Build Your Requirements

The next step for buyers looking for brand-to-local marketing solutions is to set minimum requirements for the platform, build consensus among stakeholders and prepare to evaluate brand-to-local marketing software providers. It is essential to determine whether you need a marketing vendor offering an individual solution (such as email marketing or print ads) or if you need a comprehensive distributed marketing platform capable of scaling with your company.

Which local marketing solutions do you need? Does your reseller network need ad builder technology; comprehensive start-to-finish functionality for ad campaign creation, execution and fulfillment; funds management tools for Co-Op Marketing and Market Development Funds; and marketing analytics?

Gather your company’s requirements, with respect to contracting, legal and security. This is essential to disqualify marketing software providers, regardless of whether you choose to conduct an RFP or not. With growing data privacy and security requirements, including GDPR and CCPA, it is essential to know if the marketing technology platforms under consideration have achieved SOC2 Type II Compliance, which is the gold standard for system providers that store customer data in the cloud.

Which marketing tactics are must-haves? Do you need digital marketing tactics, such as email marketing, local online presence management, custom websites, landing pages, microsites, paid search or PPC ads, call tracking technology, display ads, and social media marketing? Or traditional marketing tactics, like direct mail, tv, radio, print and outdoor ads, and media buys? Or are you looking for a distributed marketing platform that can offer the best of digital and traditional marketing?

Do you need to centralize disparate systems into one solution? Leading comprehensive platforms are better equipped to leverage data and outcomes.

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