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Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

Streamline your organizational approach to selecting a right-sized marketing management platform.

Analyst perspective

A robustly configured and comprehensive MMS platform is a crucial ingredient to help kick-start your 辞谤驳补苍颈锄补迟颈辞苍鈥檚 cross-channel and multichannel marketing management initiatives.

Modern marketing management suites (MMS) are imperative given today鈥檚 complex, multitiered, and often non-standardized marketing processes. Relying on isolated methods such as lead generation or email marketing techniques for executing key cross-channel and multichannel marketing initiatives is not enough to handle the complexity of contemporary marketing management activities.

Organizations need to invest in highly customizable and functionally extensive MMS platforms to provide value alongside the marketing value chain and a 360-degree view of the consumer鈥檚 marketing journey. IT needs to be rigorously involved with the sourcing and implementation of the new MMS tool, and the necessary business units also need to own the requirements and be involved from the initial stages of software selection.

To succeed with MMS implementation, consider drafting a detailed roadmap that outlines milestone activities for configuration, security, points of integration, and data migration capabilities and provides for ongoing application maintenance and support.

Senior 91制片厂 Analyst, Customer Experience Strategy
91制片厂

Executive summary

Your Challenge

• Many organizations struggle with taking a systematic and structured approach to selecting a right-sized marketing management suite (MMS) 鈥� an indispensable part of managing an 辞谤驳补苍颈锄补迟颈辞苍鈥檚 specific and nuanced marketing management needs.
• Organizations must define a clear-cut strategic approach to investing in a new MMS platform. Exercising the appropriate selection and implementation rigor for a right-sized MMS tool is a critical step in delivering concrete business value to sustain various marketing value chains across the organization.

Common Obstacles

• An MMS vendor that is not well aligned to marketing requirements wastes resources and causes an endless cascade of end-user frustration.
• The MMS market is rapidly evolving, making it difficult for vendors to retain a competitive foothold in the space.
• IT managers and/or marketing professionals often find themselves in the unenviable position of taking the fall for MMS platforms that fail to deliver on the promise of the overarching marketing management strategy.

Info-Tech鈥檚 Approach

• MMS platform selection must be driven by your overall marketing management strategy. Email marketing techniques, social marketing, and/or lead management strategies are often not enough to satisfy the more sophisticated use cases demanded by increasingly complex customer segmentation levels.
• For organizations with a large audience or varied product offerings, a well-integrated MMS platform enables the management of various complex campaigns across many channels, product lines, customer segments, and marketing groups throughout the enterprise.

Info-Tech Insight

IT must collaborate with marketing professionals and other key stakeholder groups to define a unified vision and holistic outlook for a right-sized MMS platform.

Info-Tech鈥檚 methodology for selecting a right-sized marketing management suite platform

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

The MMS procurement process should be broken into segments:

1. Create a vendor shortlist using this buyer鈥檚 guide.
2. Define a structured approach to selection.
3. Review the contract.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support ot best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

"Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful."

Guided Implementation

"Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track."

Workshop

"We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place."

Consulting

"Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

Streamline your organizational approach to select a right-sized marketing management platform.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

What are marketing management suite platforms?

Marketing

Our Definition: Marketing management suite (MMS) platforms are core enterprise applications that provide a unified set of marketing processes for a given organization and, typically, the capability to coordinate key cross-channel marketing initiatives.

Key product capabilities for sophisticated MMS platforms include but are not limited to:

• Email marketing
• Lead nurturing
• Social media management
• Content curation and distribution
• Marketing reporting and analytics
• Consistent brand messaging

Using a robust and comprehensive MMS platform equips marketers with the appropriate tools needed to make more informed decisions around campaign execution, resulting in better targeting, acquisition, and customer retention initiatives. Moreover, such tools can help bolster effective revenue generation and ensure more viable growth initiatives for future marketing growth enablement strategies.

Info-Tech Insight

Feature sets are rapidly evolving over time as MMS offerings continue to proliferate in this market space. Ensure that you focus on core components such as customer conversion rates and new lead captures through maintaining well-integrated multichannel campaigns.

Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide.

MMS SOFTWARE SELECTION & VENDOR PROCUREMENT JOURNEY

Conquer MMS Software Selection Fears Using Info-Tech's Recommended Envision, Elicit, and Contextualize approach.

1. ENVISION THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

   Identify core MMS capabilities
   Define table stake features
   Explore trends

2. ELICIT GRANULAR REQUIREMENTS

   Define use case requirements
   Develop a robust RFP process

3. CONTEXTUALIZE THE MMS VENDOR MARKET SPACE

   Discover key players in the MMS software landscape
   Consult the shortlist and select the finalist
   Prepare for implementation

"With marketing technology and an automate and operationalize mindset, marketers' best practices provide a blueprint for delivering meaningful marketing campaigns and more impactful results in 2023 and beyond."

