The Ultimate Guide to Enterprise Marketing Solutions
Enterprise marketing campaigns can help companies unlock critical revenue opportunities and grow their businesses. But the massive time, expense and coordination of these campaigns can stop many teams before they even get started.
That’s where enterprise marketing solutions come in. These tools unite multiple marketing functions into one streamlined platform, helping teams execute the cross-channel campaigns that their audience expects while also simplifying their data and managing their user data more effectively.
In this article, we’ll outline the opportunities and challenges of enterprise marketing, explain how enterprise marketing solutions can help you execute campaigns more smoothly, then present factors to consider when selecting enterprise marketing solutions. Let’s get started:
What is enterprise marketing?
What is an marketing enterprise solution?
By now, you’ve probably sensed a theme. You’ve got a lot more prospects to target, a lot more tech to tackle, and a lot more prospect data to collect, manage and activate. Enterprise marketing software brings all of the processes, systems and data necessary to execute cross-channel marketing campaigns into one platform.
These tools are designed to streamline and coordinate a large organization’s marketing needs, typically by combining multiple functions in one platform. For instance, Omeda’s enterprise marketing solution consists of a CDP, email and marketing automation tool, subscription management solution, form builder, website tracking service, and marketing analytics… all in one place.
What should I look for in an enterprise marketing solution?
When looking for an enterprise marketing solution, prioritize platforms with native customer data platforms for data quality, marketing automation tools for personalized and efficient campaigns, sophisticated reporting features for better insights, streamlined compliance for data privacy regulations, built-in SEO tools, integration with third-party tools and APIs, customization and scalability, AI and machine learning capabilities, reasonable pricing and potential ROI, strong customer support and onboarding, and comparison of top solutions in the market. Evaluating these factors will ensure you choose a solution that best meets the unique needs of your organization and enhances your marketing efforts.
1. A native customer data platform
The success of any enterprise marketing strategy hinges on your data quality. If your data is old or outdated, you won’t be able to tailor content and messages to your audience’s needs. And all that time spent creating a cross-channel marketing campaign will be for naught. Avoid this by choosing a marketing enterprise solution that includes a customer data platform. CDPs collect customer data from every touchpoint, unify it, clean it, and store it in one easily accessible database.
They also check incoming data against your current customer profiles, so when a current user reads/downloads your content, or opens an email, that interaction is added to the customer’s profile. (And best of all, it’s automated.)
2. Marketing automation
For enterprise teams, a typical drip campaign might consist of 5-10 emails sent to thousands of recipients. If you execute the campaign manually, it’s incredibly difficult to tailor your sending pattern to each individual recipient’s needs (or in layman’s terms, to respond to what they’re telling you).
You could undertake the enormous task of manually removing people from your campaign if they haven’t responded to your first few messages. Or more likely, you’ll bulk send your entire campaign to everyone in your audience… and that might help net new customers, but not without annoying the rest of your list and tanking your sending reputation to boot.
So how can you roll out sophisticated campaigns at scale — while maintaining a personal touch? Use an enterprise marketing solution with automation tools.
Marketing automation tools allow you to create different branches along your campaign’s journey, so different people in your audience get different messages based on how they’ve interacted with your previous messages.
For instance, if Jane clicks a link in the first message of your campaign, she might get a message prompting her to book a demo or make a purchase. But if Michael doesn’t respond to the first three messages, he may need to receive more educational messages or be removed from the campaign.
And once someone completes your desired action (making a purchase, signing up for a demo, etc.), they’re automatically removed from your campaign and don’t get any irrelevant messages from you.
Marketing automation tools help you respond nimbly in all of these cases — and give everyone in your audience exactly what they need. So it’s an absolute must-have for any enterprise tech stack.
3. Sophisticated reporting
Vanity metrics can only take you so far when you’re working with high-stakes campaigns and a huge contact list. Look for marketing enterprise solutions that provide the following reporting features:
- Detailed website tracking services, including the ability to tag pages and
- Individual website visitor data, including the ability to convert unknown visitors into known leads (look for a solution with a native CDP)
- Email reporting that includes basic engagement stats as well as detailed link tracking, UTM link performance, heat maps and more.
- Analytics for on-site pop-ups, personalizations and gated content (including meters)
4. Streamlined compliance
With more state and federal data privacy regulations set to take effect in 2023, data security should be top priority when looking for marketing enterprise solutions. Prioritize platforms that allow you to pull up a customer’s profile and fulfill data deletion requests immediately. (Typically, marketing enterprise solutions with a CDP can do this.)
Also look for tools that let you segment your audience based on consent — this way, you won’t accidentally send your weekly newsletter to the audience that opted out of communications a few days ago. For instance, Omeda allows you to segment your audience based on their consent to use their data.
