9 Signs You Need Knak

I’ve talked to a lot of customers over the years. I’ve listened to their frustrations, helped with their problems and rejoiced in their successes.

With experience, I’ve come to see that many of the problems they encounter are very similar.

In this blog, I want to share an important insight about how our customers have solved problems that were weighing on them.

Simply put, it’s all about identifying pain points.

When someone tells me they are experiencing any of the nine following issues, I can tell it’s time for them to try Knak.

1. Your marketers are unhappy

Marketers are creative people. And they will get frustrated if they aren’t able to turn their ideas into reality quickly, or if they keep getting told the company won’t follow through on their ideas because they’re just too complicated to execute.

The first sign that you need Knak is that your marketers are unhappy.

Thinking of Knak?

Start by questioning your marketers.

Do they feel limited or stifled day-to-day? Do they have the ability to do the things they want to do, to be innovative, to make an impact? Are they doing marketing that they are proud of? Or are they operating in an environment that just doesn’t allow that?

If they are frustrated, we can help.

2. Everything takes too long

Today’s marketing world is lightning-fast. You want to be quick off the mark when it comes to creating a campaign or sending messages to your audience or customer base.

If you aren’t able to execute in a reasonable timeframe, it’s another sign that you need Knak.

One CMO said to me that things were so slow at his company, his marketing team felt like they were trudging through mud every day.

Ugh! No one wants to feel that way!

So ask your team. Does it feel like it takes forever to get anything done? Are they frustrated because they feel they can’t move quickly enough?

Knak can really help speed things up.

3. Your competitors are running circles around you

In a recent blog, I told the story of a new customer caught off-guard when a competitor launched a new promotion.

This customer decided to respond with an offer of their own.

But it took them more than a month to create and launch their own marketing campaign. They weren’t agile enough; their processes and technology weren’t up to the job. As a result, they lost millions of dollars in business.

That new customer told me that if they’d been using Knak, they would have been able to launch their counter-offensive within days, instead of weeks.

So ask yourselves: Are you losing market share? Are your competitors pulling ahead of you? Are you losing sleep because your competitors seem to be able to do better marketing than you? Do you live in fear that you are going to be caught off-guard? These are all signs you may need Knak.

4. You can’t do the things you want to do

Marketing teams have to work within certain limits. One is technology, the other is processes.

Sometimes the technology they use simply can’t support the things that they want to do. And so marketers have either got to dumb down their work or not follow through on their ideas.

Have you ever heard someone say: ‘Oh, forget that idea. We can’t do that. Salesforce doesn’t support it.’?

It’s a sign it’s time for Knak.

Processes are also a limiting factor.

Have you ever been told: ‘We need developers to do that, but they’re not available today. So we can’t do it’? Or: ‘We’re out of bandwidth on our development team or in our centralized service centre, so we can’t take on any more work’?

When that happens, people don’t do the campaigns they want to do. Or they dumb down their campaigns. Or they do something that’s just not as good as it could be.

Is your marketing team able to do everything it wants to do, or is it always looking for shortcuts or workarounds? Can existing processes and technology fully support their work?

If not, it’s a sign it’s time for Knak.

5. You’re overwhelmed

Everyone gets busy, but no one should have the feeling that they can never get out from behind the eight-ball.

Yet too many people are overwhelmed and live with the fear that they can’t get everything done.

A large bank in the U.S. recently told us that it was taking them up to six months to build a single email. That was not only because of processes – for example a long process for approvals – but also because all the teams involved had a backlog of work that prevented them from moving quickly.

And things were not improving; their timelines were getting longer.

Talk about feeling overwhelmed!

And you know what? It’s only going to get worse.

Marketing campaigns are becoming more personalized, more tailored to individual customers.

The more personalized a campaign becomes, the more content it requires; you can’t use the content geared to a specific customer on someone else.

So if you’re already overwhelmed, good luck creating more personalized marketing content!

The solution lies in becoming more efficient, and adjusting processes to handle the volumes you now require.

So ask yourself: Am I overwhelmed? Does it seem like I can never get ahead? If the answer is yes, it may be time for Knak.

6. You’re sending out generic, mundane content

I just talked about how marketing is becoming more personalized, but that’s just one example of how marketing is changing.

Today’s customers and prospects expect personalized, localized and beautifully crafted marketing. And of course, every seller wants to really stand out to differentiate themselves from the competition.

It takes sophistication and effort to craft and send out those beautiful, personalized and localized messages.

If you’re not equipped to do so, you’re going to be sending out the same messages to everyone. And because they aren’t personalized and localized, those messages will by nature be bland and mundane.

So the question to ask yourself is: Are you able to keep up with the times? Are you able to truly address your audience? Or are you still sending out the same generic content to everyone?

7. You need a project manager to get a single email out the door

I see a lot of companies getting bogged down because so many teams and handoffs are involved in creating a marketing campaign.

The campaign process goes from design to developers; developers to marketers; marketers to marketing operations; marketing operations to localization, and so on.

With so many teams involved, and so many handoffs, the campaign creation process is not as efficient as it could be.

Knak can help with that.

It’s a sign you need us when you feel you need a project manager to get a single email out the door.

8. Your younger employees are frustrated

Are your younger workers pushing you to try new things? And are you telling them you simply can’t? It may be a sign you need Knak.

Healthy marketing teams are always pushing the envelope. They’re always modernizing and on the lookout for the latest trend or technology. They’re always trying to understand their audience better and be one step ahead of the competition.

That process starts by listening to some of the younger employees in a company.

Your younger employees are generally the ones who best understand how information today is consumed.

So look around.

Are your young employees pressuring you to be more cutting-edge? Are they frustrated because you won’t go as far as they think you should go?

9. You’re looking for ways to maximize your use of AI

There’s a big push on in a lot of marketing companies right now to tap the ever-growing power of artificial intelligence. In fact, it’s no longer optional: People are now being required to come up with AI tools they can use.

Are you being tasked with infusing AI into your marketing?

Knak can help you meet your AI goals. That’s because we have integrated AI into a number of our tools.

We can help companies leverage AI to streamline their processes and to do better marketing. We can help them integrate AI into their work.

Are you dealing with any of these pain points? Reach out and we’ll show you how we can help.