brand technology - Greenfield Belser LTD.

the marketing ecosystem
brand strategy
brand standards
websites and minisites
advertising
brochures
A system does not share the same
characteristics as its parts. For too
long, we have been thinking in pieces.
Now it’s time to understand the system.
To the right is more or less the list
of brand communication challenges
you face. Below are the best available
technologies to manage them.Your best
brand partner? Well, we believe you
should seek out someone green… with
a brand thumb. Call us at 202.775.0333
or visit us at greenfieldbelser.com
proposals
powerpoint pitches
high-end direct mail
newsletters
e-alerts
seminars
blogs
video
Greenfield/Belser Ltd. is a national leader in brand strategy and design for professional services firms. For over 30 years, our
designers, copywriters, account executives, web developers and media strategists have tapped the latest research to create integrated
branding and marketing campaigns to make over 400 professional services clients unique.
social media
the brand
brand technology
brand management
content management systems
If you build it, will they still ignore the standards? Brand standards, intranets and
extranets, some quite elaborate, have served large firms and marketing functions
for 10+ years. As you might expect, Interbrand and other brand design firms have
leveraged software they’ve designed for themselves and others into stand-alone
management software. As firms grow, the PDF graphic standards manual you now
use will not grow with you.
SAAS in the cloud guarantees the future of your software. The features war is over. All
CMSs will sooner or later match the features of the others. But you’ll have to wait for
those updates unless you use Greenfield/Belser’s Point & Clique V6. Version 6 follows the
Software As A Service model, hosted in the cloud, so new features are available to you as
soon as they appear. Open source is appealing to many buyers, but once Drupal or Joomla
is on your server, you are responsible for enhancements. Actually, in truth, all software
is proprietary, even open source, once it lands on your server. Problem is, you are the
proprietor! Cloud-based CMSs are always cutting edge. Meanwhile, check out all our friends
above. We never said we were the only game in town. We just believe we’re the best.
employee data management
experience management
Migrating data across borders. Yes, the HR database needs to be integrated with web and
other content systems for the sake of efficiencies and your sanity. But you won’t find a system
to do that. You’ll need smart, multilingual programmers to build a pipe for your HR data to
communicate with your website so you can use that information online and in proposals.
event management
What have you done and for whom? That’s the question executive buyers of professional
services want answered. Trouble is, marketing data float like spores around your firm. We
like new tools like Track Record (part of V6) and ANSOR for very robust experience
management collation, tracking and reporting. We didn’t include Hubbard One’s logo
because we understand that their proposal system and experience manager did not travel
with the new firm.
SEO management
More time to attend to the event itself. Acteva, Cvent, RegOnline and Ungerboeck automate
online registration and follow-up. But so do many email and CRM systems. Choosing the right one
depends on the volume and complexity of your events. We use Eventbrite because it satisfies our
needs and isn’t complicated, but we’ve also heard good things about Cvent.
proposal management
No pain. First-generation proposal management systems help leverage public website content, but
working in HTML is neither user-friendly nor compatible with collaboration. Simple solutions like
Greenfield/Belser’s eBriefcase and robust second-generation solutions like ANSOR are pain free—
allowing packages to be assembled or proposals to be built in Word, integrating seamlessly with
SharePoint, the darling of IT directors. We also urge you to check out Deb McMurray’s Content Pilot
proposal generator, too, just ’cause we’re desperately trying to be honest and forthright in these
critical reviews.
email campaign management
Create, send, track without a techie. Email marketing is still underappreciated by professional
service marketers. Of all the digital tools in your arsenal, email wins hands down. Smart
marketers now create campaigns and adjust on the fly by seeing who opens email, which links
are clicked and if mail is forwarded through social media. Ease of use and efficiency rule. Surveys
say Constant Contact and Benchmark Email are very good, but iContact is better-rated.
If you want to get found, find a consultant. Software can help, but the rules of the game change
so often that you simply must have an SEO consultant on contract. We don’t believe even a
full-time staff person is your best investment. Seomoz.org and Conductor are two leaders in the
field. Both are approachable in ways that Google Analytics is not.
website effectiveness management
Analytics provide data, not insights. We invented a category called “web effectiveness” because
we believe your site should be constantly reviewed for its effectiveness in converting visitors to
leads. There are a host of options providing analytics, including the best-known—Google Analytics.
But Google’s goals are different from yours, and its Analytics are almost impossible, frankly, for
management or marketing to understand. Respected pundits say you need a range of tools, not
one, to assess your site. More important, you need talent to sort, select, interpret and make sensible
recommendations from the data.
client relationship management
social media management
Making sense of the hubbub. Social media was basically born yesterday. So expect software that helps
manage your social media distribution to grow up as social media grows up. Many players, such as
HootSuite and Moxie, promise a centralized way to source contacts, distribute campaigns and measure/
monitor. At Greenfield/Belser, we signed up for Sprout Social.
Battle-scarred marketers know that people and process make or break a CRM system. But in broader
B2B marketing, Salesforce.com rates best for features and functions. SugarCRM and NetSuite also top
charts. Professional service favorites are still InterAction and ContactEase.