How can sales and marketing teams foster better collaboration, easier access to assets, and increased social advocacy in an organization? By more effectively using the software you already have access to. Uncover the value of creating a sales and marketing intranet in 2023.
A company intranet serves employees of all departments and functions by providing a centralized, secure, and easy-to-use platform for accessing information and collaborating with colleagues.
But in 2023, modern intranet tools for marketing have expanded the capabilities of intranet software, making it a valuable resource for marketing teams especially.
The various tools and features available in a modern intranet can help your marketing team enhance collaboration internally and with external agencies, provide convenient access to marketing assets, and strengthen bonds between the wider organization and its marketing output.
23 ways your workplace can use a mission-critical intranet to achieve its objectives
If more of your internal colleagues are aware of your marketing, they’ll find it easier to support and distribute on their own social networks. No off-brand headaches, no use of incorrect templates, and no posting at the wrong time in a campaign. Win-win!
How a marketing intranet has evolved to support sales and brand
Before the inception of intranet tools specifically designed to support sales and marketing, intranets primarily served as internal communication networks. They gave employees access to company information and resources, and they allowed HR, IC, and senior leaders to keep staff updated on new and upcoming developments.
However, in recent years, employee portals have evolved significantly and now include dedicated applications and features designed specifically for marketing departments. This includes tailored team homepages, integrated content management systems (CMS intranet), and direct interfaces with document management systems that hold brand assets and sales resources.
These advancements enable marketing teams to centralize their operations, streamline workflows, and enhance coordination across their campaigns. This is possible because the customizable and personalized nature of modern intranets ensures tailored experiences for entire teams and individual users, catering to their specific needs and responsibilities.
Useful intranet tools for marketing teams
Let’s explore the key intranet tools for marketing that a modern intranet should offer in 2023.
Dedicated knowledge hub
One of the key advantages of a marketing intranet is that it empowers marketing pros to easily create an internal knowledge hub or dedicated team area.
By storing relevant documents, guidelines, and resources in one accessible location, marketing teams can quickly create, store, and share what they need to ensure consistency in branding, messaging, and campaign execution.
23 ways your workplace can use a mission-critical intranet to achieve its objectives
As one of the most useful intranet tools for marketing, a centralized knowledge hub can store and provide access to:
- Brand guidelines
- Style guides
- Creative assets
- Market research
- Customer personas
- Case studies
By providing easy access to these resources in the team and the wider organization, marketing teams can streamline departmental efforts and raise the profile of the work they’re undertaking.
Efficient collaboration and communication
Effective collaboration and communication are both crucial for successful marketing teamwork but, according to Salesforce, 69% of marketers say it’s harder to collaborate now than before the pandemic.
A variety of intranet tools for marketing can help to streamline communication and foster greater teamwork, including discussion groups, forums, communities, and project management tools integrated into intranets allowing team members to collaborate in real-time, regardless of their physical location. This enables seamless sharing of ideas, feedback, and updates, enhancing the overall efficiency of marketing teams.
23 ways your workplace can use a mission-critical intranet to achieve its objectives
Additionally, intranet software often includes features such as shared calendars, task management systems, and project tracking tools, and these features help marketers stay organized, assign and track tasks, set deadlines, and monitor progress.
As a result, marketing campaigns can be executed more smoothly and efficiently, ensuring timely delivery and improved project management.
Enhanced employee engagement and empowerment
Marketing teams that are engaged and empowered are more likely to dream up innovative and captivating ideas and execute effective campaigns.
Intranet software can play a significant role in boosting employee engagement within marketing departments by providing a platform for rewards, recognition, and feedback, fostering a positive work environment, and motivating team members, not to mention showing off their efforts and achievements to the rest of the organization.
In addition to rewards and recognition tools, Interact includes social features that allow co-workers to connect, share insights, and collaborate with colleagues from different departments. This cross-functional collaboration promotes the exchange of ideas, nurtures creativity, and enables marketing teams to leverage the expertise of individuals with different skill sets and perspectives.
Knowledge sharing through blogs, vlogs, social updates, knowledge bases, and internal training resources can also empower marketers to continuously learn and develop, keeping them up-to-date with the latest marketing skills, trends, and strategies.
Engagement with agencies and freelancers through external access
An intranet that also features extranet capabilities can be a valuable tool for facilitating effective collaboration with external agencies and freelancers.
Essentially this is the same as a corporate intranet, although it is a limited version that provides access to authorized users outside of the organization, providing a secure and centrally governed platform for collaboration, communication, and sharing.
This removes the common challenges caused by needing to manage communications and relationships with freelancers and agencies over different channels (email, WhatsApp, SMS, etc.), and allows tasks and campaigns that they are involved in to be managed and tracked in one place without needing to purchase another third-party task management app.
It also provides those external parties with quick and easy access to the information and assets they need to complete the work they’re undertaking for the marketing department more efficiently.
Enhancing the ideation process through employee listening
Employee listening and idea management can be powerful intranet tools for marketing departments.
An intranet with integrated employee listening and idea management software can help marketers to look beyond the marketing team for campaign ideas and inspiration, which can lead to improved campaign performance.
According to Hubspot, marketers who source ideas from other departments are more likely to say that their marketing is effective (72%) than those who don’t (58%).
For example, perhaps a customer account manager has a case study opportunity that would be perfect for an upcoming campaign, or maybe one of your warehouse operatives has an undiscovered penchant for coming up with killer campaign ideas. By empowering people across the organization to contribute their ideas – no matter how “out there” – marketers may be able to tap into a wealth of creative potential.
Modern intranets aren’t just for internal communications
From serving as a centralized knowledge hub to facilitating efficient collaboration and communication, your sales and marketing intranet software can offer many benefits.
By implementing and utilizing these intranet tools for marketing, marketers can streamline their workflows, improve campaign execution, and ultimately work better together for stronger results.
