ANA Marketing Resource Management
ANA Marketing Resource Management
ANA Marketing Resource Management
RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
HOW-TO GUIDE
Marketing Resource Management
HOW-TO GUIDE
Marketing Resource Management (MRM) systems control the administrative processes that
support customer-facing marketing programs. This distinguishes MRM from marketing execution
systems that store customer databases and deliver marketing messages through email, Web
ads, and other channels. MRM may be sold independently or as a component of comprehensive
marketing management systems that also provide execution.
MRM functions fall into two primary clusters. The first involves functions related to company-level
marketing management, including program planning, scheduling, budgeting, and cost reporting.
The other cluster relates to program management, including task lists, purchasing media and
materials, content creation, approvals, storage, and distribution. Some MRM systems specialize in
a few of these functions.
Others specialize in additional functions such as customizing content for local offices or dealers,
or in marketing reporting and analysis. Systems may also be tailored to specific industries or
companies of a certain size.
Companies buy MRM systems when their marketing programs become too complicated to run
in a less systematic fashion. This, along with the systems' high cost, originally meant that MRM
was used almost exclusively by large marketing organizations with hundreds of marketers in
multiple offices.
More recently, the growth of digital marketing means that even small marketing organizations need
to manage many different programs and content versions across multiple channels, and to quickly
introduce new versions.
This expanded complexity has rarely been accompanied by a corresponding expansion of staff,
adding to the pressure for more efficient operations. At the same time, costs have decreased as
MRM capabilities were added to integrated marketing suites and as stand-alone MRM products
became available as vendor-hosted services (Software as a Service, or SaaS). The result has
been increased use of MRM systems among companies of all sizes.
Program Planning and Scheduling — Users are able to set up a list of marketing programs or
campaigns, often building a multi- level hierarchy, such as multiple campaigns within a program
and multiple events within a campaign. Programs are often assigned to categories based on
purpose (acquisition, retention, cross-sell, etc.), brand, product line, region, and other attrib-
utes. These categories are used for reporting roll-ups and to limit access, to the people respon-
sible for a particular type of program. Programs, or their components, typically have other
attributes, such as start and end dates, budgets for cost and response, and owners. Most MRM
systems let users define these attributes and their labels, making it easier to adapt the system
to their particular organization. Nearly all systems can produce a marketing calendar showing
programs and their dates, often with options to display the calendar in different formats and to
filter which programs are included.
Budgets and Actual Costs — Budgeting options can range from a single value per program
to detailed estimates by cost category and time period. Some systems can calculate program
cost based on user-entered quantities and cost per unit. This approach may extend to standard
assumptions, such as postage cost per piece, that are applied to all programs automatically.
Beyond cost budgets, the system may allow users to enter other estimated values, such as
number of messages sent (direct mail pieces, emails, telephone calls, ad impressions, etc.) and
responses received. Actual costs and other values may be entered manually by the user, or
posted automatically from accounting and customer management systems. Some systems let
users enter overall budgets for program categories, which can then be compared with budgets
for specific programs to see how much of the total budget has been spent or allocated.
Task Management — Some systems provide project management features to track the develop-
ment of individual programs. These can be anything from simple checklists to templates that
automatically create a project schedule based on the start date and number of work days
between tasks. An advanced system could include dependencies of one task on others, stan-
dard cost and labor hours, automatic task assignments to roles or individuals, notification of
new tasks to the assigned person or department head, posting of actual labor time and task
status, workload analysis, notification of completed tasks, approval tracking, and alerts for
tasks that are overdue. The system might be linked to corporate human resources and security
systems to automatically update roles and responsibilities.
Reporting and Analytics — Because MRM systems capture plans and cost information, they
sometimes provide a platform for reporting on marketing results. This reporting may extend
to marketing performance, but only if the system can import response information from the
customer database or accounting systems. Typical MRM reports would cover planned vs. actual
expenses, show costs over time, and possibly calculate return on investment. The systems also
provide operational reporting on functions they manage, such as project tasks, purchasing activ-
ities, content creation, and utilization. MRM analytics would rarely extend to detailed analysis of
program results, customer profiling, segmentation, or predictive modeling.
Because MRM is about process management, your action plan can draw on the extensive body of
techniques developed to improve manufacturing and other production processes. Your organiza-
tion may already have its own process improvement experts such as "six sigma black belts," who
can help manage improvements to marketing processes. If not, there are many external resources
including services staff at the MRM vendors.
In general, the stages in process improvement are understanding the process, identifying sources
of problems, and making changes to eliminate the problems. Problem areas are identified by
setting standards for the cost and outputs of each step in the process and comparing the stan-
dards with actual costs and outputs. Managers then research the causes of major variances and
make changes to reduce them. The long-term goal is to continuously improve performance by
removing problems and finding improved approaches that allow you to raise the standards.
Where MRM projects diverge from generic process improvement is that most MRM projects are
triggered by a specific problem the organization needs to solve, such as better control over budgets
or easier access to content. This makes MRM more focused than an approach that looks at the
entire process and addresses the most costly problems first. The action plan combines standard
process improvement methods with the unique requirements of MRM. Follow the steps below to
implement your MRM plan.
Bottom Line
The complexity of today's multi-channel, highly segmented marketing programs means that nearly
every company needs a systematic approach to managing its marketing processes. Marketing
resource management supports this approach, whether it is delivered in a stand-alone MRM
system or embedded in a larger marketing management suite.
Marketers must realize that MRM technology is only as good as the processes it manages, and
ensure they devote enough effort to defining the processes they want and training the staff to
implement those processes correctly.
Execute, Modify,
6 and improve
2 Existing
Processes
project goals, the next step is to
analyze the existing processes
related to those goals.
Execute, Modify,
6 and improve
Execute, Modify,
6 and improve
Our analysts identify best practices from fast-growing companies and build
Playbooks & Toolkits, Guides & Reports, Training Courses, and Project
Templates to help you optimize your processes, add structure to your depart-
ment, and get your team punching above their weight class.
Manage your work visually with our easy-to-use platform, built for small
marketing teams by design. See what your team is working on at a glance
so you can spend less time managing projects and more time knocking
stuff off your list.
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