your market and predict growth trends for your business.
- Statistics and Developments:Other outside forces that can be tracked through marketing information systems include regulatory and legal risks, privacy and data collection, product regulations and updates, trade policies, and new developments.
2. Design and Product Insights
A robust marketing information system can develop invaluable insights for product marketing teams. Then, you can use this sector and competitive information — along with consumer research — to drive the process of analyzing your competitive niche, setting product positioning, messaging, pricing, and determining your product’s value proposition. When you include insights regarding your sales trends and company capabilities, you have a solid foundation for developing ideas for new products, features, packaging, and delivery.
3. Internal Team Guidance
A marketing information system can provide valuable guidance for many parts of your organization. Teams that will benefit from marketing information management include the following:
- Marketing teams:This group is the initial beneficiary of a marketing information system. Marketing teams can use it these systems to develop product messaging and positioning, generate ideas and track success for specific campaigns, determine the right marketing mix based on what’s succeeding and what’s already being used within the industry, and ensure they base decisions on a strong understanding of return on investment (ROI).
- Customer-facing teams:Sales and account teams can benefit from a better understanding of the competitive landscapes and customer needs, so they which can speed up the sales cycle and win more customers produce better customer service, and provide ongoing support throughout thecustomer relationship management(CRM) cycle.
- Financial teams:A marketing information system can help drive the integration of accounting systems into the broader business. The internal data can help manage product inventory and distribution, track and manage customer churn, and analyze profit margins and drivers.
- 有限公司mpany-wide teams:Throughout the organization, marketing information systems can ensure managers have a strong understanding of their sector and business by providing broad inputs into strategy development. Companies can also use a marketing information system to understand which parts of the business are supporting the bottom line or contributing the most resources toward growth.
4.增强的数据ccess
Storing essential data and making it easy to access is a core aspect of any marketing information system, granting members across a company data access and credentials while allowing them to easily access their an organization’s marketing information.
5. Emergency Preparedness
With their extensive external data inputs, these systems can help keep you and your organization prepared for industry and competitor changes. They can also help you maintain solid control over your marketing systems, so you can spend marketing budgets wisely and minimize risk.
6. Improved Lead Conversions
Marketing information management systems are responsible for organizing and maintaining customer data and insights. Marketing teams can use this data to create targeted marketing campaigns based on up-to-date information, which leads to better lead generation and customer conversion rates.
7. Expanded Sales and Profits
Marketing information management systems can also help improve your bottom line. By providing a solid analytical basis for everything from product development and marketing initiatives to customer relationship management, they can help control your costs and make decisions concerning products clients want to buy.
5 Common Challenges of Marketing Information Management
Of course, nothing is perfect, and marketing information systems are no exception. These are the most common challenges of marketing information management:
- Data and Security Risks:Data security始终是一个关键考虑敏感的通知ation is being collected. Customer information can play a significant role in marketing information systems, which can lead to equally significant security risks like hacked systems and breaches.
- Lack of Resources:创建一个全面的营销信息系统tem can require more money, time, and expertise than many companies have to spare. Additionally, management systems may need future repairs and updates, which adds cost and resource needs.
- Maintaining Clean Data:Internal systems may capture incorrect information, be unable coordinate or connect with each other, not update often enough, or lag behind the current competitive landscape.
- Ethical and Legal Issues:The collection of detailed information about a customer’s location, movements, shopping history, social media presence, behavior, and attitudes could overstep collection boundaries for many customers. Government regulations do exist to protect consumers against invasions of privacy, and companies would be well advised to avoid breaching those regulations.
- Human Error:As with any system run and regulated by humans, human error is a potential challenge. Incorrect data collection, entering, and reports created and distributed by humans could negatively impact the actions of a company.
6 Steps to Create a Marketing Information Management Strategy
Once you’ve weighed the benefits, risks, and resource needs, you’re ready to get started setting up your own marketing information system. The basic steps are fairly simple but can be more complex — and time-consuming — than they may look, so make sure to plan accordingly.
1. Goal Analysis
There are a lot of different potential functions a marketing information system can include, so plan for success by establishing clear goals at the beginning. These goals will help you decide what data to include within your system.
Here are a few goal examples your company could agree upon during this step:
- Campaign managementand tracking
- Target market data gathering
- 有限公司rporation data tracking
- 有限公司mpetitor tracking
- Product success
2. Metrics Analysis
Once you’ve established your goals, you can move on to determining what data points you will include in your marketing information system. There are a broad number of different internal and external inputs you may want to consider.
Monitored metrics could include the following:
- Ad clicks
- Return on investments (ROI)
- Lead generations and conversions
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Follower growth
…or other key performance indicators (KPIs).
For campaign tracking, you may be more focused on internal metrics. For product design and strategy initiatives, external inputs may matter more.
3. Data Management Plan Setting
After you’ve identified your goals and the metrics you want to track, you need to decide how to manage your data.Database management systemscan control and protect data during the collection, evaluation, and distribution processes.
Reevaluate the following components before agreeing to a data management plan:
- Regulations:Government regulation restricts some data collection and storage. Be aware of these regulations and how your management system handles them.
- Storage:Determine what type of storage system your company wants to use. Different databases and software store data differently.
- Security:Data security measures are important for companies collecting customer data. Invest in additional built-in security.
- Reports:有限公司nsider how and when you want to receive data reports, as well as who has access to them.
- Access:Data management plans identify who has access to marketing data and can provide unique credentials for identified individuals.
4.Department Coordination
Once you know what data will be available to you and how it will be managed, you can move on to identify how this data will fit into your processes andteam operations. Determine who will be responsible for maintaining and using the data and what decisions will be supported by the data.
5. Tool Identification
Identify what marketing decision support tools you want to use. There are many variables here based on the amount and type of data you are dealing with.
Below are some different types of data management tools:
- Spreadsheets
- Databases
- Graphs
- Marketing information management software
For simpler systems, spreadsheets may be enough. Others may need more extensive data visualization tools, dashboards, or other types of decision support. You may need a skilled IT resource to assist you with this process.
6. Implementation and Deployment
Implementation will include collecting all the data you need for the system, ensuring how it will work together, and then integrating it into your tools. In order to be successful, carve out plenty of time for testing, QA, and user training. Once you’ve completed all these steps, you’ll be ready for launch.
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