The Enterprise Marketer's Guide To Overcoming Barriers To Market

STRUCTURAL TUNE-UPS:The Enterprise Marketer’s Guideto Overcoming Barriers to Market

Table ofcontentsIntroduction33, 2, 1, Go: The Journey to Market4The Barriers to Market5Solutions for Speeding up Time to Market7Address Inefficiencies with BKJ Digital9Structural Tune-Ups: The Enterprise Marketer’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Market2

IntroductionFrom the billboards lining the freeway on your drivehome, to the sponcon in your Facebook feed, everywhereyou look it can seem like new products and services arepopping up left, right, and center. In our fast-paced globalmarketplace that thrives on fierce competition, companiesare pulling out all the stops to get to market quickly, andenterprise marketing strategies are no different.Just ask Lyft, the ride-hailing app that found a perpetualhome in competitor Uber’s shadow. Uber emerged on thescene in 2009, with Lyft following three years later in 2012.The rest? History.Even in cases where the goal isn’t to be first to market,such as when an enterprise is releasing a new edition ofa product, sluggish speed to get there can have negativeconsequences. Marketers understand this all too well.At the helm of large corporations and organizations,enterprise marketers are tasked with steering the successof their company. Their targeted efforts, however, relyentirely on the internal capabilities of their enterprise.If one cog in the machine fails to function optimally,speed to market can take a major hit. Interestingly, ITdepartments are the corporate puzzle piece most oftenunable to respond as quickly as marketers need.Due to the highly technical nature of the skillset,IT departments carry the weight of an enterprise’s entiredigital infrastructure on their shoulders and are oftencommissioned with putting out fires on top of theirnormal backlogged task list.Overloaded IT departments send shockwaves that ripplethroughout an entire enterprise, slowing down thespeed to market and effectively limiting the growth thatenterprise marketers are tasked with achieving.In this guide, we’ll tackle these challenges head-onby addressing common barriers to market, whileproviding granular solutions and approaches to ensureyour enterprise is ensuring efficiency, leading digitaltransformation at speed, and improving the ease ofexecution. functioning at a profitable level.Overloaded IT departments sendshockwaves that ripple throughout anentire enterprise, slowing down thespeed to market and effectively limitingthe growth that enterprise marketersare tasked with achieving.Structural Tune-Ups: The Enterprise Marketer’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Market3

3, 2, 1, Go:The Journey to MarketThe journey to market for digital transformation is anoften illuminating experience for a company, sheddinglight on the structural inefficiencies holding them back ontheir quest for exponential growth. Even in enterpriseswith robust internal infrastructure, there are a host ofchallenges that act as hurdles to achieving swift speed tomarket. These hurdles, if not surmounted, can producesizable consequences on the profitability of an enterprise.Why? Let’s take a look:Enterprise A and Enterprise B are developing a similarproduct. While Enterprise A deals with an internal ITbacklog that slows down their momentum to market,Enterprise B moves without friction toward its scheduledlaunch date. In the end, Enterprise B gets to market ayear sooner, winning the favor of consumers and buildingproduct recognition before Enterprise A can even aligninternally on a launch strategy.The moral of the story: Enterprise departments don’t existin a vacuum. Each team, and the challenges they face, areinterconnected. Powerful enterprises are attuned to this,auditing for back-end inefficiencies to ensure synergisticsystems that propel them forward.Structural Tune-Ups: The Enterprise Marketer’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Market4

The Barriers to MarketA profitable enterprise is a well-oiled machine, operatingwith the utmost efficiency and expanding year after year.Getting there, however, is a demanding experience thatrequires enterprises to focus on the internal systems,or lack thereof, that keep their engines running.There are a host of factors that can impact an enterprise’sback-end efficiency. Left unchecked, these organizationalinefficiencies can have a lasting negative effect on anenterprise’s speed to market, obstructing the workmarketers are looking to accomplish.THE FOLLOWING ARE COMMON EXAMPLES OFSTRUCTURAL INEFFICIENCIES THAT IMPACTYOUR BOTTOM LINE:ANTIQUATED PLATFORMSThe stone age has come and gone, and tech-enabledenterprises are quickly becoming standard across allindustries. Enterprises are large ecosystems, and in orderfor them to function properly, the systems they dependon must integrate seamlessly into their processes.With technology rapidly evolving each year, it can behard to pinpoint when to update or replace internalplatforms, particularly ones that have been custom builtor patched together over the years. Chances are, if yourorganization is experiencing convoluted workflows,flatlined sales, or dependency on orphan applications,it’s time to make the shift towards implementing newtechnology into your workplace.Structural Tune-Ups: The Enterprise Marketer’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Market5

