MaaS
Hive Creatives offers Marketing as a Service (MaaS), which means we take care of all aspects of your company’s marketing. By using a MaaS model, we give our clients access to a complete and tailored marketing solution that includes strategy development, content creation, campaign management and analytics, all from a single provider.
Marketing as a service at Hive Creatives
Historically, marketing has been about communicating brand messages and making sure they reach the right audience. Its main focus was to convey the right message at the right time to the right people to generate quality leads or retain existing customers.
But that was Level 1 marketing. Now we move on to level 2, where personalization must also be taken into account. The goal of marketing is now not only to target the right audience, but also to take the right next step for them. Marketing is now expected to elevate the buying journey for consumers and help ensure more loyal customers by tying all the pieces together for the buyers.
In addition, the marketing needs of businesses have also changed significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Flawed operating models, limited budgets, the emergence of newer technologies and insufficient internal skills and expertise have forced companies to rethink their marketing. Instead of spending their limited resources piling on new technology, they are now adopting a new and innovative approach to marketing – marketing as a managed service.
Read on to learn more about Marketing as a Service (MaaS), how it works, and why your business needs it.
What is Marketing as a Service (MaaS)?
MaaS is an agile marketing solution tailored to support a company’s marketing functions by delivering value-based, on-demand marketing services. These vary from development of marketing strategies to execution.
MaaS delivers customized marketing solutions that meet business marketing needs. It helps you where you lack. For example, if you are struggling to convert leads into customers, MaaS will optimize your marketing campaigns. MaaS providers enable you to leverage the expertise you need to deliver strong and effective marketing campaigns. They usually consist of a team of experts who can execute marketing strategies, from content creators to web developers, media buyers and social media experts.
One of the reasons why MaaS is becoming increasingly popular is that it delivers high-performance marketing campaigns in a cost-effective manner. It enables companies to adopt data-driven marketing strategies and processes, thereby aligning with the best marketing practices in the industry.
How Marketing as a Service works
In the past, marketing departments had to develop and present a budget to management while lobbying for more employees on their team. After getting management approval, it took an average of almost two months to hire and get the right candidate in place. Then they would have to repeat the process in a few years when the employee gets a promotion or changes jobs.
But with MaaS, marketers can leverage the expertise they need at the time to quickly execute strong and effective campaigns. It is designed to synthesize strategy and execution to support your marketing efforts, depending on your campaign priorities.
MaaS providers develop customized marketing strategies and solutions to help you achieve your marketing and business goals. They basically become an integrated extension of your marketing department. They deliver services tailored to your marketing needs and market requirements.
MaaS delivers high-performance marketing at a lower cost, focusing on data-driven strategies and decision-making, leveraging new marketing technologies and industry best practices. In order to benefit from MaaS, you need to:
- Invest in collecting cross-device data about consumers: In general, marketing relies on data for decision-making and effective campaigns. But in the MaaS era, consumer data will play an even more critical role in successful marketing campaigns. You need to know who your customer is and collect data so you can truly understand them across multiple touch points.
- Create cross-functional teams: Many companies often work with different agencies for customer relationship management, digital marketing and creative agencies, among others. You should encourage all your partners to work together to ensure knowledge transfer so that you can have a common understanding of your target audience and what your marketing service should focus on. Consider the customer experience from the design stage: MaaS is about improving the customer journey with actionable moments at every stage of the sales funnel. You will therefore need to review and analyze the customer journey from the start in order to offer personalized marketing solutions.
- Incorporate marketing innovation as part of your product mix: New technologies such as chatbots, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are helping to revolutionize the marketing scene. They should not only be seen as innovation projects but also integrated into your product range as an integral part of the CRM strategy and experience.
If you’re going to engage consumers and gain an edge over your competition, you need to go beyond personalized content and deliver experiences that allow consumers to act on that content. This is the difference that MaaS brings.
Marketing features perfectly suited for MaaS
If you’re wondering if MaaS will take over all your marketing functions, the answer is no. At least for now. With the right team, you can keep core digital marketing functions in-house. These include brand messaging, customer acquisition strategies, market research and social media management.
MaaS is primarily focused on the technological aspect of marketing, given the speed of innovation and how difficult it is for marketers to keep up. It allows you to stay ahead of marketing trends in a fast and cost-effective way.
Some of the marketing functions that can be outsourced to MaaS include:
- PR (public relations)
- Design for print and online media
- Content development and presentation
- User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design
- Marketing automation
- Lead scoring
- Programs that generate interest in a service or product can also be placed under MaaS.
While it is still early days for any business to need MaaS, industries like travel, hospitality and e-commerce are ready and ripe for it.
Marketing as a Service is particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups that have limited budgets and lack of staff but still want to run effective marketing campaigns. MaaS delivers all aspects of marketing so that SMEs can have a complete and successful campaign while employees work on other important business needs.
But it’s not just SMEs and startups that can benefit from MaaS. Even large and established companies with dedicated in-house marketing teams may find MaaS useful in certain situations. For example, MaaS can be helpful when entering new markets, launching new products, testing new marketing channels or technologies, or when trying something outside the current staff’s area of expertise.
Market Analysis and Target Market Identification
Does your company need Marketing as a Service?
MaaS is a holistic marketing approach that gives companies with limited resources access to professional branding. It adapts each program to the individual needs of the company, which means that one can choose a single service or a package of services for a complete marketing experience.
