The Widen Summit is an annual conference aimed at helping businesses make better use of their marketing systems particularly through content and creative workflows.

Just like in years past, the 2015 Widen Summit was packed with valuable, actionable lessons for those in a variety of roles and industries.

Here’s a quick rundown of our top five takeaways just about any company can take advantage of to improve their marketing performance this year, next year and beyond.

This is part one of a 12-part blog series on making the most of your marketing resource management (MRM) system. Take a second and subscribe to our blog for email updates as we unveil the rest of our series over the next few weeks!

Whether you call it a MRM, a marketing resource center, or something else entirely, all of these systems help companies accomplish a crucial goal: Better control over marketing efforts across multiple locations.

But as helpful as these tools are, they’re only as good as the managers and administrators that keep them running smoothly. Whether it’s keeping users engaged, updating products, or making improvements to the features users rely on most, managing a marketing platform effectively can be a big task.

Have a new printing project on the horizon? Calling your print partner sooner rather than later can save you major headaches down the road. The decisions you make without them can increase the cost of your project and decrease efficiencies.

To ensure a productive conversation, we asked our own reps what questions were most important to address during that first call. Let’s dive in:

A few years ago, showrooming sent shockwaves through the retail world as shoppers started showing up at stores only to whip out their phones to find lower prices online.

Tension is an inherent part of franchising. Franchisors want to maintain standards and preserve the brand while franchisees want autonomy and the freedom to run the business their way.

When a new idea, product or service shows big promise, but doesn’t quite fit in with the brand you’ve built, a well-designed sub-brand can give it the unique identity it needs while staying connected to a brand people know and trust.

Ever wonder why some companies get tons of attention despite an average presence at the trade show or conference? There is a good chance the booth is just the tip of the iceberg. The real magic happens behind the scenes.

Smart sponsors don’t wait until the day of the event to engage. They warm leads up weeks before the doors open and stay engaged with the biggest opportunities well after everyone goes home.

The FCMC is one of just a handful of annual events that bring franchise marketers together to share successes, solve problems and give those with great ideas a soapbox to stand on. But as with any conference, it can be tough to take insights and advice and turn them into a real-life action plan back at the office.

Despite ecommerce’s steady growth, most companies still rely on driving customers into actual stores.

Reaching people on the ground requires a smart approach to local marketing––a task quickly becoming more digitized every day.

For decades, the press check was a routine part of commercial printing. Work out a design, approve the proof, and drag yourself to the printer to spend hours checking press sheets before giving the green light. Prior to the high-tech color assessment tools of today, it was a necessary, yet tedious final step to ensuring a great run. 

Thankfully for everyone involved, the days of the press check are, for the most part, over.