This article gives an overview of the features you should be looking for in a marketing management software application, and how those features do more than what you might expect of a marketing automation app.
We’re often asked what makes Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (MDM) different from marketing tools like ClickDimensions, HubSpot or ExactTarget (now Salesforce Marketing Cloud). It’s a great question and, at a very high level, it comes down to marketing management.
MDM certainly could be considered a marketing automation platform, but it really is more of a comprehensive project management system designed just for marketing departments. Not every organizations needs or wants this level of control over their marketing, but for those that do – MDM is definitely worth a look.
End-to-End Marketing Management – Simplified
An MDM marketing project can contain multiple components. Despite what others sometimes think, there’s a lot more to marketing than sending a couple of emails and calling it a day. You’ve got to manage plans, budgets, jobs, resources, tasks, multiple campaigns, collateral design and inventory, events and registrations, vendors, leads and changes – efficiently. MDM helps marketers manage the full marketing cycle from planning and budgeting to measuring outcomes. It’s one of the key differences between MDM and other marketing tools.
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MDM: Key Project Management Features
While MDM absolutely offers the core marketing capabilities – email marketing, campaign automation, list management, analytics, CRM integration, lead management, etc. – I’d like to call attention to the project management side of MDM because it’s an area where I believe most marketing teams struggle, and one that MDM is designed for.
Establish Marketing Plans and Budgets
Create marketing plans, setup budgets and track expenses and revenue against your programs, campaigns and events. MDM has light financial capabilities including sales orders, invoicing, accounts payable and receivable, chart of accounts and more.
Setup Projects and Project Teams
MDM allows you to setup and schedule all the individual jobs and tasks related to your marketing programs and campaigns. You can create templates for jobs and job requests, assign project teams and coordinate a successful delivery of your program.
Resource/Team Management
Setup role-based teams in MDM to quickly establish the required resources for your projects and then assign individuals at a later time. In addition, the Scheduling function lets you view and forecast how busy someone is across variable time periods to better allocate resources. MDM also includes a Time Slip feature to track billable and non-billable time against Departments, Programs, Campaigns, Events, Jobs and Tasks.
Event Management
MDM includes event management for your tradeshows, conferences, webinars and other events. You can setup budgets, track registrations and attendance, track revenue as well as setup travel, lodging, sponsorships, staff, venues and more.
Vendor Management
With MDM, you can setup RFQ templates and send RFQs to multiple vendors in a couple of clicks. Accept RFQs with a couple of clicks to automatically send the approval and order to your vendor(s).
Automated Group Approval Processes
Similar to the automation console, MDM lets you completely automate the process of routing items for review and approval by the team in a drag-and-drop interface. Track comments, approvals and rejections and any action items needed to keep things on track and minimize delays. You can setup approvals for documents, web pages, email messages, social posts and more.
These are a few of the more project-centric areas unique to MDM that can streamline marketing departments in ways many other tools can’t. If you would like to see MDM in action, please let us know if you have any questions or would like a personal demonstration.
The post Marketing Automation vs Marketing Management appeared first on Encore Blog, by Encore Business Solutions
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