5. Customization and scalability
Enterprise marketing solutions should be customizable and scalable to adapt to the unique needs and growth of each business. As your organization expands or your marketing strategies evolve, your solution should be able to grow with you, offering additional features and capabilities that can be tailored to your specific requirements.
6. AI and machine learning capabilities
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can significantly enhance marketing enterprise solutions. They can improve personalization, predictive analytics, and automate repetitive tasks, allowing marketing teams to work more efficiently and effectively.
Look for solutions that incorporate AI and machine learning technologies so you can stay ahead of the curve without harming your productivity.
7. Pricing and return on investment (ROI)
Consider the costs associated with each solution, as well as the potential ROI that can be achieved through improved marketing efforts. Assess the value that each solution can bring to your organization, and make an informed decision based on both the initial investment and the long-term benefits.
8. Customer support and onboarding
The best enterprise marketing solution is one you can use easily, effectively and with minimal intervention from IT. Look for solutions with a comprehensive onboarding process and ongoing customer support so you can quickly achieve your stated goals. Evaluate the quality of customer support offered by each provider and ensure they can address your needs and questions as you navigate their platform.
9. Importance of SEO in marketing enterprise solutions
Everyone knows that they need to game their Google rankings. But it’s much harder to manage SEO manually when you’re also managing multiple campaigns across multiple channels. Look for options with built-in SEO tools and features that help you optimize your campaigns and monitor progress more easily.
10. Integration with third-party tools and APIs
Look for tools that integrate with various third-party tools, APIs, and platforms, such as social media management tools, project management software, and analytics platforms. This integration allows for a more comprehensive marketing solution, enabling businesses to streamline their workflows and manage all aspects of their marketing campaigns from one central location.
What are the challenges of enterprise marketing?
The challenges of enterprise marketing include scaling up personalized outreach to a wider range of potential buyers, managing multiple vendors and technology solutions within the marketing tech stack, overcoming communication silos among cross-functional teams, and eliminating data silos to establish a single customer view.
This makes enterprise marketing complex, time-consuming, and resource-intensive, requiring effective strategies and tools to optimize and streamline the process.
1. Scaling up
Enterprise marketing requires specificity at scale. You’re not just targeting a wider range of potential buyers, but that outreach needs to be more personalized. Segmenting by demographic or job title won’t be enough to reach these prospects.
Instead, teams need to use their audience data to create hyper-specific marketing segments (i.e., junior-level marketing managers that have viewed content related to manufacturing). Without the right data management tools and processes, this is time-consuming enough to dissuade teams from pursuing enterprise marketing altogether.
2. Managing vendors
Enterprise marketing involves more: more people, more content and most of all, more technology. Your standard enterprise marketing tech stack consists of an email service provider, marketing automation platform, CRM or CDP, data management solution, various social media platforms, advertising platforms like Google Ads or AdRoll, website analytics services like Google Analytics, etc. That’s a lot of tech for one team to manage.
Think about how much time it takes to research, select, and onboard a single tech solution. (In B2B, buying decisions for one tool can take six months or more.) Multiply that by 10 or 20 and you have an idea of how long it takes to create an enterprise marketing solution tech stack (and that’s if you get it right the first time).
And just to complicate things further, your tech solutions also need to integrate seamlessly with each other. Otherwise, you’re going to spend more time sending your audience data between platforms than using it yourself.
The more complicated your campaigns, the more your tech stack matters. Success isn’t just about having the right strategy. It’s increasingly about selecting technology that reduces inefficiencies rather than adding them.
3. Overcoming communication silos
Enterprise marketing campaigns involve more collaboration from cross-functional teams — like sales, customer success and operations — than their scaled down counterparts.
More opinions can yield better strategies, but left unmanaged, they can result in groupthink, diluted assets or contradictory messaging. Focusing on too many data points can also lead to analysis by paralysis — and make it harder to react to customer needs in real time.
4. Eliminating data silos and establishing a single customer view
Siloed communication and channels results in siloed data. And that has negative implications for your entire marketing strategy.
When data is siloed, each customer’s information is fragmented across multiple solutions — and nobody has a complete view of how that person is engaging with you at any given moment.
Peggy in Content might see that Pete keeps downloading white papers about advertising, and Don in Advertising might see that Pete is clicking ads about marketing enterprise software. But if Peggy and Don can’t share their information, they’ll each only give Pete half of what he needs — rather than one offer that encapsulates all his needs.
So as you scout marketing enterprise solutions, prioritize platforms that unify your data and give you a single customer view.
