How to Find Campaign Management Tools

(Direct) The campaign management tool market has changed dramatically in five years. A list of more than 50 boutique vendors has gone through aggressive consolidation. Large software firms have extended traditional offerings to improve their competitive edge among those who use their products. Client expectations continue to soar. These changes have increased the complexity of—and risk associated with—choosing tools for a given need.

It’s a special challenge for firms needing reliable campaign performance measurement.

Tool selection ultimately is about knowing what you want, prioritizing your desires and staying focused on understanding how each vendor meets your needs. Most companies consider the following when “shopping” for campaign management programs:

Analysis capabilities

How is the information for response attribution, results reporting and data mining stored? Does the tool supply response attribution mechanisms, and if so, how customizable are they? Can the tool generate reports that outline campaign results? How easily can reports be added or tailored to meet particular business needs? Does the tool include analysis or predictive model development and model scoring capabilities?

Target capabilities

How well does the tool support the target audience’s needs? What limits exist to determine how that audience can be segmented? How easily can the tool access data sources? What sampling functions are available to support testing and learning objectives? Can common targeting activities be leveraged across campaigns without much difficulty? What’s the expected performance window?

Output capabilities

Can the output data be personalized? What output mechanisms are available? Is a campaign scheduling function offered? How about tools that monitor campaign status? What’s the typical execution time for creating output lists?

As with any purchase decision, features and functionality are only part of the selection process. Common additional considerations include:

Vendor risk

How viable is the vendor? What are its recent financial results? How many other companies have purchased this product? What percentage actually use it? Are all companies available as references?

Client support

What training is available for business users and tech support staff? How complete is the tool’s documentation and is it helpful and easy to understand? What kind of support is offered by the vendor? How large is your company’s customer service group? What is the typical profile for your level 1 and level 2 CS personnel? What types of user groups, chat rooms, and the like exist?

Strategic fit

What are the operating platform requirements? Is a database operating system supported? How compatible are the tool requirements with the user company’s current and future standards? How easily will the tool scale to meet business growth? What is the product road map — release frequency, enhanced future functionality, etc.? What integration options exist for target optimization, real-time targeting, collaborative targeting (between central and distributed marketing groups), e-mail execution, report generation, data mining and predictive model development and scoring?

Price

What is the tool’s initial cost, and are there potential additional expenses for hardware, program upgrades, etc.? What is the estimated annual outlay for maintenance, and what’s included in the service contract? How much does it cost to set up the tool for in-house employees and outside professional help? If necessary, what is the ongoing cost for these outside professionals? What level of internal technical support will be required to maintain and support the tool?

Business case

Besides the cost issues mentioned above, what are the tool’s expected benefits? These might include efficiency, expected savings among users or support personnel, and whether marketing results can be improved (and by how much).

The time required for tool selection can vary dramatically based on a company’s selection process. Some will include requirements definition, RFI, RFP, vendor presentations and demos, proof of concept, business case approval and contract negotiation before final selection. Others reduce or consolidate these stages. Generally, selection should take from one to six months, with an average selection process (requirements to contract signing) running some eight to 10 weeks.

Unfortunately for many companies, success isn’t guaranteed by a rigorous or accurate selection process. Picking the right tool is just step one. Proper deployment requires that an organization address certain management challenges.

Among them:

• Process redesign

  By its nature, a campaign management tool will change how work is accomplished. To maximize its value, the campaign planning, execution, measurement and analysis processes should be reviewed and adjusted to best utilize the tool’s features while preserving the value of other tools that support it.

• Data sources

  The best campaign management tools will enhance data access. However, tool performance may be improved by making changes in data structures or by adding additional informational fields to the data sources. Overall, make changes selectively while ensuring that essential alterations are not neglected. All requested modifications should be practical and make business sense.

• People

  Any new tool likely will affect people. For one, the number of individuals required to perform campaign execution is often reduced. This is especially true in organizations setting up their first campaign management program. For another, determine who should handle campaign execution. In those organizations that operate without such tools, this is the IT department’s responsibility. Otherwise, that departmental handoff often is eliminated by assigning this responsibility to skilled, existing marketing resources. This may involve shifting people from IT or recruiting data-savvy individuals into marketing.

Investing in campaign management is not cheap or risk-free. But the keys to successful deployment actually are simple: Maintain a disciplined selection process, and create an implementation plan that addresses both technical setup and management challenges.

Steve Schultz([email protected]) is senior vice president of client services at Quaero, a marketing and technology services company in Charlotte, NC.