Marketing portal: basis for scalable marketing

Learn about the benefits and advantages of brand management systems! Learn why these systems are an important investment for any company and especially for any marketing department, what is important when choosing a solution and how to best implement a marketing portal.

A simple question to start with - you probably know this situation: there is an important change in your company's marketing message. How can you be sure that your colleagues are aware of this change and are actually using the right data and media? Marketing portals make it possible to create optimised and traceable workflows in marketing. This allows you to focus - on the central strategy and the expansion of marketing activities.

The starting position

Surely your company has a long-term marketing strategy to position the brand with defined goals from which a marketing plan and individual marketing activities can be derived. The implementation of these measures requires a multitude of individual tasks such as the planning of sales campaigns or product launches, central and local campaigns for market communication, the creation and provision of marketing material and much more, which strengthens your company's brand. Of course, all these tasks also have to be adapted to the respective type of marketing channel, if necessary even prepared in different languages.

Two people sit at a table with laptops and create a marketing plan

A person sits at a laptop and looks at the dashboard of a marketing portal

What are marketing portals?

It is difficult to define marketing portals in a uniform way because functions, processes and interfaces are as individual as each company. Nevertheless, it can be stated that marketing portals make all operational tasks in marketing available and measurable in one central place.

Marketing portals are often cloud-based and have been developed by marketing experts. They combine different marketing tools directly in the portal or via interfaces and thus facilitate the management of workflows and media plans, the creation of CD-compliant marketing materials, the completion of projects on schedule and allow complete control and measurability over all marketing activities of an organisation.

Marketers achieve more transparency, greater control and reduced complexity, e.g. of multinational marketing campaigns, and can thus optimise their marketing activities and the positioning of their brand company-wide.

Overview of added values

Central

Secure access for all users
and to all data in the form of Identity & Access Management

Optimised

Uniform data -
up-to-date, qualitative and quick to find

Reduced agency costs

More efficient processes as well as the enablement of markets, traders etc. to adapt marketing materials themselves reduce agency costs

Consistent

Keep control of the brand's appearance with customisable design templates

Speed

No time-consuming information search, real-time evaluations, self-publishing

A common problem: marketing software already exists specifically for each use case. Often these are systems without scaling options with separate logins, separate data and user management and interface connections, but the same users behind the system in each case.

Common problems with marketing software

A common problem

Marketing software is already available specifically for each use case.

No scaling options
Separate data and user management
No control of interfaces

Graphical illustration of the problems solved with marketing software

Our solution

A marketing portal that looks at the issue from the user's point of view.

Central user management
Central data control
Central control of interfaces

Common problems with marketing software

A common problem

Marketing software is already available specifically for each use case.

No scaling possibilities
Separate data and user management
No control of interfaces

Our solution

A marketing portal that looks at the issue from the user's point of view.

Central user management
Central data control
Central control of interfaces

"With the right tools and guided processes, employees can realise your company's brand communication independently and with precision. Take the plunge! By investing in a marketing portal, your company is laying the foundation for scalable marketing."

Manuel Kohler, Projects

Functions of marketing portals

Providers of marketing portals have different focuses in their solutions.
Often marketing portals offer functions such as:

Marketing Shop
Digital Asset Management (DAM)
Brand Management
Marketing planning
Campaign management (central and local)
Customisable templates
Web-to-print
Budget planning
Evaluations and reporting
Integrations in other MarTech software
Team communication

Before inquiring about the exact portal functions from various providers, one should consider which workflows and use cases exist in the organisation and which can be optimised.

What is the best way to implement a marketing portal?

Online in 4 steps! - Our proven go-to-live process:

Analysis - During an initial workshop, the desired requirements for the portal, such as functions, processes and any system interfaces, are discussed together with the users.
Conceptual design - Requirements are then prioritised and detailed in user stories. IT guidelines on security and data protection must also be included in the system requirements and the necessary interfaces to any other applications must be checked. In this step, it is advisable to involve IT and other partners, e.g. service providers, at an early stage. The review of existing data sources provides valuable information on possible optimisations and later integration. The requirements and the elaborated user story should now be compared with appropriate solutions. If no solution can be found that covers 100% of all requirements, prioritising the user stories is helpful in making a decision for a portal.
Testing - Based on the requirements and specifications, the implementation of the portal can start. After an initial rough review, it is helpful to integrate a pilot user into the test. For this purpose, sensible test scenarios should be considered in good time.
Implementation - Now the solution is close to completion. But how do you roll it out successfully in your company? To do this, you should promptly consider which information should be available at system start-up and which is no longer needed. This is a good time to tidy up! After the system has been filled, it is a good idea to train the users in webinars tailored to the respective area and place of application. Questions and ideas can be exchanged directly. Afterwards, each user should be given access and a short, clear documentation as well as a contact option for further questions.