The marketing department can benefit greatly from the company intranet. Don’t let disorganization get in the way of your message.

Marketers need inputs from various sources — top, down, peers, internal, and external — to do their jobs properly. The intranet can also speed up marketing-related business processes, such as approvals for materials. And being able to access the information they need quickly and while on the road are big advantages as well.

In this post, I’m going to show how the company intranet can help improve your marketing. I’m also going to give examples of how specific intranet features directly help the marketing department.

Effective Marketing Begins with Knowledge

Marketing is delivering the right message to your target market using the most effective media.

To achieve this, marketers needs different types of information and knowledge, coming from different directions. The top (such as the C-suite) provides the overall vision, direction, and strategic approach. The bottom or prospects and customers provide information on their needs, demands, and requirements. Finally, peers give insights on what appeals to the market, what problems typically arise, and what approaches work. Viewpoints from other departments also help shape more creative and holistic marketing strategies.

A well-structured, active intranet helps marketers access all these types of knowledge and information. Aside from capturing all this knowledge, the intranet also archives it so future staff can benefit from the accumulated knowledge as well.

Communications Needs To Be Timely

Timeliness is another element of marketing. Marketers need to keep abreast of developments in their industry, as well as related industries. Sometimes a promotional opportunity arises, and staff want to implement a campaign quickly. By creating live feeds from external sources into the intranet, the marketing department can stay up-to-date without even leaving the intranet. The intranet can also help by facilitating communication and making approvals happen faster.

Intranet Applications for Marketing

These specific intranet applications directly contribute to a company’s marketing work:

Folder Application

The folder application can be used to house:

• brand assets, such as brochures, flyers, and white papers
• most recent product descriptions, pricing, usage requirements
• company boilerplate
• presentation documents, such as PowerPoint slides
• creative briefs
• market research and analysis, survey results
• sales metrics, customer relationship monitoring and evaluation reports

Media Album

The marketing department can have various uses for a Media album, such as:

• keep approved product images, logos, and color swatches
• share and get approval for creatives
• upload photos of other products, industries, images, etc. that provide inspiration for future campaigns
• share snapshots of customers using their products, how their products are displayed in stores, actual use of collaterals (such as billboards), cool stuff your competitors are doing, etc

Databases

The database application keeps contact information of leads, vendors, and other stakeholders.

Discussion Forum

The discussion forum can be used to:

• get feedback on drafts or propose campaign ideas
• brainstorm fresh ideas and approaches
• encourage problem solving strategies, such as to overcome buying obstacles, etc

Status Update

Inform all staff of current campaigns, such as a Facebook promo, so they are aware and can help support it, too.

Calendar Application

The calendar application is useful for plotting campaigns, and keeping track of milestones and other events

Page Application

Finally, the page application is useful for:

• posting anecdotes from customers, both good and bad
• compiling FAQs from prospects and customers
• embedding marketing videos and training videos for staff

These are only some of the ways the marketing department can make the most of the company intranet.

What other ways can you think of?