An agency’s routine involves a lot of processes that could see a positive impact by investing in intelligence.
In addition to gains in time and productivity, Marketing Resource Management (MRM) helps you set up a more optimized routine and, at the same time, reduce the incidence of errors.
In this post, we will show you how MRM can improve your workflow management by encouraging a more collaborative approach to the company’s strategies and, in doing so, obtaining better results.
This guide is ideal for agencies from all backgrounds and sizes. You will also learn more about this kind of software’s concept, its main features, the problems it can solve, and the benefits for the businesses.
Keep reading to learn more about the following:
What is Marketing Resource Management?
Also known as a Marketing ERP, Marketing Resource Management is a software that helps professionals organize, plan, and monitor the execution of productive tasks.
For agencies that manage multiple accounts, it is crucial to guarantee that deadlines are met, as well as the client’s needs and expectations.
To understand the current MRM’s model, we need a little context about its creation.
With digital transformation, the opportunities for marketing activation coming from different channels increased considerably. At the beginning of the century, Marketing Resource Management came to life as a response to that new demand.
Even then, with years passed and this role in marketing becoming more and more complex, the search for MRMs fell drastically. It simply wasn’t enough anymore.
The solution only became part of communications agencies’ routine again with a version known as 2.0 — which could approach planning and management with a collaborative focus, centralizing data in an easy-to-read dashboard.
With time, this technology just kept growing, including a series of improvements like Business Intelligence.
This feature allows the agency’s team to work with an ever-growing volume of data in real-time.
This way, it is now possible to access more relevant information, share strategic reports remotely, and make quicker, more informed decisions.
Why Invest in MRM?
Your agency probably already has a well-developed strategic plan that is easy to apply, but Marketing Resource Management goes beyond a simple organization of the business’s routine.
Its main drive is in saving time and money with a more intelligent production line.
Imagine that each of your project managers attends to something between 5 and 20 accounts.
That means they will have to follow that quantity of strategies, particularities, and demands — resulting in a greater need for focus and increased pressure to show different results based on each goal.
MRM inserts itself in those dynamics providing leaders with some important benefits like:
Task and process management
Iit is possible to assign roles, set up teams, and define deadlines.
Analysis of big volumes of data
So you can follow processes even in bigger agencies with great precision.
Error, failure, and/or mistake identification
Even with many clients and demands, it is possible to observe atypical situations and react quickly, lowering the risks for negative results.
Easy monitoring
It optimizes the monitoring of relevant, accurate metrics to promote continuous improvement in your clients’ marketing campaigns.
Integration
The best MRMs today promote integration among all departments.
Pricing
You have precise knowledge about costs for each project (hours worked, for example) so you can price your service correctly.
Approval
MRM gives you better automation tools to ease the process of having clients to approve pieces that will go live.
What are the Main Issues you Can Solve with MRM?
Now we will show you some points that can be addressed and improved in a more practical way using Marketing Resources Management.
Team integration
Before the digital transformation, marketing data was available almost exclusively to higher ranks in the agency.
The campaigns were discussed and elaborated there, and only then passed on to be executed by the operational team.
MRM allowed those dynamics to change.
Now, the data needed to make decisions is shared and available to every member of the company with the hierarchy being on access credentials.
It gives more autonomy to departments and quick ways to make important decisions.
ROI optimization
The Return Over Investment, or marketing ROI, needs constant validation by trustworthy sources so you can really optimize costs and strategies.
With Marketing Resource Management, it is possible to quickly understand the performance of multiple campaigns and use the information to improve profitability at every step of a marketing agency’s routine.
Improvement of the relationship with branches
Often, physical distance can be a problem with demands like resource sharing, campaign approval, and reaction time for punctual decisions.
This can occur between agency and clients or agency and other branches, remote collaborators, etc.
MRM, by its integrating nature, can shorten distances and remove that gap from the routine entirely.
With remote, centralized access to data, it gives autonomy to every relevant part of marketing planning and execution.
Cost and cycles reduction
On one hand, strategic information is centralized; on the other, they are shared and the entire organization can understand their roles and the common goals.
Beyond that, MRM offers standardized processes, cutting costs and raising productivity by guiding teams towards the right order of actions.
Strategic data storage in the cloud
In the beginning, even Marketing Resource Management software had all the data stored within on-premise machines and servers.
Today, you can use cloud computing to give availability to information, with the kind of security you need for such an important part of your agency.
What Type of Company is MRM Designed?
MRM is a kind of management software that should be considered today regardless of the size of the digital agency.
In any circumstance, it improves the brand-client relationship by making approvals, adjustments, and decisions quicker to resolve.
Beyond that, for an agency, marketing data becomes extremely relevant, as it indicates precise returns for each action.
MRMs are also important for businesses where marketing has a primordial role.
For example, eCommerce needs that kind of agile, clear course of action to thrive. And it needs accurate and insightful metrics for each strategy.
For larger companies with a lot of departments, branch offices, and even remote collaborators, the Marketing Resource Management software offers access to data and budget.
This can be used in decision-making, not based on hierarchy, but on each member’s role.
What are the Main Features an MRM has to Offer?
It’s important to understand that this software is not the same it was 10 years ago.
Today it is a fully-fledged suite compatible with businesses’ demands among various segments.
But, as the market continues to change and demands more specialization from companies, you need to find the right fit among so many alternatives.
To make the most of this tool as an ally to your marketing planning, let’s see some features that we consider as essentials for an MRM:
Integration
Metrics have a crucial role in decision-making for marketing but their true potential comes from a 360º vision.
By integrating multiple departments, you have an accurate view of the profitability of each project, as well as counting on the whole team to improve those numbers.
Data analysis
We can’t talk about Marketing Resource Management without talking about data.
Therefore, when hiring an MRM, try to find out which metrics it is able to track.
Easy share
The democratization of data availability is vital to engage and motivate collaborators in the company’s routine.
Besides that, it is easier to ask for more performance from professionals that are greatly inserted in the project.
Raising a sense of community and responsibility in all employees
Increase collaboration results by creating an inclusive work environment that highlights the skills and talents of team members.
Visually-structured budgets
If we are talking about optimizing time, simplifying data clarity, and giving more autonomy, we need to make information clear and easy to visualize.
The MRM you choose must have an intuitive and simple dashboard, with budget information that is easy to read and adjust.
What do you Have to Know Before Investing in this Solution?
The digital era gave even more importance to numbers but they only become practical returns when dealt with using intelligence.
Monitoring, sharing, and integrating strategies will be very useful for those businesses that know how to update their workflow.
MRM itself won’t change a company if the mindset for project management doesn’t change too.
It is crucial to train the team so the tool is used at its maximum potential. That way, you can even see a collaborative spirit and an analytic culture thrive.
Wrap Up
As you saw, Marketing Resource Management software is a necessity for digital agencies as well as businesses that know how to make data intelligence result in great marketing campaigns.
It is important to leave with the understanding that digital marketing is becoming more and more relevant for success.
Centralizing information optimizes not only budgets and resources like time but also helps you implement innovative tactics and more streamlined processes.
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