Economic uncertainty has placed marketing operations and campaign efficiency under the microscope for the majority of marketers. Common actions to deal with operational improvement are headcount reduction, budget reduction, and pushing on suppliers for price concessions. The fact is that there are a number of recently developed technologies and process automation tools that offer better options to drive marketing efficiency. Those tools enable new levels of marketing operational consolidation to take advantage of economies of scale. At the same time they allow customization where it is needed to suit local markets.

The best news about these new tools is that they provide potentially useful data. Leading practice marketers have recognized two levels of efficiency benefit from this data; first, in the optimization of their internal marketing operations of their organizations, and second, in the ability to measure and improve on the results of campaign structures and tactics.