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Marketing teams are facing a communications crisis trying to coordinate the communications of a global sales force. Marketing automation software has made digital content marketing accessible to many, but limits digital content awareness to lead generation, stopping short of coordinating sales communications.

Integrated marketing communication strategies are both preferred and profitable, but seemingly out of reach with current practices.

Today we look at how you can create an integrated marketing communications strategy that includes, integrates, and coordinates the sales force.   

We’ve been talking a lot about the sales stack and how it forms a holistic engagement solution for your client-facing business units (sales, marketing, service, etc.) but we can sometimes get caught up in the terminology and forget that just because it’s called a “sales” tool, it doesn’t mean sales-only tool.

The sales process simply facilitates a buyer decision journey, of which marketing is a part. Today we expand on sales enablement technology to help marketing teams understand how and why ‘sales’ enablement is just as important for marketing.

Technology has greased the wheel and has exponentially accelerated the business process in the last several decades, and more so - in the last several years. Yet, in an ever-evolving environment, what has remained the same is the vital role that the marketing exec plays in the successes of both the marketing and sales teams.

Just as any relationship with a promising future, the key to establishing a healthy business relationship is based on trust. Top performing companies know that prospects and customers buy only from sales reps that they feel they know and they can trust, and the only way to build these kinds of relationships is over time through customer engagement.    

According to a Demand Metric 2013 Benchmark Report on Sales and Marketing Alignment, 66% of organizations reporting complete alignment achieved their revenue goals compared to 41% who reported no alignment.

Marketing Automation (MA) is that piece of technology that allows marketers to reach customers faster and with more measurable results than ever before. Today’s marketing landscape is defined as the golden era for marketers by no mistake.

While MA has enabled marketers to automate the entire marketing process, it doesn’t mean that they can shut off their brains and go on autopilot. When used correctly, a lot can be accomplished with MA and this includes aligning the sales and marketing process. However, if marketers misuse their systems, they can make mistakes on a much broader scale.

A Marketing Automation platform, MAP, is a tool that allows marketers to reach potential customers at a faster rate while gathering more measurable results to refine future campaigns.

Oracle Marketing Cloud Interact 2014 took place in San Francisco earlier this month. From sessions covering modern marketing best practices, to training sessions from marketing leaders, exciting keynote lineup and private shows, Interact 2014 proved to be a great event for B2C and B2B marketers. Courtney Buchanan, a writer for the New School Marketing blog, covered the event’s happenings while picking up on valuable tips from Oracle Marketing Cloud attendees. Let’s take a look at the latest insights and best practices Courtney gathered from top professionals at the event. 

In her article, 4 Tips for Data-driven Glory: Insights from Interact 2014, Courtney addresses the importance of making sense of customer data to drive personalized experiences and, ultimately, bottom line impact. Below is a list of Courtney’s top 4 ways marketers can make use of data to get the most results from their marketing campaigns.

A lot of the time, sales enablement experts talk about what tools sales representatives need to do their jobs effectively. From Salesforce to a proposal automation software to everything in between, there is definitely a need for tools, but, more importantly, the need is the insight that sales reps get from the tools they’re using. Before sales organizations can determine the tools they need, they need to figure out the information they actually need to gather.