THE STATE OF MARKETING AUTOMATION REPORT, Adobe Experience Cloud, 2023

Phase 1

Understand Core MMS Features

Phase 1

1.1 Define MMS Platforms

1.2 Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities

1.3 Explore Trends

Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Level-set an understanding of MMS technology.
• Define which MMS features are table stakes (standard) and which are key differentiating functionalities.
• Identify the art of the possible in a modern MMS platform from sales, marketing, and service lenses.

This phase involves the following participants:

• CMO
• Digital Marketing Project Manager
• Marketing Data Analytics Analyst
• Marketing Management Executive

What are marketing management suite platforms?

Marketing

Our Definition: Marketing management suite (MMS) platforms are core enterprise applications that provide a unified set of marketing processes for a given organization and, typically, the capability to coordinate key cross-channel marketing initiatives.

Key product capabilities for sophisticated MMS platforms include but are not limited to:

• Email marketing
• Lead nurturing
• Social media management
• Content curation and distribution
• Marketing reporting and analytics
• Consistent brand messaging

Using a robust and comprehensive MMS platform equips marketers with the appropriate tools needed to make more informed decisions around campaign execution, resulting in better targeting, acquisition, and customer retention initiatives. Moreover, such tools can help bolster effective revenue generation and ensure more viable growth initiatives for future marketing growth enablement strategies.

Info-Tech Insight

Feature sets are rapidly evolving over time as MMS offerings continue to proliferate in this market space. Ensure that you focus on core components such as customer conversion rates and new lead captures through maintaining well-integrated multichannel campaigns.

Marketing through the ages

Tracing the foundational origins of marketing management practices

Initial traction for marketing management strategies began with the need to holistically understand the effects of advertising efforts and how the media mix could be best optimized.

1902

Recognizing the increasing need for focused and professional marketing efforts, the University of Pennsylvania offers the first marketing course, dubbed 鈥淭he Marketing of Products.鈥�

1920s-1930s

As broadcast media began to peak, marketers needed to manage a greater number of complex and interspersed marketing channels.

1942

The introduction of television ads in 1942 offered new opportunities for brands to reach consumers across a growing media landscape. To generate the highest ROI, marketers sought to understand the consumer and focus on more tailored messaging and product personalization. Thus, modern marketing practices were born.

1952-1964

Following the introduction of broadcast media, marketers had to develop strategies beyond traditional spray-and-pray methods. The first modern marketing measurement concept, 鈥渕arketing mix,鈥� was conceptualized in 1952 and popularized in 1964 by Neil Borden.

1970s-1990s

This period marked the digital revolution and the new era of marketing. With the advent of new communications technology and the modern internet, marketing management strategies reached new heights of sophistication. During the early 1990s, search engines emerged to help users navigate the web, leading to early forms of search engine optimization and advertising.

Where it鈥檚 going: the future state of marketing management

1. Generative AI will fundamentally overhaul content curation methods

   鈥淚n 2025, marketers are interested in using AI to streamline content creation. A recent HubSpot survey found that 43% of marketers use AI to write copy, create images, and get new ideas.鈥� 鈥� HubSpot, 2025

2. Consumers Seeking More Tailored Brand Personalization

   According to a 2022 Nostro report, 70% of consumers say it is important that brands continue to offer personalized consumer experiences.

3. More Stringent Data Privacy and Security Considerations

   Consumers have become more selective about sharing their data, 鈥渨ith 79% stating that they want more control over how companies use their personal information鈥� according to Deloitte. As such, marketing leaders now need to rethink their approach toward first-party data collection. (Oracle NetSuite, 12 Marketing Trends for 2025)

4. Rise of Sustainable Digital Marketing Practices

   By adopting green marketing strategies, companies can not only reduce their environmental impact but also align with the growing demand for brand sustainability in 2025. (Aweb Digital, 2025)

Marketing management by the numbers

Key trends

41.65%

41.65% of marketers report that most or all of their tools now have AI-embedded features. This trend highlights a shift toward more AI-powered tools and broader adoption from marketing professionals across the entire industry.

Source: CoSchedule | State of AI in Marketing Report, 2025

80%

Ensuring that the customer experience is seamless across all platforms is integral. As such, unifying data and interactions across channels, mapping the customer journey, and integrating your platforms is key. In fact, research shows that businesses with omnichannel engagement drive an 80% higher rate of incremental customer visits.

Source: Think With Google, 2025

61%

What areas benefitted marketers the most by improving marketing data quality? According to a global survey, 61% of marketers responded that customer satisfaction is the most improved area by improving the marketing data quality. This was followed by 45% of respondents citing customer engagement, and lead generation for 35%.

