Professional campaign planning and specification
Current version: ECM 1.1 (June 2020)
The Institute for Sales and Marketing Automation defines the term "marketing automation" as "[...] IT-supported execution of recurring marketing tasks with the goal of increasing the efficiency of marketing processes and the effectiveness of marketing decisions". An automated execution of tasks, which by definition largely dispenses with manual intervention, requires the establishment of clearly defined processes. This means that those responsible are required to model automated processes in advance of their implementation in the active business process.
Such process modelling must show in detail and in an understandable way at what point in time certain tasks or actions have to be performed. In addition, it must be clearly evident which data is transferred to the actions via which routes. Such a modelling can be visualised in various ways so far, a cross-project or industry-wide system does not exist. At this point ECM, short for "Evalanche Campaign Modelling", intervenes. ECM provides a standardized set of rules for the modeling of marketing (automation) campaigns and corresponding processes.
The specification of Evalanche Campaign Modelling (ECM) is a graphical notation to specify marketing automation processes. A guide contained in this document supports this notation.
ECM is especially useful for project and campaign managers who design, manage and implement marketing automation processes. This approach creates a simple system for the visualization of marketing automation processes. The primary goal of ECM is to provide a notation that is easily understood by all users - from marketers who create the initial drafts of the processes, to technical developers who are responsible for implementing the technology to execute these processes, to the stakeholders who manage and monitor these processes. ECM thus creates a standardized bridge that closes the gap between conception and implementation. Two essential key elements of ECM are the chosen forms and symbols used for the graphical elements identified in this specification.