This article highlights the characteristics and differences of marketing portals for self-services and marketing automation platforms as well as integration options.
Marketing portals are made available to retail and distribution partners of brand companies for self-services. In a B2B shop, corporate design-compliant templates for print and digital channels or print-on-demand publications are available, which can be individually adapted and ordered decentrally.
Marketing automation systems, on the other hand, are primarily used for personalized central marketing campaigns that are automated in a workflow controlled manner and provide outputs for various digital channels and print mailings.
The starting position
In the IT landscape of many companies, there are numerous isolated solutions. A specific example of this is a machine manufacturer that sells worldwide via e-commerce, retailers and subsidiaries. The IT systems, which are operated standalone, include a print shop, promotional products shop, newsletter tool, web CMS, intranet and a portal for corporate design materials and guidelines.
The current situation has various disadvantages: There are no uniform accesses, no uniform reporting and no uniform user interfaces. In addition, many processes are still manual and therefore inefficient. A uniform and centralized IT solution would be the ideal solution for simplifying processes and increasing efficiency.
Definition of marketing portals with self-services
Marketing portals with self-service functions offer a wide range of print and digital advertising tools, which are primarily suitable for brand companies with decentralized structures. These include franchises, retailers or wholesalers, banks, insurance companies and automotive manufacturers. But companies and organizations with a large number of advertising materials also benefit from a platform that allows templates to be retrieved and adapted and ordered with just a few clicks.
Definition of marketing automation systems
With marketing automation systems, companies can effectively manage targeted and personalized marketing campaigns. By creating and networking several advertising materials used in parallel, advertising campaigns can be designed, which can typically consist of web forms, product landing pages, email newsletters, print mailings, social media posts and ads.
First, recipient and target group data are combined, profiled and behavioral patterns analyzed in the systems, and then personalized content is played out. For example, an interested party or a target group can be addressed specifically with information about a specific product.
The central management of the campaign makes it possible to keep an eye on success at any time and make adjustments if necessary. This ensures that campaigns achieve the desired results.
Differences between marketing portals and marketing automation systems
Marketing portals and marketing automation systems differ in many ways.
A marketing portal usually starts with advertising material templates as a starting point and the advertising material adjustment is carried out through individualization. Advertising material is selected either individually or in the form of campaigns. The degree of networking between advertising materials is generally low.
The system control is central and can be controlled by both end users and administrators, making it easy to use for end users but more complex for administrators. The level of automation is semi-automatic, as advertising material is often finalized through manual input; processes such as generating preview or print PDF files, ordering or approval processes, on the other hand, are automatically controlled by workflows.
In contrast, a marketing automation system starts with customer and target group data as a starting point. The advertising materials are adapted through personalization either for recipients or target groups and the selection is made in the form of campaigns. The advertising media are usually interlinked, for example through links. The system control is central and the operation is usually complex for all users. The campaign process is fully automated based on a workflow.
Case study: Marketing portal as a basis for marketing automation
The following anonymized case describes a marketing portal for a prefabricated house manufacturer that has integrated marketing automation processes into its system.
The prefabricated house manufacturer regularly organizes home visits for potential customers. In order to promote these events, sales staff individualize and activate landing pages, print and online ads for this campaign via the marketing portal. In order to transfer recipient data to the marketing portal, there are interfaces for data exchange between the marketing portal and a CRM (customer relationship management) system.
Each advertising medium has an individual workflow. In practice, the campaigns are configured and ordered by sales staff around four weeks before the event. The configuration contains the basic parameters of the event, such as the date and location of the house inspection. These parameters are then automatically incorporated into the advertising material templates. If necessary, the user can adjust the result again or even exclude individual advertising materials from the campaign.
The order is checked and approved by the internal clearing house. Depending on the advertising medium, automated steps are then carried out. In the case of a print mailing, the PDF is sent to the digital printer and in the case of an e-mail newsletter, the PDF is sent automatically one week before the event.
This process replaces the call and personalization of individual advertising media with the one-time call of a campaign that already contains various advertising media. The individual information only needs to be entered once and the processes are mostly automated.
Case study: Marketing automation system as a basis for a self-service tool
This practical case for marketing automation in connection with marketing portals involves the SNELLO solution from the providerSE-Raumwerk based on the Evalanche marketing automation system from scNetworks. SNELLO can be integrated into any marketing portal standalone or via an API (Application Programming Interface).
The process:
A central template with predefined design guidelines is provided in the portal.
End users can change approved elements, such as text and images or button labels and the target URL of the call-to-actions (CTAs).
Articles, which may be freely editable, from central marketing can be integrated into the mailings, which can vary dynamically depending on the recipient or target group based on time and rules.
All changes in the mailing are shown in a preview.
A test delivery allows users to check the mailing in their own mail client.
Approval processes or quality assurance reviews with teammates can be carried out.
The delivery time can either be planned or started immediately.
The regional and relevant recipient data sets can either be provided by central marketing or uploaded by the sales partners themselves. Users can import a specially formatted Excel spreadsheet with title, first and last names, and email addresses. In any case, care must be taken to ensure that the data protection regulations are observed.
synopsis
Self-service marketing portals expand your solutions with campaign-oriented automated advertising material creation, which, depending on the expansion stage, also includes media booking. Traditional marketing automation channels, such as mailings or newsletters, can be integrated.
Marketing automation platforms, which are rather complex as centrally controlled solutions and can only be used by specialists, are on the other hand being expanded to include special applications with a user-friendly interface. This allows even IT and marketing laymen to adapt and manage personalized advertising materials such as print mailings and email newsletters.
Companies can thus ensure that their trade and distribution partners have access to all relevant media channels. This enables them to communicate more effectively and maintain their brand image.
