When coming up with a marketing campaign strategy, one of the most important steps is deciding what tools you will be using to maximize your reach for potential customers. If You are just sending out ads, newsletters and posting social media content without examining the analytics then your campaign can never improve.

There are several tips and tools that you could use to collect all the data on the buyer's journey. IT can re-age from their age, their gender, to what is their favorite color. It can be overwhelming to get all this information about your customers and not know what to do with it. This data needs to be utilized in a way that benefits your marketing campaign. 

Despite the fact that campaign management software can be a god-send for your marketing, not every CMS is designed to be equal. There are certain features that are an absolute must when it comes to campaign management. Below we'll discuss 5 of the must-have features in your campaign management software.

 

1. User Friendly for Team Members

This feature is an absolute must, especially if you bring on multiple people and have to train them on this software. If your CMS is complicated to learn and use, then the chances are that you and your team will eventually stop using it. After all, it's not saving you any headaches and pulling data is like pulling teeth. 

There are some CMS that provides you with so many options that it can be confusing just to get started on your campaigns. Without user-friendly guidance to help get you and your team started, you'll be lost before your campaign even begins. 

With proper guidance, a CSM should be able to help you know what kind of content to be sent out and when is the best time to send them out as well. With a good user-friendly system, you should be able to set-up a basic campaign within a few hours. Anything more than that you'd really need to evaluate if this software is worth investing in.

 

2. Multiple Forms of Customer Support

There will be times that you or your team will need to reach out to your CMS support team for troubleshooting. Sometimes the only factor that separates a good campaign management software from a bad one is access to their support team. 

Hopefully, this isn't something you'll need constantly, otherwise, you may want to consider another option, But this is a feature you'll want to be available 24/7. If there is ever a problem that arises that you or your team can't figure out how to solve, you would want there to be someone you can get help from.

Email and phone support are standard, but great customer support should have all its bases covered. There would need to be social media accounts that you could reach out to as well as a chat function for immediate access and a constantly updated blog for references and guide that are helpful for anyone having trouble with a specific feature.

 

2. Lead Management

Lead management is one of the most obvious features of any good CMS. After all, the entire reason for your campaign is to gather information on potential leads that you can turn into customers. 

This may seem like a vague feature, but the difference between a CMS with good lead management compared to one with poor lead management is night and day. For one thing gathering data on customers, the journey is a vital part of campaign management, but a great CMS will give you details about what links did they click or how much time did they spend on one page and then rate them on readiness to buy . 

This feature saves you a ton of leg work so you can focus more on the leads that are most likely to buy from you rather than putting your energy in customers that are just getting around to considering you as an option.

 

3. Multichannel Automation

In marketing, the more sources of information you have, the better decisions you can make. Limiting yourself to one or two channels isn't the best strategy for analyzing the data and managing leads. That's why it's a necessity to get a CMS that handles multiple channels for your campaign.

Whether it's social media, emails, or chat. you'll want to be at the top of your customer's mind whenever you can. This makes the buying process more streamlined and makes it easier for customers to decide to buy from you.

Making your marketing automated is essential nowadays as there are so many options a customer has to consume stuff online. Ideally, you would want one or two pieces of content to be automatically distributed through several channels that way you have a broader reach of audience to get data from.

 

4. Content Functionalities

As the saying goes; content is king. If your CMS doesn't offer a way to curate and manage the content you want to put out then your campaign will really suffer in the long run. Not only doesn't this process need to be automated, but it also needs to be easily managed.

This feature is becoming more standard but there are still some CMS that doesn't handle any content management with their service. Even something as simple as photo editing can save a ton of time when creating content for your marketing.

Although it is possible to use content tools outside of your CMS, having it included is one of the biggest features that can separate a good marketing software, from some of the best. Another benefit of content tools within your CMS is the consistency across multiple channels that gives your campaign more of a professional look by using their templates.

 

5. Easy to Understand Analytics

All your marketing work will be for nothing if your CMS is lacking proper analytics that are easy to understand. More often than not the software you choose will provide some sort of metric that you can use to determine how effective your campaign is, but a good CMS will go a step further and help you understand what the numbers mean and how they impact your campaign.

This is key to a good CMS, not only do you need to be able to create content and outline your strategy, but you will also require up to date information on how effective your efforts are towards your marketing goal.

The data needs to be clear and easy to follow so you can make adjustments when needed. Without this feature, your marketing strategy is essentially shooting in the dark and hoping that it lands some customers.

With these 5 must-have features, you can gain a better understanding of your customers wants and needs and clearly showcase your brand and messaging. Using the right campaign management software can save you so much stress in every step of the process so be sure to pick the right one for your needs.