Should i start a marketing portal in hard financial times?

Marketing portals will definitely be an outstanding investment decision for most B2B businesses, but their importance is usually truly recognizable in the face of a hard economic climate. More than 82 percent of marketing agency accounts testify to the fact that their marketing budgets have been severely lowered for the upcoming year, noted The DRUM Modern Marketing & Media organization's Design Industry Voices Customer survey in December 2011. Opposite to expert beliefs, marketing departments are many times the first to be cut or reduced during demanding economic years. As a result, salespeople have less help and access to the important products they can really make use of to help bring their companies through the economic recession. Because of this, they find themselves sales pitching less buyers than they could have, in the B2B sector. The reduced marketing team that remains has a reduced amount of time to reply to the demanding requests of its sales associates. Meanwhile, sales staff are pestering for more leads, more analyses, more trade shows, more training seminars and other resources. They are eager to differentiate their products or services in a very demanding industry. What's the response your company should take? A useful strategy is installing a marketing portal. What is a marketing portal and how can it benefit your firm? Inventions ideas for kids: What are they? Think of a marketing portal as a entry portal for your marketing staff, sales staff members, business associates, buyers, potential customers and senior management. A marketing portal uses a particular software package that can help your organization handle, deliver and monitor the success of every variety of marketing. If your enterprise is reliant upon a business-to-business sales model, marketing portals can be specifically helpful by providing a 24-hour self-service resource for suppliers, sellers, brokers, suppliers or any type of clients you may have. Content is also targeted, so sales staff can check out the most up-to-date solutions and internal company documents while other viewers can gain access to content only meant for them. What are the plus points? Up until recently, businesses supplied marketing information via internal websites and sales extranets. However, people commonly complained about bad navigation and un-usefulness, old resources and inconsistent branding. "The marketing portal is a sales nirvana where every salesman can find the right information at the right time for any selling condition," Scott Richardson with Chief Marketer said. "It's where every salesperson benefits from best practices and company-wide expertise." Benefits of installing a marketing portal as opposed to an intranet or extranet include: The preliminary cost is small. There is in most cases a set-up fee, then subsequent service fees dependent on your company's requests. In many cases, the best specialist will help you plan a marketing portal that fits your specifications, which you can then manage and fine-tune as called for, as your organisation's marketing requirements change. There is usually minimal development time - the proper company can provide you with existing layouts, developed by looking at a wide range of knowledge from businesses such as yours or work with you to build the ideal marketing portal for your own company’s preferences, but this should occur extremely quickly. Marketers can also customize the functionality dependent on what they see as required to deliver results.