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MRM software includes a powerful planning component for creating and organizing campaigns, as well as planning budgets, target groups, channels and resources (people, assets, content management systems).
Standardized campaign planning with templates tangibly benefits marketers
MRM software allows marketers to plan their campaigns on the basis of tools. Ideally, all relevant fields can be created in individually configurable campaign templates, e.g. in the context of briefings or content information (assets), and reused for future campaigns – as in a kind of campaign library. These templates can be configured differently according to channel and campaign type (e.g. social media, e-mail or print). Freely configurable campaign metadata which can be standardized or made similar across campaigns are particularly valuable here. Templates save a lot of time, especially with a high number of campaigns, and enable highly standardized information content which plays an especially important role in marketing.
It is essential here for software to comprise a freely configurable marketing-object hierarchy which can be adapted variably during implementation – e.g. according to the hierarchy business unit (e.g. accessories), campaign group (e.g. Christmas campaign), individual campaign (activity such as Christmas newsletter) or marketing element (e.g. Christmas voucher).
Ideally, the solution also has a tagging function for filtration according to specific objects. To learn more about tools with powerful planning templates, you can download our MRM market overview via this and obtain detailed provider profiles for all relevant tools.
Perfect overview with a digital marketing calendar
At the core of an MRM solution is a lucid marketing calendar which offers a constant overview of current and future campaigns in variable resolution, besides allowing comparisons with previous campaigns. Search and filter functions, campaign status indications and the possibility to switch between different visualization options (e.g. tabular, calendar or Gantt view) offer marketers the necessary transparency about their marketing measures and highly beneficial information in their daily work. Settings of roles and rights allow control of which users or their groups can see or edit which data.
Features distinguished by colour in calendar displays are usually offered as standard by MRM solutions. Views of different metadata dimensions can usually be configured in the filter settings.
All budgets at a glance: Budget planning with MRM
Many MRM software solutions allow planning templates to be created for different marketing-object hierarchy levels in the case of campaigns, assets, budgets, workflows and resources.
Campaign planning is therefore accompanied simultaneously by budget planning and management. Ideally, MRM software enables budget planning at every object-hierarchy level, and with individual cost centres. This is often possible top-down as well as bottom-up.
For marketers, the major advantage of MRM software is the ability to plan and manage campaigns, measures and budgets in the same solution. Ideally, forecasting and implementation of complex budget logic can be configured via the software. By linking relevant data sources (e.g. SAP), MRM solutions make it possible to integrate actual costs and thus compare them with the planned budgets.
Scope of budget planning functions is one of the main aspects allowing differentiation between MRM solutions.
The market of MRM providers is large, requirements for suitable software often being very detailed. Would you like to discover more? Then download our MRM market overview from here and learn everything about marketing resource management, the market, its providers and which software is particularly powerful in the field of planning.
Were you able to obtain a decent impression of the planning component? Then read all about an MRM solution’s second important aspect here: The workflow component
