Local Marketing Automation: 8 Steps for Selection and Implementation - White Paper

7/31/2019 Local Marketing Automation: 8 Steps for Selection and Implementation - White Paper

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LOCAL

MARKETINGAUTOMATION

Local Marketing. Automated.

LocaL Marketing autoMation:8 StepS for SeLection & iMpLeMentatio

PAPER INTENDED FOR:

Buyng Sge:

Education

ImplementationofLMASystem

udence:

SponsorsorProgramManagersofLMAInitiativesFocuS:

LocalMarketingAutomationBestPractices

LocalMarketingImplementationPlanning

Role:

DecisionMaker

Influencer

ProgramManager

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LocaL Marketing autoMation:8 StepS for SeLection &

iMpLeMentation

ExEIVESMMA 1WhLALMAEIAMAI? 1

PR : SRegc Plnnng nd VendoR Selecon 2

SEP#1:DEIELMASAE 2

SEP#2:IEVIEWAELLSELEhEIhVED 3

SEP#3:EAEhEIhSAEhLDES 3

PR : mPlemenon Roug ongong PRogRm mngemen 5

SEP#4:AhEDDAA 5

SEP#5:DESIEAIVEEMPLAESLALMAESESS 6

SEP#6:ESABLIShAIIIEASEADPI 6

SEP#7:LAhBIESEAILIAESAEIE 7SEP#8:EVIEW,EIEADIMPVEPSLAh 7

LALMAEIAMAISSEMIMPLEMEAIIMELIE 8

ABBALIh 9


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11111LocalMarketingAutomation:8StepsforSelection&Implementation

execuVe SummRyAccording to a 2011 CMO Council study, 62% of national marketers are not yet incorporating local marketing

automation platforms. If youre one of them, this paper is for you.

Implementing local marketing automation (LMA) is not eortless, but if you know the right steps to take its

not as dicult as you might think.

The goal of this paper is to educate national marketers on the process of rolling out a local marketing

automation platform from project kick-o to launch to ongoing management including a timeline from

vendor selection to post-launch.

Wy locl mRkeng uomon?

If youre a national brand marketer, there is little doubt that you recognize

the gap in control and eectiveness between brand marketing and local

marketing. At the national level, youre able to control everything strategy,

brand message, creative execution, media tactics and measurement because

regardless of whether the work is done in-house or with a combination of

marketing services partners, you have oversight and are involved. Most likely,

you also use some type of marketing automation technology to help you

manage and measure your national-level marketing campaigns.

But when it comes to your brands local-level marketing, especially if youre

a national brand that sells through a local distribution network (e.g. dealers,

distributors, agents, franchisees or retailers), marketing control takes a turn

for the worse and the challenges of maintaining your brands strategy and

eectiveness multiply. You have to rely on local aliates often hundreds or

even thousands of independent businesses with competing responsibilities,

motivations and loyalties to carry out your brands marketing across a highly

fragmented landscape of media outlets. And you have little visibility into howmarketing is executed, much less how well it performs.

A 2011 study published by the CMO Council called Localize to Optimize

Sales Channel Eectiveness, reported that CMOs at national brands who sell

through local outlets recognize the importance of gaining more control over

local marketing they believe that localized marketing is essential to the

growth and protability of their business, particularly as it relates to demand

generation and sell-through of products and services. Thus, CMOs are looking

to make signicant changes and improvements in how they implement local

marketing activities.

According to the study, one of the ways national brand marketers are looking to improve their local

marketing is by using local marketing automation (LMA) platforms, but more marketers need to become

familiar with them:

Just 30% of marketers have embraced local marketing automation platforms, resources and toolscompared to 62% who either dont have them or are only now evaluating these options

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PR : SRegc Plnnng & VendoR Selecon

SeP #1: deFne youR lm SRegy uP FRon

Prior to reviewing local marketing automation platform vendors, make sure

youre clear about why youre looking for an LMA solution. Is too much of your

distributed marketing process still manual? Does your current system require

aliates to work with multiple vendors and platforms to execute a singlecampaign? Is your current marketing process too brand-focused, making it

dicult for aliates to tailor your brand materials for their market? Are aliates

not adopting current systems and/or marketing strategies?