Source: Search Logix, 2023

Understand MMS table stakes features

Organizations can expect nearly all MMS vendors to provide the following functionality

Email Marketing

The use of email alongside marketing efforts to promote a business鈥� products and services. Email marketing can be a powerful tool to maintain connections with your audience and ensure sustained brand promotion.

Lead Nurturing

The process of developing and nurturing relationships with key customer contacts at every major touchpoint in their customer journey. MMS platforms can use automated lead-nurturing functions that are triggered by customer behavior.

Reporting, Analytics, and Marketing KPIs

The use of well-defined metrics to help curate, gather, and analyze marketing data to help track performance and improve the marketing department鈥檚 future marketing decisions and strategies.

Marketing Campaign Management

Tools needed for the planning, execution, tracking, and analysis of direct marketing campaigns. Such tools are needed to help gauge your buyers鈥� sentiments toward your company鈥檚 product offerings and services.

Integrational Catalog

MMS platforms should generally have a comprehensive open API/integration catalog. Most MMS platforms should have dedicated integration points to interface with various tools across the marketing landscape (e.g. social media, email, SEO, CRM, CMS tools, etc.).

Identify differentiating MMS features

While not always deemed must-have functionality, these features may be the deciding factor when choosing between two MMS-focused vendors.

Customer Data Management

Customer data management modules help your organization track essential customer information to maximize your marketing results.

Text-Based Marketing

Text-based marketing strategy is ideal for any organization primarily focused on coordinating structured and efficient marketing campaigns.

Customer Journey Orchestration

Customer journey orchestration enables users to orchestrate customer conversations and journeys across the entire marketing value chain.

AI-Driven Workflows

AI-powered workflows can help eliminate complexities and allow marketers to automate and optimize tasks across the marketing spectrum.

Dynamic Segmentation

Dynamic segmentation to target audience cohorts based on recent actions and stated preferences.

Advanced Email Marketing

These include capabilities such as A/B testing, spam filter testing, and detailed performance reporting.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

A DAM can help manage digital media asset files (e.g. photos, audio files, video).

Ensure you understand the art of the possible across the MMS landscape

Understanding the trending feature sets that encompass the broader MMS vendor landscape will best equip your organization with the knowledge needed to effectively match today鈥檚 MMS platforms with your 辞谤驳补苍颈锄补迟颈辞苍鈥檚 marketing requirements.

Holistically examine the potential of any MMS solution through three main lenses:

Data-Driven Digital Advertising

Adapt innovative techniques such as conversational marketing to help collect, analyze, and synthesize crucial audience information to improve the customer marketing experience and pre-screen prospects in a more conscientious manner.

Next Best Action Marketing

Next best action marketing (NBAM) is a customer-centric paradigm/marketing technique designed to capture specific information about customers and their individual preferences. Predicting customers鈥� future actions by understanding their intent during their purchasing decisions stage will help improve conversion rates.

AI-Driven Customer Segmentation

The use of inclusive and innovative AI-based forecast modeling techniques can help more accurately analyze customer data to create more targeted segments. As such, marketing messages will be more accurately tailored to the customer that is reading them.

Art of the possible: data-driven digital advertising

CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING INTELLIGENCE

Are you curious about the measures needed to boost engagement among your client base and other primary target audience groups? Conversational marketing intelligence metrics can help collect and disseminate key descriptive data points across a broader range of audience information.

AI-DRIVEN CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING DEVICES

Certain social media channels (e.g. LinkedIn and Facebook) like to take advantage of click-to-Messenger-style applications to help drive meaningful conversations with customers and learn more about their buying preferences. In addition, AI-driven chatbot applications can help the organization glean important information about the customer鈥檚 persona by asking probing questions about their marketing purchase behaviors and preferences.

METAVERSE- DRIVEN BRANDING AND ADVERTISING

One of the newest phenomena in data-driven marketing technology and digital advertising techniques is the metaverse, where users can represent themselves and their brand via virtual avatars to further gamify their marketing strategies. Moreover, brands can create immersive experiences and engage with influencers and established communities and collect a wealth of information about their audience that can help drive customer retention and loyalty.

Case study

Metaverse marketing extends the potential for commercial brand development and representation: a deep dive into Gucci鈥檚 metaverse practice

Gucci

Roblox

INDUSTRY

Luxury Goods Apparel

SOURCE

Vogue Business

Challenge

Beginning with a small, family-owned leather shop known as House of Gucci in Florence, Italy, businessman and fashion designer Guccio Gucci sold saddles, leather bags, and other accessories to horsemen during the 1920s. Over the years, Gucci鈥檚 offerings have grown to include various other personal luxury goods.

