With increased pressure on marketing budgets, companies are looking for new ways to maximize their ROI. Leveraging a marketing intranet will help your organization get more for its marketing buck.
Streamlined business processes, better information sharing, comprehensive customer information, and up-to-date market research make your marketing budgets go further. Plus, you’ll find many additional business benefits on offer, making the modern intranet an all-round solution for today’s digital workplace.
Here’s everything you need to know about the employee intranet and marketing teams. We’ll explore how intranet tools can supercharge your marketing efforts while delivering key advantages for other departments.
1. Streamlined Processes
More efficient, streamlined processes on the company intranet are a great way to reduce overheads. And that applies to all departments, not just marketing teams.
Let’s look at a standard marketing task of preparing a product launch and explore how the intranet enhances the process.
Data Gathering And Analysis
Often requiring the input of several teams, the marketing intranet’s collaborative workspaces make this first phase of a product launch easy. All relevant data is shared and discussed in one intranet platform: no more long meetings or emailed updates.
Developing Marketing Materials
Brainstorming ideas can also take place in a collaborative workspace. Use embedded Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 apps for real-time collaboration on documents. Several employees can work on a draft at the same time. Think about all the effort that goes into collating comments on drafts and the amount of email generated. An intranet site reduces these coordination costs and provides a speedier process overall.
Product Launch
The intranet’s corporate calendar makes it easy to inform employees about product launches or other vital events. A ‘hot news’ button on the intranet homepage alerts all staff to a product launch. Publishing product information on the intranet ensures frontline workers provide an immediate, knowledgeable response to clients’ queries.
So, whether it’s a product launch or a new marketing strategy, plenty of savings can be achieved. Streamlined and collaborative processes on the intranet website equal more marketing bang for your buck. This is important as marketing team budgets become tighter and companies seek new ways to increase ROI.
2. Better Information Sharing
The marketing department is often a hub for critical company information. And better information sharing can result in significant savings.
With a company intranet, you can easily share corporate branding and marketing materials. These include graphics, logos, adverts, email templates, case studies, and customer feedback.
A document management system and advanced search enable workers to source information directly from the corporate intranet. This frees marketing teams from responding to requests and queries. Instead, they can get on with other essential jobs.
Furthermore, employees can be confident that the marketing intranet is current and up to date. The possibility of making embarrassing or costly errors with incorrect or outdated branding materials is reduced.
The marketing intranet’s calendar is another great communication tool. We’ve all experienced siloed departments and a lack of coordination. We know of one marketing department that scheduled a major push for a current product. However, they discovered at the eleventh hour that R&D instead had plans to release a new version next month! These scenarios arise because of breakdowns in communication and the absence of a central alert system. The company calendar on the marketing intranet prevents these costly errors from happening.
3. Centralized Customer Information
A primary task for marketing departments is conducting market research and acting as the customer voice within the organization.
The modern intranet is the perfect place for storing and sharing customer information, including feedback, Google Analytics, surveys, and case studies. Everything is held in one central location for quick and easy access. Intranet platforms also contain information on products and services, geographical areas, or individual customers. It’s the go-to resource for the entire company, informing the work of several teams and not just marketing.
Customers provide essential feedback on your products and services through a range of channels. It could be a Facebook comment, tweet, phone conversation, or email. Collecting all interactions in one centrally held database on the marketing intranet ensures you have comprehensive customer profiles. And it’s readily accessible to all staff 24/7.
4. Integrate Your CRM Platform And Marketing Intranet
Unlike traditional intranets, the modern intranet takes things to a new level by integrating with customer relationship management (CRM) software. Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM systems. You can provide gateway access through your marketing intranet using a simple web form.
Salesforce software enables you to log, manage, and analyze every touchpoint with customers and prospects. CRM software is a complete solution, with order histories, support calls, sales leads, and customized marketing.
However, Salesforce licenses can be expensive, especially for small businesses. To get the most out of Salesforce, you have to keep the platform updated with data. This data-inputting task usually falls to admin and support staff, who often do not use Salesforce to its full potential. So, a more cost-effective solution is to use an intranet web form rather than buying expensive licenses for support staff. This ensures team members can connect to Salesforce using a single sign-on via the company intranet.
Creating a web form is simple. Use the marketing intranet’s intuitive forms builder and follow the simple wizard. Next, map all the relevant Salesforce fields you need into your customized form fields. All the data is conveyed to Salesforce through the online form. There’s no need for any complicated code to connect the two platforms.
Even better, you don’t have to buy unnecessary Salesforce licenses. Marketing staff can enjoy the benefits of Salesforce’s personalized digital marketing platform minus a hefty price tag. The hassle of juggling different screens, logins, and passwords has also been eliminated.
5. Better Management Of Branding Materials
The company intranet improves access to all brand assets and marketing collateral. With one central repository, workers know exactly where to go for all the resources needed to support a successful campaign. Whether it’s case studies, customer personas, photos, logos, or color swatches, marketing teams have complete control over managing these crucial assets. Your permission settings ensure that only authorized users have access.
6. Automated Marketing Processes
We have already touched on this, but automated processes are such a game-changer that they deserve their own section.
