More and more companies have turned to marketing technologies to help manage their marketing activities, from lead management all the way through delivery of printed marketing materials.
Central to this type of technology is your digital asset repository. Most likely, this means you have a marketing portal to house your firm’s digital assets. This helps you manage, track, update and share things like corporate logos, marketing copy, photos, courseware, and product information.
What if you also need to produce tangible marketing materials, like brochures, postcards, event invitations, letters, course handouts, and trade show materials? Many companies also need to produce, ship and 
warehouse promotional items and exhibit materials.
If this describes you, guess what? Your marketing portal has to do double duty. It’s not enough to store and manage digital assets. Ideally, your portal should have a back end connected to a service provider who can also handle the analog materials.
Now we’re talking about an MAM (Marketing Asset Management) system, which is a software solution that lets you store, manage, customize, control, produce, track and distribute all of your marketing assets, digital and analog.
Not having a system that’s fully integrated with a service provider who can produce and distribute your printed and promotional materials is inefficient. Thank about what happens when your stakeholders need to produce marketing materials from your digital library that’s not supported by a service provider who handles print production and fulfillment. How many layers of administrative gatekeepers, such as purchasing agents, have to be consulted? And how long does this procurement and approval process take for each new order of each new campaign or event?
Time used in processing individual orders for print production and materials fulfillment is eating into your time to market.
The answer lies within your MAM solution. It should be tightly integrated with a back-end service provider who has the capability, the reach, the systems, the tech know-how, and the experience for producing, delivering and storing a full range of high-quality marketing and promotional materials.
With the right solution, stakeholders can access your marketing assets from anywhere, any time. They can tailor them without degrading your brand identity. They can create and produce marketing campaigns from one source. You retain control over who has access to the materials, and you can generate real-time reports to manage and monitor usage and costs.
This integration of your marketing assets is mandatory – as in necessary, not just nice.
The most effective MAM system lets you manage your marketing collateral from one source. Your assets are secure and centralized. When the system’s integrated with a print, mail and fulfillment supplier, your pricing is stabilized. You reduce time spent in identifying and pre-qualifying new vendors. And you reduce time to market.
Working with a solutions provider who’s integrated with your digital asset management system helps you fully automate your marketing and procurement processes.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
