Marketing Operations is a function that’s relatively new to the corporate world. It was created to address the increasing complexity of running a marketing department, which now depends on effective data management and analysis, and advanced software systems to operate effectively.
Marketing Operations encompasses the people, processes and technologies that empower an organization’s marketing strategy and activities, and supports the entire marketing department’s efforts as they engage, attract and convert customers. Key functions include:
- Ensuring Marketing teams have the right technologies in place to do their jobs effectively
- Establishing processes and systems for data management, analysis and reporting
- Helping teams improve processes and workflows to be more efficient and successful in their efforts
Today, 93% of B2B marketers say marketing operations is an important or critical function to delivering on digital transformation, as well.
If you’re a growing company, or if you’ve just begun to develop your Marketing Operations function, you may be wondering what’s the best way to scale it efficiently and effectively. In this blog post we’ll take a look at strategies for scaling your Marketing Operations function, so you can maximize its effectiveness and accommodate the needs of your Marketing teams as they grow and evolve.
Decide whether to hire or outsource
Hiring isn’t as easy as it used to be. Thanks to the “big quit” and other factors, 42% of managers are worried they won’t be able to find the talent they need, and 72.8% of recruiters struggle find relevant candidates. As such, it’s really important that you carefully consider just who you need to hire for what positions – and when.
Marketing operations teams can encompass numerous roles, including:
- Vice President of Marketing Operations
- Marketing Operations Manager
- Marketing Technology Specialist
- Data and Analytics Specialist
- Digital/Web Platform Specialist
- Social Media Manager
- And more
You may or may not need people to fill all of these roles, however. Additionally, much of the marketing operations work can be outsourced. To that end, an important first decision is whether to hire people to fill key roles, or outsource some of the work to a trusted partner.
Since the foundation for successful marketing campaigns is data, it’s important to ensure you have the right expertise onboard – whether in-house or outsourced – to ensure your data is accessible, actionable and accurate. Here are three critical roles to fill:
- The Marketing Operations manager oversees the Marketing Operations function, and ensures that the right people, processes and technologies are in place. They typically focus on strategy, design and execution of campaigns and programs, and track and report on the performance of marketing outreach.
- A Data Analyst can be an invaluable addition to your Marketing Operations team, providing the support you need to manage your customer and prospect data effectively, analyze campaign performance, and produce metrics for reporting to upper management.
- The Marketing Technology Specialist is responsible for ensuring you have the technologies and tools you need to develop, manage and execute on your marketing campaigns and programs. They are experts in marketing automation platforms and other marketing-specific tools such as SEO, analytics and social media solutions, and are tasked with keeping your tools and technologies working properly, to meet the needs of the team.
Depending on your ability to get approval for additional headcount, you may decide to expand your team with managers and specialists to take responsibility for other critical tasks. However, outsourcing tactical functions can be a smart and cost-effective alternative. That way, you gain senior expertise from specialists without the high price tag of recruiting and hiring a full-time employee. This is particularly useful in periods of rapid growth, when you need additional hands on deck, but plan to scale back later.
Implement the right tools and technologies
The marketing technology landscape has grown 24% since 2020, with nearly 10K tools now available. With so many options, how do you know what tools and technologies to purchase to maximize your marketing spend and get the results you hope for? And even if you do choose the right tools, knowing when to scale is critical – do it too soon or too late, and you may not reap the benefits.
When you’re considering implementing new technology – whether a marketing automation solution like Marketo or Eloqua, a lead management system, a survey tool or something else, auditing your existing tech stack is a critical first step. That way, you can determine where the gaps are, before you purchase new tools you may not need. You may find you’re not using all the available functionality of your current tools, for example, and discovering how to maximize your current investments can save you a lot of time, energy and budget. Or, maybe you’ll discover some duplication and you can eliminate a tool you aren’t using.
Once you know what you have and what you don’t have, set your priorities according to your overall marketing strategy, and identify barriers to reaching your goals. For example, if a key priority is to deliver better-qualified leads to Sales, implementing a solution for effective lead scoring may be at the top of your list. If you’re getting a lot of bounce backs when you send out emails, you may want to invest in data management tools.
Bringing in a trusted third-party to assist with your martech stack audit can be extremely helpful, since they can take the grunt work of performing the audit off your hands, while offering their experience and expertise in building out martech stacks the right way, to help you make the most of your investments.
Establish the right processes
As you scale out and refine your Marketing Operations function, it’s important to define repeatable, consistent processes for various marketing operations tasks, as well as put them in writing. Documentation is extremely valuable, because it helps to simplify and streamline new hire on-boarding as you expand your team, helping people get up to speed and be productive, faster.
What should you document?
- Roles and responsibilities
- Protocols for interacting with other teams throughout the organization
- A description (and possibly a diagram) of your martech stack and how the systems are connected
- Project management workflows and processes
- Project and campaign workflows and processes
- Review sequences, and what stakeholders should be involved in review cycles
- Service-level agreements
- Anything else that’s essential to ensure the smooth operations of your team
Establishing and documenting processes and procedures helps to eliminate guesswork and misunderstandings, while improving team productivity.
Scale Marketing Operations with Confidence, with BDO Digital
Most of the time, it’s easy to determine when it’s time to scale your Marketing Operations function – it’s the how that’s not always clear. Enlisting the help of a third-party partner can help to eliminate uncertainty and clear the path to scale quickly and efficiently, to support your team and its evolving needs.
BDO Digital offers an array of Consulting Services to organizations interested in building out their Marketing Operations function. We provide expert Martech Assessment Services, Process Consulting, Strategy and Training workshops and more, to help you drive demand, achieve operational excellence and elevate Marketing’s impact in your organization.
Learn more today, or reach out to see where we can help.
The post How to Scale Your Marketing Operations: 3 Essential Strategies appeared first on DemandGen.