Many national brands already have some form of LMA in place, but nd they

need a more comprehensive solution that 1) supports all types of media relevant

to their strategy, 2) enables consolidation of multiple systems into a single

solution, 3) provides higher levels of customization to their aliates and 4)

delivers aggregated local marketing analytics and reporting so they can identify

what is and isnt working and make adjustments.

After youve claried your needs, dene the objectives and strategy for your new

local marketing automation system. The questions in the sidebar will help get

you started. Your answers will provide a guide for your project team and the LMA

vendor you select throughout the implementation process. The more you dene

up front, the better prepared youll be to make decisions along the way and the

more smoothly your implementation will go.

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SeP #2: neRVeW cReFully o Selec e Rg Vendo R FoR youR needS

After youve dened your strategy, its time to research and interview local marketing automation vendors

and their software platforms. Start by researching the local marketing automation market and then make

a list of potential vendors. Shorten the list by eliminating those that clearly dont t your basic criteria.

Next, contact the vendors that you want to interview and provide them with information about your local

marketing automation objectives. Be sure to ask each vendor to conduct a live software demonstration to

understand how their solution works. Before the demonstration, create a list of questions like the ones inthe sidebar to learn more about each vendors solution. (see Fir 1 for Interview Questions)

SeP #3: engge e Rg SkeoldeRS o keeP e PRoec on Rck

Before you begin implementation, identify other groups that will be impacted by the new system or that

will have some inuence on the implementation process. Its important to consider this early in the process

and get buy-in because if a new stakeholder is brought in after a lot of the implementation work has been

done, it can extend timelines, increase costs, and adversely aect end users if an existing system is planned

to go oine by a certain time. Be sure to position the LMA provider being chosen as another partner

because some stakeholders, particularly marketing services partners or agencies, could feel unnecessarily

threatened if they dont have a clear understanding of the LMA providers role.

R Stahrs

frati h () Since there is underlying technical data that will be necessary to run thesystem, a liaison from your IT department should be involved during implementation and ongoingmanagement of your LMA system. Including IT from the beginning of the project will allow them tointervene and provide data when its needed. (See Step #4 for more information on IT involvement.)

cha / c-p marti If the local marketing automation project is being driven by your corporatecommunications or brand team, then a stakeholder from your Channel / Co-op Marketing team shouldbe identied.

crprat ciatis / Brai Conversely, if the project is being driven by your channel / co-opteam, then someone from your corporate communications / branding team should be involved.

crprat raii If you have a corporate training program, consider including a representative duringthe implementation process so they can become familiar with the system and put together a trainingcurriculum if you choose to have them conduct training rather than the LMA vendor. (See Step #6 formore information on training.)

tia iats / iat marti ci mbrs - Its a good idea to include a few key aliaterepresentatives who you consider to be inuential to adoption success. If you have an Aliate MarketingCouncil, choose a few key members to involve during implementation.

marti Srvis Partrs / is Include contacts from any of your marketing agencies whoparticipate in creating or executing your local marketing materials.


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Qstis fr trviwi Pttia lm Vrs

Prt Ftiait / ptati

What are the primary automation and management features of your product?

For which media channels can our creative be customized and distributed? How does your software enable or restrict creative template customization/

localization?

What types of data would you need us to provide about our aliates?

Can your system automate co-op marketing funding and reimbursement?

How do you manage the implementation process for your LMA system?What are the steps involved?

How long does it typically take to implement your LMA system?

What resources are required to implement your LMA system?

What level of ongoing account management is provided, both for our corporatemarketing contacts and our aliates?

What type of metrics, analytics and reports are provided, and on what frequency?

What types of customers do you serve best?

Who are some of your key customers and how do they use your productand/or services?

Can you provide customer references?

Prii

How do you price your software? Is it subscription-based or do you provide seat-licenses?