Some of the benefits of using MaaS include:
Free up resources to focus on strategic efforts
When you’re working with a tight budget and limited resources (technology, skills, and time), you need to be strategic about what you put your efforts into… and they need to deliver results, too! The problem is that most companies focus their marketing efforts on execution rather than strategy. Even if they get quick wins, the ultimate goals are often unsustainable. In addition, they often lack strategic skills.
To succeed in today’s digital marketing landscape, there is no room for taking chances. Your marketing strategy should be based on insightful data and expert knowledge. MaaS can help with both. As a business, you only need to spend on the marketing efforts needed, and you get quality, continuous results with growth potential.
Scalability
The marketing field is also highly competitive. It can be difficult to continuously deliver outstanding marketing campaigns with minimal operating costs.
However, MaaS makes it possible to scale up your marketing efforts at lower costs compared to internal marketing. This allows you to support additional marketing initiatives or projects. Resources can be quickly and easily moved to where they are most needed, whether it’s launching a new product or scaling up a marketing campaign. It also gives you access to insightful market data that can help identify new opportunities.
Cost effectiveness
When you only pay for the marketing services you need and avoid the ones you don’t, you save money and keep your budget manageable.
MaaS providers can also get big discounts by paying for marketing tools in bulk. They can pass these cost savings on to you as a customer by charging a lower fee to access these tools. This also saves you from having to buy the entire tool when you only need to use one component of it.
You can adapt to changing business needs in real time
Businesses, especially those in the e-commerce industry, need to stay up-to-date with digital marketing trends. But it can be difficult to keep up with trends and adapt to changes in real time. It is costly, energy-consuming and time-consuming to develop a new marketing strategy every time a new trend emerges. It is almost impossible if you are working with limited resources.
This is where MaaS is most rewarding.
Your service provider will always be aware of the latest trends, so you don’t have to worry about keeping up or constantly starting over. Service providers also give you access to the latest marketing technology, allowing you to stay ahead of the curve.
Better focus for your marketing team
Finally, outsourcing your marketing needs to a MaaS provider frees up your workforce to focus on valuable and rewarding tasks like ensuring a consistent brand message. It improves your workflow and productivity.
Plus, your internal team gets to learn industry best practices and new trends by working with experts. They can use these skills in their work even after your contract with the service provider has ended. This reduces the need to constantly retrain your employees.
This does not mean that the other marketing models are ineffective, but MaaS enables you to get more for less.
Take your first step towards MaaS
However, it is important to remember that Marketing as a Service is not a short-term solution. It will not work if you are looking for marketing services for a one-time project or quick profits. It is a partnership that aims to achieve continuous growth while offering flexibility, agility and data-driven decision making. This is only possible if your marketing efforts are consistent.
Don’t waste your valuable resources on marketing functions that you can outsource. Your marketing team should focus on more productive tasks while expert professionals take care of your marketing services. Whether you are just starting out or already an established business, MaaS is for you as long as you need help with digital marketing related functions.
Salt Marketing is an established MaaS agency offering cost-effective and agile marketing solutions tailored to help your business thrive and grow. Our premium marketing strategies have helped thousands of Irish businesses achieve success in key marketing areas such as lead generation. Find out how our MaaS expertise can set you apart from the crowd.
Some of our customers
Marketing as a Service (MaaS) at Hive Creatives
Hive Creatives offers Marketing as a Service (MaaS) which means we take care of all aspects of your company’s marketing. Our unique model gives our clients access to a comprehensive and tailored marketing solution that includes everything from strategy development and content creation to campaign management and analytics, all from a single provider.
The benefits of choosing Hive Creatives as a service are many. One of the most obvious is cost-effectiveness. By outsourcing your marketing to us, you avoid the high costs of hiring and training an in-house team. Our services are flexible and can be scaled up or down depending on your needs and budget, giving you full control over your marketing spend.
Furthermore, our service gives you access to a team of experienced marketing professionals with deep knowledge in various marketing disciplines. We constantly keep up to date with the latest trends and technologies, ensuring your business is always ahead of the competition. This expertise means we can deliver high-quality results that drive your business forward.
Time efficiency is another major benefit. By letting us take care of your marketing, you can focus on running and growing your business. Our rapid implementation and continuous monitoring of campaigns means that we can quickly make the necessary adjustments to maximize efficiency, saving you time and resources.
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Frequently asked questions about marketing as a service
Here we answer some of the most frequently asked questions about marketing as a service.
For small businesses, business development is crucial to ensure growth and competitiveness. Effective business development should focus on identifying unique market opportunities, developing strong customer relationships and continuously adapting products or services to customer needs. A small business can benefit from its agility by quickly implementing innovative solutions and adapting to market changes, which can often be a challenge for larger organizations.
The most common challenges in business development include a lack of resources, difficulties in reaching the right target audience, and keeping up to date with industrial and technological changes. Overcoming these obstacles requires a well-planned strategy that includes effective resource management, targeted marketing and a constant willingness to learn and adapt.
Success in business development is usually measured by growth in sales, market share, and customer base. Other key indicators include customer satisfaction, achievement of targets against the business plan and the ability to create sustainable competitive advantage. It is also important to assess the internal capacity for innovation and how well the company adapts to changes in its environment.
