Already bought the ‘Ferrari’ of MarTech? We’ll show you how to drive it.

You weighed the options, listened to your advisors, and heard the sales pitches. You took the plunge and invested in the ‘Ferrari’ of MarTech, including all the bells & whistles your vendor highlighted. But now that it’s implemented, it’s not performing the way you’d hoped. Those streamlined, optimized flows just aren’t happening. Why? Because properly driving a Ferrari takes preparation, training, skill, and practice. And VML can get you there.

You won’t see a lot of ROI if you forget why you bought the tech in the first place.

Remembering where you came from

In an ideal situation, VML prefers to engage with you before you make a major MarTech purchase. Then, we can advise you of all the ways to optimize your spend and get precisely the product you truly need. But we can add a lot of value even if you’ve already got the Ferrari in-house.

There are five critical pillars to our approach to optimizing your MarTech spend. They’re all equally important, and must all be in balance with each other. Remaining focused on the purpose of your purchase is one of them. Chances are, you bought the tech because you wanted to align, manage, and optimize your current marketing efforts.

But, now that you’ve seen all the bells & whistles, and know your tech has AI capabilities, a few of your colleagues are having a lot of fun playing around with those. And most of your colleagues are drowning in the complexity of the tools. If you don’t go back to the basics first, you won’t see a lot of ROI from those AI projects, and you won’t get the rest of your teams on board. You’ll see bigger and faster returns if you remember your initial goals.

Keeping the focus where it belongs

Next is our commitment to keeping the Single Customer View intact as much as possible across your entire tech landscape. From brick-and-mortar store to online shop and marketplace to Customer Service and Support, every team in your company should be able to access the crucial customer data that drives loyalty and sales. And you need to be able to analyze customer behavior across channels in a snap.

VML helps you balance five critical pillars: Purpose, the Single Customer View, Cost, Compliance, and Usability.

Using tools for their intended purpose

Prioritizing the health and welfare of your company is always a key priority, so the next pillar is to manage costs. Before we add on or change systems, enable capabilities or develop features, we ensure they’re the right ones. We’ll make sure you’re not paying for things you don’t need or can’t use.

The next pillar is compliance. And those issues can pop up where you least expect them. Sometimes, our clients use products in ways they were never intended to be used. One of your CRM tools doesn’t charge for storage? Well, then, why not dump all your customer data there? But that tool was never intended for data storage, which is why they don’t charge for it. And why it likely also doesn’t comply with regulatory standards for data protection. We’ll show you why misusing your tools is like putting diesel in a gas Ferrari. If it runs at all, it’ll run slowly and inefficiently, and will be constantly on the verge of a breakdown. We’ll make sure your tools are used as they were intended, and keep you compliant across the board.

Optimizing your most essential tool

Last, but certainly not least, all this tech and all these changes are worthless if they’re too complex or difficult to use. We ensure that your whole system is set up for ultimate usability. After all, your teams are an essential tool in your toolbox. They’re the ones who actually execute your strategy and help you achieve your objectives. So, we take the time to ensure that the tech you’ve implemented is navigable, usable, and manageable for marketing employees at every level. So that not a single dime you’ve paid goes to waste.

Your teams are essential for executing your strategy. They have to be able to use the tech you’ve bought.

Designing based on need

VML adds value by addressing your specific needs when it comes to your MarTech Ferrari. For some clients, that simply means implementing an email tool. When stores aren’t trained in using the Ferrari tech, they often ‘go rogue’ and use a system like MailChimp to send emails, invitations, and promotions. And brand consistency and essential customer data goes up in smoke. We’ll set user restrictions that enable them to work in the Ferrari, with the Single Customer View, without having to become experts in the technology. They can maintain your brand identity while giving their mails a local touch.

For other clients, who may be highly skilled at the tech, we can construct the systems that really let them take that Ferrari to the next level. We develop tools that enable campaigns in multiple languages, with automatic product feeds and eCommerce back-ends for unprecedented acceleration.

And finally, once all five of these pillars are aligned, you can actually use the automation, AI tools, and other bells and whistles the way they were intended to be used. And get the results you were promised. Of course, all that pragmatism is not as fun as jumping into an AI campaign the minute you unpack the system. But it will be exponentially more effective.

Fill out your pit crew

Unhappy with your MarTech Ferrari? Not achieving the speed and efficiency you were promised during the sales pitch? Chances are, the problem lies in your organization and not in the tech. Get in touch today, and let VML show you how to fine-tune your operations until they’re running like a well-oiled machine, and your teams are running efficient, effective, and manageable campaigns as a matter of course.