What are the benefits of using enterprise marketing solutions?
Enterprise marketing solutions help teams execute more personalized, successful cross-channel campaigns – and do it more quickly than their competitors. But that’s not their only selling point. Some of the biggest advantages of enterprise marketing solutions include:
1. Create a single customer view
Centralizing customer data in one place gives everyone in your organization a single customer view, helping you personalize offers and content to each individual user’s needs. (For best results, look for an enterprise marketing solution with a native CDP.
2. Increase productivity by making data accessible across your organization
Enterprise marketing solutions also democratize access to data across teams and organizations. Everyone has access to the information they need, reducing time spent on duplicate work and misunderstandings.
3. Reduce time and expenses for vendor management
Enterprise marketing solutions incorporate many marketing functions into one tool. So your team can spend less time finding and learning new tools, and more time using them to connect with your audience.
4. Increase customer retention with personalization
Enterprise marketing solutions make it easier to personalize content to each person’s needs, then target them across different marketing touchpoints. Teams can use this to provide current customers the resources they need to succeed with their product/service. Or they can identify disengaged users and prevent them from churning through personalized re-engagement campaigns.
Top enterprise marketing solutions
In today’s competitive business landscape, you need the right enterprise marketing solution to execute data-driven marketing campaigns and hit your goals. With so many platforms on the market, it can be challenging to determine which one best suits your organization’s needs.
To help you make an informed decision, we’re comparing four top enterprise marketing solutions: BlueConic, Marketo, HubSpot and Omeda. We’re listing each of their key features, capabilities, and potential drawbacks so you can choose the best solution for your goals.
BlueConic
- Advantages: BlueConic is a Customer Data Platform (CDP) that excels at collecting, unifying, and activating customer data from various sources in real-time. Its strong points include data management, personalization, and segmentation capabilities, as well as robust privacy and security features. The platform also integrates with various marketing tools and CRMs, enhancing data-driven marketing strategies.
- Disadvantages: BlueConic may not offer a comprehensive suite of marketing tools like some other platforms, meaning it might need to be used in conjunction with additional solutions for marketing automation, analytics, and campaign management. Additionally, its pricing might be on the higher side for smaller organizations with limited budgets.
Marketo
- Advantages: Marketo, now part of Adobe Experience Cloud, is a powerful marketing automation platform known for its advanced lead management, email marketing, and analytics capabilities. It’s particularly strong in the B2B space and offers seamless integration with various CRMs, including Salesforce. Marketo also has a large user community, providing ample resources for learning and support.
- Disadvantages: Marketo can be complex and may have a steeper learning curve for new users. Its pricing can also be on the higher side, making it less suitable for smaller organizations or those with limited budgets. Some users have also reported that certain integrations and customizations can be challenging to implement.
HubSpot
- Advantages: HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and CRM platform with a user-friendly interface and a comprehensive suite of tools for inbound marketing, marketing automation, email marketing, and more. It’s known for its ease of use and offers a vast library of resources and support for learning and onboarding. HubSpot also has a free CRM, making it an attractive option for smaller businesses or those starting with inbound marketing.
- Disadvantages: While HubSpot offers an extensive set of features, its capabilities may not be as advanced or customizable as some other enterprise-level solutions. Additionally, as your organization grows and requires more advanced tools and features, HubSpot’s pricing can become quite expensive.
Omeda
- Advantages: Omeda is an end-to-end audience management platform that combines a customer data platform, email and marketing automation tools, subscription management, form builder, website tracking, and marketing analytics in one place. This comprehensive suite of tools makes it easier for marketing teams to streamline their processes, manage data more effectively, and execute targeted campaigns.
- Disadvantages: Omeda may not be as widely known or have as extensive a user community as some other enterprise marketing solutions, which could mean fewer resources for learning and support. Additionally, while it offers a wide range of features, some organizations may find that its capabilities don’t align precisely with their specific needs or that they require further customization and integration with other tools.
Case studies and success stories
You’ve heard enough about how marketing enterprise solutions drive business success. Now let’s see some results. Read on to see how companies have simplified their workflows and engaged their audiences with Omeda.
Northstar Travel Group partnered with Omeda to simplify their MarTech stack and better organize and capitalize on their first-party audience data. This resulted in a 37% increase in audience members, a 56% increase in email efficiency, and a 100% reallocation of database and development resources.
PMMI Media Group, a B2B media company, used Omeda’s form builder and metering tools to collect first-party data without losing records to form abandonment. They were able to convert anonymous website visitors to known and collect first-party data points that could be passed on to their sales team for lead nurturing, resulting in over 6,300 submissions passing through page 1, with over 50% being new to the PMMI database.