• by Arthur Sweetser , November 3, 2011

The old adage that time is money is once again proven true as marketers’ race to gather consumer attention accelerates, and organizations must deploy swiftly to become more relevant.  Their goal – at least it should be their goal – is to improve relevance, building on the back of tried-and-true direct marketing tactics such as segmentation, data house-holding, and testing and targeting tactics that further enhance personalized messaging. While many of these tactics can be attained through traditional MSP custom-driven providers, cloud-based alternatives provide a host of additional benefits that point to one clear conclusion: cloud-based MSPs improve revenue gains faster than traditional alternatives. Here are the three reasons why:

1. Speed To Market

Cloud-based marketing intelligence platforms are rapidly customized with proven practices continuously built into ongoing operations that are tailored to client-specific business situations and context. This agility of speed to tailor configurations to client situations as well as to connect this intelligence hub to other marketing communication systems is a profound benefit. The final customized solution can be deployed in as few as 90 days, versus the nine-month deployment continuum that is common from many traditional providers.

Consider a retailer or any business that relies so heavily on the fourth quarter of a calendar year. Using a traditional MSP solution would require beginning the custom database project in January to ensure that it was ready for the all-important fourth quarter. In comparison, studies by the Relevancy Group show that cloud-based MSPs typically deploy customized multi-channel marketing intelligence within three months – a 66% reduction in time.  

The ongoing, executional speed to market quickens within the cloud as data, programs and other systems can be integrated faster, increasing all deployment cycle times.  This is an ongoing benefit that shortens all customization and marketing deployment timelines – and increases the speed of attaining enhanced revenue from improved customer intelligence.

 2. Lower Costs

Cloud-based marketing solutions cost less than traditional solutions through reduced operational and deployment costs. Relevancy Group analyst interviews with marketers using cloud-based marketing solutions revealed that their costs dropped after moving from a traditional solution, citing lower IT and marketing operating costs. Over time, these cost reductions averaged 30% to 40% less than their previous MSP solution, largely due to cloud-based efficiencies with multi-tenant client hosts and declines in computing costs.

3. Lasting Customer Value

Increased customer value is derived from improved multi-channel customer intelligence, with cloud-based marketers reporting the ability to improve segmentation and personalization that delivers increased customer value by as much as 16%. At the same time, these marketers are seeing improved customer engagement from increased contact relevance: cloud-based solutions and targeting tactics that include segmentation and personalization have higher engagement and response rates than their peers. This increase in the number of customers engaged, coupled with the higher customer value, drives revenue significantly higher than marketers failing to harness marketing intelligence in the cloud.

The choice is clear – cloud-based marketing intelligence solutions deliver revenue faster and provide added benefits of centralized marketing data than the difficult, labor-laden customization traditional MSP solutions provides.