Independent Marketing Agency To Transform The Way It Executes Campaigns
“We can now execute new marketing programs more efficiently and effectively than ever before.”
Situation
Being one of the largest independently-owned marketing agencies in the country brings with it a unique set of challenges. An incredibly successful century-old marketing business that had expertly navigated the tricky transition from traditional to digital marketing, its star was quickly rising. Unfortunately this success brought with it growing pains, in the form of inefficiencies and a reliance on less than ideal tech.
Our client needed a partner with both the business acumen and technical capability to deliver a solution. Our client needed the team at CSG.
The Problem? Both the agency’s head of client partnership and its leader of digital marketing services saw that customers were becoming frustrated with the pace at which marketing programs were being executed. Program delivery was overly reliant on processes that hadn’t been updated for a long time. The technology used to deliver was, in some cases, non-existent; manual processes served to both slow the process down and increase the likelihood of human error.
But the problem wasn’t restricted to the customer side of the equation – our client also saw that the current systems and processes were also costing the agency serious money. The extensive execution times were reflected in the cost of labor incurred throughout the delivery of each program. Setting up new marketing programs was an expensive undertaking, with a minimal profit margin the inevitable result.
Our client needed a solution that would shorten program delivery times, reduce labor costs, and enable simpler system enhancements into the future. They needed a solution that would improve both the customer experience, and the agency’s bottom line.
Solution
The CSG team took a holistic, three-phase approach to solving the agency’s problem:
We took the time to understand and scope the impacted business processes (align).
Once a clear picture was formed, we architected, designed and built the solution (design).
We then set about streamlining the workflows that were supported by the solution (empower).
The system delivered by CSG not only met but exceeded the agency’s requests. It delivered on the aims stated above, reducing the execution time of new client marketing programs, thereby reducing program costs.
It also made programs easier to use for participants. The solution was designed with an innovative user interface (UI) which simplified the entering and organizing of campaign information. This information could then be accessed by the participants of the client marketing programs (the dealers in an auto company, for example), making it significantly easier for the agency’s marketing teams to support their clients.
Some examples of the information and tools that the solution offered the agency include:
A customer organization structure (e.g., dealers, marketing group).
Digital assets such as images and videos.
A ‘customizer’ template page that allowed clients to customize items within the rules of the campaign (e.g., quarter page print ads, event fliers, radio ads and other collateral containing strict customization rules, and featuring ‘inflexible’ information such as required disclaimer texts).
On top of all this, CSG’s solution also introduced an entirely new and future-proofed technology framework – one that offers adaptability and will provide downstream benefits for the development of future client-facing and internal systems.
Result
Unrecognizable from the laborious and time-consuming process it once was, the agency can now execute new marketing programs more efficiently and effectively than ever before.
The time and cost of campaign execution has reduced markedly. With new systems automating many processes that previously required ‘tribal’ knowledge to navigate, procedural bottlenecks have been minimized. And customers have been granted greater visibility and control of their own campaign than the agency previously thought possible.
What’s more, these customer-side benefits look set to stimulate growth in what is already one of the largest independent marketers in the US. And this is an eventuality that the solution is more than ready for.
With the ability to counsel program customers and prospects on program design through access to program information (demonstrating the best use of assets for various demographics, for example), as well as the ability to scale programs and replicate features for new customers, the CSG-delivered solution is ready for whatever the agency might require of it into the future.
Thanks to CSG’s efforts, our client won’t be held back by technology that’s not up to handling the challenges faced by independent marketing agencies. Rather, they look set to flourish in this ultra-competitive sphere.
