MARKETING CALENDAR BUYER’S GUIDE
How Does Annum Compare to Other Marketing Calendar Tools?
There are an overwhelming number of marketing calendar options out there so we created this marketing calendar buyer’s guide to help you make sense of it all. Each calendar is built with different features and benefits that support a specific purpose. We’ve categorized them below to help you find the right fit.
CMO’s cite organizational silos as the biggest internal challenge to meeting revenue targets.
They’re most troublesome during tactical planning because silos are inherent in the tools marketers typically use to build their plans.
Our omnichannel marketing planning calendar was purpose built to smash silos and center teams on the customer experience.
Omnichannel Marketing Planning Calendar
Annum is for you if:
- You’re serious about customer-centricity
- You want a simple yet powerful solution that’s purpose built for strategic integrated marketing communications planning
- You’re ready to smash silos and deliver more cohesive and compelling omnichannel plans that drive more revenue
Annum’s dynamic data structure and interface design are patent pending.
Other Marketing Calendar Options
Spreadsheets
Excel, Google Sheets
Are for you if:
- You need to track the varying data sets of each channel
- You need a free solution to start with
- Cross-channel campaigns and the omnichannel customer experience are not a priority
Spreadsheets are designed for number crunching and data management.
When teams do tactical planning in spreadsheet programs each channel gets a custom sheet to accommodate its associated data. Since there’s no way to integrate sheets with disparate data structures into one unified calendar view, the plan is siloed by channel.
Annum replaces disconnected spreadsheet operations as plans become more sophisticated and the need to holistically visualize and manage the omnichannel customer experience becomes more of a priority.
Project Management Tools
Asana, Wrike, Trello, Monday, AirTable, Smartsheet, etc.
Are for you if:
- You want centralized task management and executional workflows
- You need to ensure on time delivery of marketing initiatives and tactics
Project management tools are designed for task management.
When teams do strategic tactical planning directly in project management tools in-market tactics are jumbled up with the tasks and subtasks needed to execute them. There’s no holistic view of the planned customer experience to inform strategic cross-channel decision making. No way to tie tactics to strategy and no historical plan of record, as tasks are hidden once completed.
When you lose sight of the omnichannel customer experience, you lose control of it. That’s why you need to do strategic tactical planning in an integrated omnichannel marketing calendar. Once the plan is approved, then it’s time to shift into project management or in other words, bringing the plan to life.
Content and Channel Specific Production Applications
ContentStudio, CoSchedule, Sprinklr, SproutSocial, MailChimp, HubSpot
Are for you if:
- You want to operationalize content planning, creation, and publishing
- You are looking to implement marketing automations
- You are striving for executional efficiency and consistency
If all your marketing channels are represented in one core planning and production application then you’ve found a one and done solution when looking to purchase a marketing calendar.
If you have other channels in your mix and your teams are using multiple spreadsheets and apps, then you’re going to be dealing with siloed plans. CMO’s cite organizational silos as the number one internal challenge to meeting revenue targets. We designed Annum to center teams on the planned omnichannel customer experience. To bring all initiatives, channels, and content, all online and offline tactics, into one unified calendar view so marketers could build stronger integrated plans that drive more revenue.
We are planning on future integrations with content and channel production tools via our partnership with Unito. > LEARN MORE
Campaign Management Platforms
CrossCap, Marmind, Opal
Are for you if:
- You need a robust solution for managing campaigns
- You want a platform that can handle campaign planning, project management, digital asset management, content production, complex budget management, reporting, and more
- The customer experience outside of campaigns is not a priority
These enterprise solutions are campaign-centered and campaign specific which make them a perfect fit, if those are your priorities. They show tactics within the context of a campaign.
That said, they typically are not designed to show the holistic customer experience or in other words everything that’s in market on a given day which can included tactics from multiple campaigns, as well as non-campaign related tactics, evergreen content, always-on programs, and more.
Only Annum centers the team on the omnichannel customer experience by showing every individual online and offline tactic, whether in a campaign or not, in all calendar views. That way strategic cross-channel marketers can identify gaps, overlaps, and opportunities.
And only Annum offers a parent-child connected calendar structure that delivers full enterprise visibility across business units, regions, and sub brands. > LEARN MORE
9 Reasons People Choose Annum’s Marketing Calendar
- Customer-Centric — unified view of all in-market initiatives, campaigns, content, online and offline tactics
- Clean Sophisticated Design — C-suite presentation ready
- Intuitive — standard channels are default, color coded by channel, drag and drop changes
- Strategic — filter by campaign and target audience to optimize cross-channel coverage
- Practical – supports simultaneous budget management
- Holistic – expand into a full corporate calendar to align marketing, product, sales, customer success
- Single Source of Truth — gets everyone on the same page to streamline communications
- Historical Plan of Record — so you can learn and adapt
- Scales for Enterprise — parent-child connected calendar system provides full enterprise visibility
Annum’s dynamic data model and calendar interface are patent pending.
See What Our Customers Are Saying
MARKETING CALENDAR BUYER’S GUIDE – PART 2
How We Compare to the Other Marketing Calendar Solutions Listed on G2
To better understand where we fit in the field of choices, we categorized and created a feature comparison of the “best marketing calendar software” listed on G2. G2 is the world’s largest and most trusted tech marketplace. Read on for a more detailed comparison in part two of our marketing calendar buying guide.
It's time you had the right tool for the job.
