The centralization of a company’s contract data is one of the main features of a contract management system. So when you think of contracts, procurement teams and legal departments might come to mind. But centralized data can benefit an entire organization, allowing all departments to handle aspects of their job more productively and more effectively, including marketing teams. So when you ask yourself, “What is contract management software, and how can it help me?” we’ve got you covered. Here are a few ways marketing departments can use contract management software to their benefit.
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Organize Your Customers Based on Their Publicity Clauses
In some situations, a marketing department might have direct contact with customers, or at least need the capability to review terms of a customer contract. One such example is the presence of publicity clauses. A publicity clause is language that discusses the disclosure of the business relationship between the company and a vendor. Under some provisions, companies can publicly announce the relationship between the company and their customer for the purposes of branding and promotion.
Some customers and vendors do not want any product or pricing information revealed to a third party for marketing use. Other times customer or vendor contracts have publicity clauses that allow the marketing department to mention company and names on promotional materials. Mixing up the two can be incredibly costly. Accidentally releasing a business relationship you shouldn’t can break the contract, lead to financial penalties, or even damage your business’s reputation.
Marketing departments can harness the contract data found in their contract repository to make sure this never happens. Qualified users can generate clear-cut reports of the customers that allow public recognition. With access to all current and past contracts, the marketing team can filter customer and vendor contracts to choose the right information for their marketing plans.
Clean Out Duplicate Records
Enterprise contract management systems integrate with already existing customer relationship management (CRM) programs. This integration gathers potential business leads in a centralized system. With access to a quality CMS, marketing departments can cross-check their lead lists with customers who are already doing business with the company. This means you can clean out duplicate records from lead lists and cut down on repetitive, unproductive work. Even more importantly, this ensures the marketing team isn’t double-dipping or frustrating potential and already existing companies.
Additionally, an accurate lead list with properly identified leads and customers allows the marketing department to be more precise. Marketing specifically to current customers is valuable — as long as it’s done the right way. So marketing departments can use contract management software to treat current customers like current customers and prospect leads like prospects for more targeted results.
Tracking Customer Trends
Contract data, associated documents, and customer information give marketers the opportunity to track customer trends. Marketing teams can create more intentional campaigns and messages when they know:
- What a customer is purchasing.
- The price they are paying.
- The frequency they are receiving a good or service
Data-driven decisions put together marketing initiatives and campaigns that attract new and recurring business better.
For example, the marketing team can review contracts to see which specific price points or discounts are successful in signing on new business. They can then use this information to focus their marketing strategy at this specific price point. This might include creating a discount program or some other type of incentive.
When Salesforce conducted a recent survey of 6,000 consumers, they found 76 percent of them expected companies to understand their needs and expectations. When marketing departments can use contract management software to access customer data, they can understand their actual customers’ needs and wants. This leads to more closed deals, which benefits the entire organization.
Target Marketing for Customers with Growth Opportunities
When marketing departments can use contract management software with all of their company’s customer data, they can use it to target specific groups, up-sell, cross-sell, and secure repeat business for sales teams.
The team can search for customers who use a specific product or service and comprise multiple lead lists. Depending on the circumstances, a team member might contact a lead to up-sell them a higher-priced product or service which better meets their needs or offer complementary products or services.
One common metric marketing departments use to measure customer experience (and profitability) is customer lifetime value (CLV). This is the measure of how valuable a customer is to your business for life. When marketing teams can use an enterprise contract management system to upsell or cross-sell customers, they increase each customer’s CLV. Marketing departments can also track the contract life cycle of each customer. Marketers can learn when contract renewals or expirations are near. This gives them the opportunity to ensure existing customers stay the course with incentives or other special campaigns. Marketing departments can use contract management software, but only if it has the tools they need. ContraxAware’s enterprise contract management system has tools to help drum up more business by marketing to specific groups of customers. At the same time, marketing departments can use contract management software to provide marketing-related customer service and related administrative tasks. Contact us to learn more about how our software solutions can help, and sign up for a free trial.
