Controlling operational efficiency

Australian marketing leaders need to utilise marketing resource management (MRM) tools to facilitate better business decisions and transform marketing delivery.

That's according to Teradata, who says marketers that don't use MRM tools are unable to monitor marketing operations appropriately and risk being unable to properly manage marketing resources, control processes and assets as well as demonstrate return on investment.

According to Teradata, trends in marketing such as higher volumes and channel explosion rely on full visibility. The company believes businesses must use MRM platforms to gain complete visibility of marketing activities and real-time insights to guide business decisions and increase efficiency.

"There are two types of marketers; those who plan and those who follow their gut feeling," says Simon Bowker, area director, Australian Marketing Applications team, Teradata. "Marketers will always have a gut feeling about a project progress but this is no longer sufficient. They must equip themselves with the right tools.

He says, "Many marketers spend time manually changing campaign details rather than focusing on strategy and ideation. Marketing is now a profit-centre and, as such, needs a centralised view of operations to show return on investment.

Bowker says businesses are struggling to cope with the changes brought about bt the proliferation of technology and digital channels.

"MRM tools are the only way in which you standardise and get control of your marketing operations," he says.

Teradata has identified four ways technology gives marketers control of operational efficiency:

Understanding effective workflows "Marketers that don't have MRM tools to manage workflow can't properly track campaign progress or fully understand what works and what needs to be improved," Bowker says. "MRM tools can simplify complex marketing workflows and create reusable, efficient processes.

Bowker says MRM is the only way marketers can standardise and gain control of operations to let new customer-centric conversations take place.

"Making changes to campaign processes without solid evidence is risky," he says. "Campaign tracking can help to pinpoint problems in the workflow that need to be rectified.

Control over spend RM platforms let marketers see current and projected budget spend in real time so they can make adjustments as needed.

"Marketing has been transformed by technology. Brands are now expected to react in real-time to their customers' needs and behaviours," Bowker explains. "Yet, many still rely on manual processes and spread sheets to manage their budgets and resources.

"Companies that don't have real-time control over marketing spend will quickly lose their market leadership positions to more agile companies who are looking to disrupt," he says.

Measuring resource availability Bowker says MRM platforms deliver a clearer, overarching view of campaign resources. "This helps marketers assess where budget and human resources can be stretched over more initiatives," Bowker says.

This can improve operational efficiency and the organisation's bottom line.

 "Multichannel, high volume campaigns are increasingly common," says Bowker. "A comprehensive view of all resources in real-time is impossible without MRM tools tracking teams and budgets and flagging potential risks.

"Marketers that have the technology in place to track the visibility of all resources have a competitive advantage because they are better equipped to make fast, informed decisions.

Version control Manually keeping track of design and content versions across multiple projects, teams and channels can be difficult and small errors can lead to big problems, Bowker explains.

MRM platforms give marketers a central view of all versions to ensure changes and comments are accurately tracked, and the latest version is used.

"Marketers that must manually track versions of copy and designs are at higher risk of errors, which can be costly for the business," Bowker says. "By having the technology and tools in place will ensure the correct version is used and also save marketers time cross-checking versions.