Many marketers still use Excel or other spreadsheets and organisational resources for their marketing planning.
The organisation of marketing planning often takes more time than marketing planning itself. It may seem like a complicated statement, but it is also a harsh reality.
Digital tools, on the contrary, create a ‘master’ file, in which all information is visible, and where it is possible to go into depth with certain parts. They offer more overview, insight and a better organisation. But what are the other advantages (and disadvantages?) of a digital tool versus ‘old school’ marketing planning?
Centralise your marketing efforts
A marketer who has been working in the same spreadsheet for years has no problem finding relevant information. Unlike a non-specialist, for whom colourful Excel sheets with thousands of filled cells and dozens of tabs are terrifying.
The transition to a digital planner may be stressful for many marketers. Not only do the tools cost money, but also the time to change processes is often a threshold. The bigger the team, the more significant the impact.
However, compare this to the rewards of such a tool. If someone only becomes more efficient by 10 minutes every day, you will have saved one full-time employee out of a team of 50 people!
.@husky_marketing Helps You Centralize All Of Your #Data For #Marketing Planning Into One Digital Tool https://t.co/4Eb5eCkTil pic.twitter.com/LYCLnSx02c
— Tech Company News (@TechCompanyNews) March 4, 2019
Digital planning ensures standardisation. Take the example of Husky, a Marketing Planning software. In Husky,@husky_marketing several projects are put together on one centralised platform. A marketing plan in Husky consists of several projects. These projects are then subdivided into channels. That is how a communication plan takes shape. It looks like a spreadsheet, but its digital DNA makes it much more flexible than Excel.
Get the recognition you deserve
Marketers often don’t get the credit they deserve, because they report badly, or hardly report at all. This can have severe impacts for a marketer. For example, a study by MarketingDive reported that 21% of marketers cut their ad spending due to bad digital measurement.
A digital planner is a collaborative tool, which means that it is designed to work together and to share and report marketing data smoothly.
Digital planners can do this in 3 ways:
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You share the entire marketing plan and give read or edit rights. By far the most natural solution, but maybe you would share too much.
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You report or share one specific part of the marketing plan (think of a KPI dashboard!).
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You generate specific (PDF) reports from the marketing plan.
The above forms of reporting are necessary for different stakeholders. With your team, you often share the complete marketing plan, while an event manager is only interested in the communication plan of an event and a financial manager wants to analyse a report of the marketing budget.
Digital marketing planners such as Husky also integrate tasks, budgets, KPIs, results, notes, discussions, files and strategic notes.
They have a clear mission: to replace Excel stress and overload with calm, insight and overview via one central digital platform.
So that marketers use their marketing planning as an engine for success and do not lose themselves in the Excel hell.
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How to engage with customers on emerging channels – new research – TheMarketingblog https://t.co/ZYvSezLJvQ pic.twitter.com/H7IldwGmIB
— Will Corry (@slievemore) May 3, 2019