Part 2 – Building the Perfect Beast – The Ecosystem

As a continuation of my earlier blog post on how to build the perfect marketing beast, this post will focus on the overall ecosystem – from the center of the ecosystem to outer edges. 

Before we start, don’t kid yourself, building this ecosystem takes time, effort, support, vision, financial and human capital.  Most companies start the journey with good intentions but discontinue the effort quickly based on changes in strategy, financial constraints, lack of IT support, patience or the lack of substantial results prior to the completion of major milestones.

Step 1:             Determine the center point of the ecosystem – this is absolutely the most critical aspect of designing the technology ecosystem.   Why?  It’s the point where all other platforms or activities hang off from.   I like to refer to this as the “home” of tracking and customer data.  This system can be:  a CRM system, ERP system, marketing automation platform, relational or inverted database, etc.  Each has its own unique positive and negative traits.   You’ll need to work with your IT department to determine which system might work best for your circumstances and overall goals.

I’ve used SQL, Oracle and a host of other databases, ERP and marketing automation systems during my career.  My preference is a true “marketing system” more specifically a Marketing Automation System (MAS).  And I’ve used both of the two major players Eloqua and Marketo. 

For me, Marketo seems to be easier to implement and not taking as many IT resources to maintain or expand. MAS’s allow marketers to store specific campaign, tactic and customer data in a format which the non-technical marketer can use and understand.   In addition, it creates the needed “memory” of activities and behavior which came from all marketing activities.  It also allows for a database which has the ability to stand alone or integrate with other internal or new systems.   The use of metrics and graphical representation of data is very intuitive and provides real data which can be acted upon. 

I’m a big believer in simple is better.    

I’ve bought the systems which were sold on the premise they could almost launch a space shuttle – but most times I’ve never had to launch the space shuttle.

Stay tuned for the next post where I’ll discuss the “core” types of platforms or technology which should surround your center point.

Scott