Do we have to pay for software updates?

How do you price your services?

Do you mark up or take commissions on any of your creative production, printing ormedia services?

Are you vendor agnostic when it comes to working with creative agencies, printersand media service agencies?

Spprt/raii

How much training do you oer and how much is typically needed?

How do you conduct training?

Can your training be customized?

What types of customer and technical support do you oer post-implementation?

Fir 1
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PR : mPlemenon Roug ongong PRogRm mngemen

Once youve selected a vendor and rounded up your stakeholders, its time to begin implementation.

Depending on the local marketing automation vendor that you select, Steps 4 8 will vary in their details,

but the typical steps should be similar to whats outlined here.

SeP #4: geR good d o ge e moS FRom youR lm SySem

A good LMA vendor will assess your existing data and guide you in gathering additional information

needed to enable you and your aliates to get the most out of the software and your local marketing in

general. The higher the level of data integration, the more intuitive and eective the LMA system will be.

Your IT department will be able to provide your LMA vendor with your existing data.

Comprehensive data about your aliates will allow the LMA software to pre- populate creative templates

with the information to customize and localize campaigns. This includes business names, locations, phone

numbers, websites, hours, logos, maps, products available and services oered.

Comprehensive data also enables you to automate your co-op funding and reimbursement processes. By

integrating and automating the strategic planning, creative execution and nancial aspects of your co-op

program, you can increase aliate usage and reduce manual tactics.

By taking the time to gather good data up front, your LMA software will reduce the eorts required of brand

marketers and aliates to coordinate tactical campaign logistics so they can concentrate on more strategic

campaign elements, such as which oers to provide, which calls-to-action to use, what the media mix will

be, and so forth.

On the more technical side, be aware that the information and process by which your aliates access your

LMA system is an important upfront data consideration. This is another area in which it will be important to

have a direct contact from your IT department involved.

Qstis a r partt wi t sir:

Who in your organization will use the LMA system?

Will they have to install any special software or modify their network access settings in order to use theLMA system?

How will aliates access the system? Direct access, single-sign-on (SSO), or self-sign-up?

How will aliate access be provisioned and maintained?

How are aliates identied in your organizations ERP/CRM system?

How is aliate data managed, updated, exported?

What subset of aliate data is used in marketing materials?

How do aliates identify themselves? For example, is the ID# they use to sign in and identify themselves

dierent from the ID# that the brand team uses to identify them?


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SeP #5: deSgn youR cReVe emPleS FoR locl mR ke SucceSS

When providing branded creative templates to your aliates, you must balance your needs to control the

brands creative design and message with the needs of your aliates to manage their marketing in a way

that works best for them locally. Too often, brand control outweighs local relevance to the extent that the

creative is not seen as useful by aliates. Oering only national ads defeats the point of implementing a

local marketing automation system.

Local marketing is most successful when the promotion and aliate(s) are featured more prominently than

the brand and aliates are usually happier with this balance. A good rule-of-thumb is to devote 2/3 of the

ad space to the promotion/aliate and 1/3 to the national brand.

With this in mind, brand marketers implementing LMA systems often nd there is work to be done with

regard to adapting existing creative to make it successful in local markets.

During the LMA implementation process, you will need to make decisions about how your brands creative

elements will be modied for localization. Youll need to consider:

Which vendor(s) will update the creative? (E.g. national agency, LMAvendor, another creative shop?)

Who in your brand organization needs to approve the creative beforeit can be delivered to the vendor?

What is the timeline needed for the creative changes to be made?

What specic media types will be made available to aliates?(E.g. local websites, online display ads, email, direct mail, in-store,traditional broadcast, etc.?)

What specic creative pieces exist for those media types? Are thesource les readily available?

How do the creative pieces correspond to the strategy as it relates tolocal marketing eorts?

If the strategy is to drive leads to local aliates, is the creativedesigned to accomplish that task?

Do the creative pieces provide sucient space for localization (dealername, address, maps, geographically specic content)?

