Each time we decide to achieve a new project in business, it requires resources. Here at Capsolve, we define resources as Money, People, Time and Technology (MPTT). Whether it is a marketing, technology or another type of initiative, a given effort may require one or more of these resources to make it proceed from concept to solution.
More specifically, marketing initiatives rely upon these same resources in addition to Creativity and the 4P’s of marketing. This formula has shown results many times during the course of its existence. While many other considerations are necessary for a marketing program to experience success, these represent the blocking and tackling of marketing.
Each of these resources may take multiple forms, but ultimately, they create a currency for marketing programs to be executed. While money sounds simple, it may be gathered in its traditional form, or another currency that is of value to a particular team. Examples include raising funds for a non-profit program to occur, paying in an alternative currency such as bitcoin or loyalty points to get value from a program partner.
When discussing People or Human Resources (this label sounds even more appropriate as we take a new step in the era of robotics), there are many forms as well. This may include teams of people within your company or from the many companies with whom you have structured strategic alliances. I have seen many instances of the clever usage of people and their time from many a marketer.
This brings us to Time. How could we create time for an initiative aside from traveling to another time zone? Most of us rely upon adding people to accomplish more in the same amount of time. Others will hire people in other time zones to increase the number of productive hours in a day. These are tried and true tactics to making more happen in less time, but each has its limits.
Finally, what about technology? It doesn’t tend to play a major role in creating money, other than with governments, the lottery and gambling. By the way, I don’t recommend the latter two as reliable funding techniques for your marketing programs. However, marketing technology may play a significant role in creating the equivalent of more People and Time.
Let’s talk about Social Marketing as our example in this case. Every social media marketer realizes quickly that social marketing tools will drastically reduce the time required to disseminate their social marketing content across multiple sites. Even the free versions have this much functionality. Sending content to 5 sites took 5 minutes per site per post. If done with a social marketing tool, it may be done in 10 minutes, a reduction of 60% from 25 minutes. Alternatively, it allows a marketer to distribute content to many more sites than without the technology, creating better reach. Imagine a social marketing program that generates 3 posts per day for 250 days per year. Most businesses within this volume of social marketing require this technology. However, it provides many other benefits that accomplish similar decreases in the use of limited resources within most organizations. As a marketing team climbs the maturity curve for social marketing, the efficiencies increase at least linearly, but are counterbalanced by larger audiences, additional content needs and more sophisticated segmentation.
As you begin to plan and regularly adjust the social marketing component of your annual marketing plan, be sure to consider what technologies could create this type of efficiency with your marketing programs. Optimizing your resources is crucial for any size budget and will usually have a material, if not game changing effect on your use of limited resources.