As consumer preferences have evolved over time, particularly with the younger generation, Gucci鈥檚 professional marketing teams looked to invest in virtual technology environments to help build and sustain better brand awareness among younger consumer audiences.

Solution

In response to the increasing presence of metaverse-savvy gamers on the internet, Gucci began investing in developing its online metaverse presence to bolster its commercial marketing brand there.

A recent collaboration with Roblox, an online gaming platform that offers virtual experiences, provided Gucci the means to showcase its fashion items using the 鈥� a virtual art installation project for Generation Z consumers, powered by Roblox鈥檚 VR technology. The Gucci Garden virtual system featured a French-styled garden environment where players could try on and buy Gucci virtual fashion items to dress up their blank avatars.

Results

Gucci鈥檚 disruptive, innovative metaverse marketing campaign project with Roblox is proof of its commitment to tapping new marketing growth channels to showcase the brand to engage new and prospective consumers (e.g. Roblox鈥檚 player base) across more unique sandboxed/simulation environments.

The freedom and flexibility in the metaverse environments allows brands such as Gucci to execute a more flexible digital marketing approach and enables them to take advantage of innovative metaverse-driven technologies in the market to further drive their data-driven digital marketing campaigns.

Art of the possible: next best action marketing (NBAM)

NEXT BEST ACTION PREDICTIVE MODELING

To improve conversion propensity, next best action techniques can use predictive modeling methods to help build a dynamic overview of the customer journey. With information sourced from actionable marketing intelligence data, MMS platforms can use NBAM techniques to identify customer needs based on their buying behavior, social media interactions, and other insights to determine what unique set of actions should be taken for each customer.

MACHINE LEARNING鈥揃ASED RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS

Rules-based recommender systems can help assign probabilities of purchasing behaviors based on the patterns in touchpoints of a customer鈥檚 journey and interaction with your brand. For instance, a large grocery chain company such as Walmart or Whole Foods will use ML-based recommender systems to decide what coupons they should offer to their customers based on their purchasing history.

Art of the possible: AI-driven customer segmentation

MACHINE/DEEP LEARNING (ML/DL) ALGORITHMS

The inclusion of AI in data analytics helps make customer targeting more accurate and meaningful. Organizations can analyze customer data more thoroughly and generate in-depth contextual and descriptive information about the targeted segments. In addition, they can use this information to automate the personalization of marketing campaigns for a specific target audience group.

UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER SENTIMENTS

To greatly benefit from AI-powered customer segmentation, organizations must deploy specialized custom AI solutions to help organize qualitative comments into quantitative data. This approach requires companies to use custom AI models and tools that will analyze customer sentiments and experiences based on data extracted from various touchpoints (e.g. CRM systems, emails, chatbot logs).

Phase 2

91制片厂 the Business Case and Streamline Requirements

Phase 2

2.1 91制片厂 the Business Case

2.2 Streamline Requirements Elicitation

2.3 Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach

Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Define and build the business case for the selection of a right-sized MMS platform.
• Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your MMS platform.

This phase involves the following participants:

• CMO
• Technical Marketing Analyst
• Digital Marketing Project Manager
• Marketing Data Analytics Analyst
• Marketing Management Executive

Software Selection Engagement

5 Advisory Calls over a 5-Week Period to Accelerate Your Selection Process

Expert analyst guidance over 5 weeks on average to select software and negotiate with the vendor.

Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process and make better decisions.

Use a repeatable, formal methodology to improve your application selection process.

Better, faster results, guaranteed, included in your membership.

CLICK HERE to book your Selection Engagement

Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your marketing management suite (MMS) platform

Understanding business needs through requirements gathering is the key to defining everything you need from your software. However, it is an area where people often make critical mistakes.

Info-Tech Insight

Poor requirements are the number one reason projects fail. Review Info-Tech鈥檚 Improve Requirements Gathering blueprint to learn how to improve your requirements analysis and get results that truly satisfy stakeholder needs.

Info-Tech鈥檚 approach

Develop an inclusive and thorough approach to the RFP process

Info-Tech Insight

Review Info-Tech鈥檚 process and understand how you can prevent your organization from leaking negotiation leverage while preventing vendors from taking control of your RFP.

The Info-Tech difference:

1. The secret to managing an RFP is to make it as manageable and as thorough as possible. The RFP process should be like any other aspect of business 鈥� by developing a standard process. With a process in place, you are better able to handle whatever comes your way, because you know the steps you need to follow to produce a top-notch RFP.
2. The business then identifies the need for more information about a product/service or determines that a purchase is required.
3. A team of stakeholders from each area impacted gather all business, technical, legal, and risk requirements. What are the expectations of the vendor relationship post-RFP? How will the vendors be evaluated?
4. Based on the predetermined requirements, either an RFI or an RFP is issued to vendors with a due date.