INEFFECTIVE USER EXPERIENCEPOOR CONTENT STRATEGYUser experience (UX) is something that impacts humansevery day and chances are, you’ve judged a companybecause of it. Whether you’ve found yourself frustratedby Netflix’s hover auto-play feature that loops trailerswhile you’re deciding on a movie, or experienced the joyof ordering a product from an impeccable e-commercesite, UX directly impacts how we view the brands weengage with. The truth is, unpolished UX signifies a lack offoresight and care for your target market and their time.Every marketing professional understands that content isking. Whether an enterprise is attracting customers withthought leadership articles or topical podcast episodes,content marketing is a proven strategy for lead generationand positioning.Picture this: An enterprise is releasing a new service inthe upcoming months and decided to promote it withan announcement on their website. As a lead generationstrategy, the announcement included a form to encouragethose interested in receiving updates on the launch toprovide their email.But bringing a product or service to market? That’s wherecontent marketing truly shines. Brands want to build hype,exciting their customers about the next best thing they’relaunching. Content marketing can be a fantastic way toachieve that. However, the factor that stalls its efficacy?Discoverability.Undiscovered content impacts your bottom linesignificantly. Not only do enterprises funnel their budgettowards a product that isn’t even being seen by the targetaudience, but they additionally frustrate their customersby failing to deliver what they’re looking for.The form, although intended as the primary conversionchannel for the service, failed to submit any data to theenterprise. This error additionally resulted in customerconfusion over the lack of visual cues to signify that theirdata had been processed.With the enterprise’s IT department tied up dealing withinternal backlog, the frustrated marketing team feelshelpless, understanding that their lead generation tool isnot only futile but will additionally deter potential leadsfrom engaging with their company in the future due to itsbelow-par UX.The truth is, unpolished UX signifiesa lack of foresight and care for yourtarget market and their timeStructural Tune-Ups: The Enterprise Marketer’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Market6

Solutions forSpeeding up Time to MarketPLATFORMS: INTEGRATION, EMPOWERMENT& ENABLEMENTCue: Tech-enabled solutions. In order to achievebenchmarks, enterprises need to bring their systemsup to date. Unfortunately, many organizations still findthemselves running up against the headaches causedby inefficient systems that fail to optimize to theircustomized needs.Platforms like Salesforce (CRM), Drupal (DXP), or AmazonWeb Services (Cloud), all connect your data in differentways, with enterprise accessibility and SSO, while drivinginsight when linked properly. It’s imperative, however,that the process of onboarding new platforms is donestrategically, optimizing pathways of platform integrationin a way that aligns with your enterprise’s needs.New opportunities need to be identified andimplemented at the speed of innovation. By additionallyfocusing your lens on platform enablement, yourenterprise can rapidly test new ideas through feasibilityanalysis, product prototypes and proofs of concept,all within your platform ecosystems.ONLINE EXPERIENCE DESIGNEliminating friction is the key to providing great UX andensuring customers want to follow along. The desired UXof a telecom company is not going to look the same as thatof an apparel brand. With that in mind, organizations mustpersonalize the UX of their customer touchpoints to buildtrust and goodwill with their target audience.Companies like Apple have mastered the art of captivatingcustomers throughout this journey. From their hypeinducing product and upgrade announcements, AppleTalks, all the way to their interactive webstore thatprovides a visually-striking experience unlike that of itscompetitors, UX is something that Apple has mastered.The other side of the coin? Internal UX. While customerexperience is a key metric that defines an organization,internal UX is equally important. Ensuring that youremployees are supported in their work by functional andintuitive systems is pivotal if you’re looking to drive processefficiency and business value on your way to market.Structural Tune-Ups: The Enterprise Marketer’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Market7

NAIL YOUR CONTENT PUBLISHINGOUTSOURCE IT OVERLOADAccording to a landmark study from Semrush, 78% ofbrands that were successful with content in 2021 havea documented content marketing strategy. Contentprovides a helpful touchpoint to build consumer trustwhile additionally securing leads.Sometimes all it takes to get to market is releasing yourinternal pressure valve. If an overwhelmed IT departmentis limiting your enterprise from reaching its full potential,it might be time to consider outsourcing. By contractingdigital enablement and IT support, companies securetheir bottom line by effectively protecting their peoplefrom the insidious effects of burnout while facilitatingorganizational function at the highest level.But what happens when your content suffers fromdiscoverability issues? Undiscovered content leads toinefficiency, opportunity cost, and customer frustration.Fortunately, through faceted search solutions, personaled content organization, and content aggregation APIs,your enterprise can bridge the gap between content andits intended audience while capitalizing on the value of itscontent investment.78% of brands that weresuccessful with content in 2021have a documented contentmarketing strategyStructural Tune-Ups: The Enterprise Marketer’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Market8