MARKETING INSIGHTS: Increase Productivity and Communication with an Intranet
Thursday, May 1, 2008 by Bob Chernet
The job of a marketing manager is not relegated solely to developing effective customer-facing interactions. Often, there is a large support requirement necessary for the staff who carries out the marketing tactics, and the sales force who do the pick-and-shovel work of building relationships with customers and closing orders.
In earlier times (dare we say less than 10 years ago?) a large percentage of marketing’s time, effort and budget was committed to creating brochures or support materials, obtaining print bids, maintaining an inventory of physical documents, and distributing them across town or around the world to sales reps or branch offices. The costs were huge, the lead-time unrealistic, and the ability to personalize virtually nonexistent.
Of course these days, when FedEx just can’t get it there fast enough or cheap enough, there is an extremely cost-efficient way of supplying field reps with the marketing communications and materials they need, when they need it, as they need it.
Intranets, or private company web portals accessible worldwide behind a secure log-in, have been helping companies deliver the latest, most relevant and most personalized data for customers and prospective clients. Unfortunately, many businesses either don’t know about them, how they can be used to their benefit, or how their offices can take advantage of them.
Simply stated, an intranet is nothing more than a private version of a company’s web site, offering proprietary information for personnel and marketing/sales departments in real-time, that can be updated and customized as the need requires. For example, calculate the time and budget savings you’ll realize by putting all of your product brochures on an intranet for your sales force to download and customize whenever the need arises. Pulling marcom from an intranet guarantees that it will be the freshest, most up-to-date versions available.
Corporations can provide private back-channel intranet communication to local or remote personnel with company news, audio/video conferences, sales presentations, and updates regarding strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization, as well as other productivity enhancers such as CRM tools and project management processes.
Microsoft’s SharePoint application has taken intranet productivity to another level, where large numbers of employees can access, review, discuss and change documents, applications and presentations within a collaborative yet secure environment. In these days of diverse office locations and the increasing demand for telecommuting, intranets have become the de facto method for enterprise-level communication and interaction.
If you haven’t thought about implementing a company intranet, you probably should. The benefits are numerous and the cost savings exponential. And, anything that helps an organization work smarter, more accurately and in harmony with strategic objectives can only pay big dividends in productivity and sales.
Agree? Disagree? Have a success story? Have a question? Share it with me at: bob_chernet@viewmark.com
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© 2008 Bob Chernet
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