SeP #6: eSBlS Rnng o ncReSe doPon oF youR locl mRkeng uomon SySem

Proper training increases adoption and utility of a local marketing automation system. The transformationfrom one-o, ad hoc marketing eorts to a process-oriented system will require an adjustment for bothyour brand team and your aliates, but the results are well worth it. Ensuring that both groups understandthe capabilities of the new system and the mechanics of its use will ease the transition period and increaseadoption.

Prior to launching your new LMA system, it is important to train marketing and sales sta (e.g. salesmanagers, account managers, eld marketing managers) that directly support aliates so they are availableto answer questions, provide guidance and share best practices.

You will also need to determine which training formats and support materials will work best for your aliates.Training can take the form of live and recorded webinars, on-site group or individual training at aliate

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locations or at national conferences or conventions, and printed training materials such as PowerPoint decksand other documents.

After your new LMA software system is launched, youll also need a plan for ongoing training. This will includetraining for new aliates as they join, in addition to continual training for existing users to make them awareof new features as the software evolves.

Training can be conducted by your LMA vendor, or you can have them train members of your corporate staso theyre able to provide ongoing training services to your aliates.

SeP #7: lunc Bg enSuRe FFleS ke noce

Treat the launch of your new LMA system like a product launch. Do it right so that your aliates will not onlybe aware of it, but will understand the benets and adopt it. New marketing initiatives often roll out tooslowly or too quickly without fanfare. Busy aliates dont have time to fully embrace what is available to themand may not understand why it is there. Make it clear that this eort is going to improve their bottom line.

Educate your aliates with marketing materials and training. Be clear about their role and any actions theyneed to take. Make sure they know who to call when they have questions.

Also prepare your internal organization for the launch. Create presentations and a Frequently AskedQuestions (FAQ) document to educate executives and the broader marketing sta to ensure they are aware ofthe LMA system, can tout its benets, and know who is in charge of it.

Consider promoting the launch externally through a press announcement, too. Let the world know thatyoure implementing innovative technology that helps you and your aliates grow leads, market moreeciently and increase your competitive edge.

SeP #8: ReVeW, ReFne nd mPRoVe PoS lunc; Pln ongong mngemen

Within 120 days post-launch, set a date to evaluate system performance and aliate adoption to determine ifany strategic adjustments need to be made as you move forward and the program evolves. User feedback isan important part of this process and will provide information such as:

Does creative need to be modied?

Do additional creative pieces need to be oered?

Are there any issues with pricing and ordering?

Consider how your LMA system will be rened and who will be in charge of its ongoing programmanagement. Whats great is that the local marketing automation system should reduce the time it takesyour team to manage distributed marketing programs. Depending on your strategy and the size of yourcompany, managing the LMA system itself may be a portion of one persons job or it may fall to multiplepeople, but it should not be burdensome.

moVe FoRWRd W conFdence

Better localized marketing is essential to growth and protability of your national brand. Implementing

a local marketing automation system will help you make signicant local marketing changes andimprovements. While it takes some planning and time, now that you understand the steps involved youshould feel empowered to move forward condently.


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TIMELINE:

LOCAL MARKETING AUTOMATION

SySTEM IMPLEMENTATION


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Bou BlooBalihoo is the premier provider of local marketing automation technology and services to national brands with

local marketing needs.

Balihoo enables enterprise-class marketing at the local level and gives national brands full visibility into all

local marketing activities and results.

Providing a combination of web-based software and services, Balihoo enables national brands to dramaticallyreduce marketing expenses and immediately increase local sales revenue. For local aliates, Balihoo takes

the complexity out of local marketingmaking it easy to quickly implement an expert, integrated marketing

strategy that is consistent with the national brand.

Let Balihoo help your brand assess its online local marketing eectiveness.

866-466-9914

[email protected]

Balihoo.com

@Balihoo

Local Marketing. Automated.

2011 Balihoo, Inc.

All rights reserved.
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Local Marketing Automation: 8 Steps for Selection and Implementation - White Paper