Automated approvals and workflows save you time. Faster and more accurate automated processes mean employees can focus on delivering your marketing strategy. The team won’t be distracted by responding to queries or chasing updates. Whether it’s a content sign-off request or an external branding query, online automated forms are more efficient and effective.
7. Easy Access To Comprehensive Market Research And Client Data
The marketing department is also responsible for conducting market research on behalf of the business. The insights gained help build a clear understanding of what customers really want. Market research allows managers to identify new opportunities. And it informs the process of product refinement and redevelopment. Plus, market research involves analyzing the competition to support superior product development and more efficient marketing techniques.
Market research may be a critical function for businesses, but the results are not widely publicized all too often. Knowing what customers think and competitors are doing is relevant to the entire organization.
Publishing market research on the intranet gives all employees access to the results. From frontline workers to the CEO, staff can use the data to inform their daily work. And it ensures you deliver the right marketing messages to your target audiences. Alert employees to important market research news or updates through the intranet newsfeed and the integrated notifications feature.
Positive customer feedback and market research are also excellent motivators for employees. Use them to build a strong company culture and a sense of purpose. This is especially important for those workers in supporting rather than customer-facing roles.
8. Idea Generation And Increased Collaboration
Marketing is all about implementing new, creative campaign ideas to give your company a unique competitive edge.
Generating ideas is usually a collaborative process, as two heads are better than one. Set up a project workspace on the company intranet to share insights, brainstorm ideas, and deliver effective idea management. Project workspaces simplify collaboration with other departments, making it easier to develop innovative ideas and get a product out to potential audiences. Use the project forums to gather feedback on a campaign, encourage problem-solving, and share marketing best practices.
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 allow multiple staff to edit and comment on documents in real-time. Embed them directly into your intranet site for quick and easy access. You can also include explanatory notes and provide context directly on the intranet page.
A marketing intranet saves time and reduces coordination costs, helping your budget go further.
9. Easy Collaboration With External Parties
The benefits of the marketing intranet’s collaboration tools extend beyond the internal team.
Set up a portal or extranet for easy collaboration with people outside the organization. An extranet works much like the company intranet. However, external partners can only access certain parts. Companies use portals to share files, graphics, or images with designers, freelancers, and printers.
Save time and hassle with the marketing intranet’s streamlined external collaboration tools.
10. Align Internal And External Branding
Brand consistency is challenging when your business operates in several markets and involves remote workers spread over wide geographical areas. How do you ensure your brand is consistent across every region and department? Company intranets offer a solution.
All corporate brand assets and materials are held in one central space, and a set of guidelines details how these assets should be used. Intranet software ensures that colleagues can share best practice insights and knowledge on what works for which customers. A centralized platform simplifies the alignment of internal and external branding and gives the marketing team control over the management of branding assets in all formats.
11. Enhanced Internal Communication
Many companies have set up a marketing department blog on their company intranet to enhance internal communications. In addition to internal updates, you can share external blog posts so employees know what’s going out to customers. Why not use the blog to publicize press releases and product updates so everyone in the organization is on the same page?
Furthermore, the company intranet is the perfect platform to celebrate marketing’s achievements and successes.
Employee recognition is an excellent motivator for staff across the business. All the best intranet software publishes positive customer feedback and testimonials. It’s a fantastic vehicle for acknowledging employees’ efforts and demonstrating their value to customers and the whole organization.
Why not engage employees with peer-to-peer recognition? A shoutout on the intranet homepage from a grateful coworker does wonders for employee engagement and boosts employee adoption of the platform.
Another option used by many businesses is a dedicated # channel on the intranet’s team chat or instant messaging feature. Use the channel for super-fast responses to employees’ queries. And keep them informed with timely updates on all the latest marketing news and events.
Marketing Intranet For Increased ROI
A marketing intranet solution means you can manage all activities in one integrated, comprehensive digital workplace.
Here’s a summary of how the company intranet can impact the bottom line and deliver more bang for your marketing buck.
- Improve internal communications and celebrate your achievements
- Take control of brand assets and marketing collateral, ensuring all staff are on the same page
- Centralize customer information and market research
- Integrate the employee intranet with your CRM for a powerful combination
- Enhance collaboration opportunities with internal and external parties
- Share marketing information and assets more easily
- Automate approvals for more efficient workflows
Additional Company Intranet Business Benefits
It’s not just the marketing team that stands to benefit from a company intranet. Other departments have much to gain, including the following:
- Increased workforce productivity
- Improved team integration and collaboration
- Upgraded internal communications
- Enhanced employee engagement
- Less time spent on sourcing and updating company information
- Develop a positive company culture with social features and social networking
About MyHub
We are a leading provider of company intranet software. Beautifully designed and easy to set up and manage, MyHub’s intranet tools are used by marketing departments and businesses worldwide.
Want to get more for your marketing dollar and improve your bottom line across the whole organization? Then, contact the expert MyHub team. Our all-in-one intranet solution comes packed with all the tools employees need to deliver an effective marketing intranet.
Sign up for a free demo or 14-day trial and get started on your new intranet today.
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