HOW TO CHAMPION A MARKETING OPERATIONS INITIATIVE

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RESULTS
Control the Chaos.™
HOW TO CHAMPION A
MARKETING OPERATIONS INITIATIVE
WHAT IS MARKETING OPERATIONS AND HOW TO
TAKE YOUR MARKETING ORGANIZATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL
For some, Marketing Operations is not exactly the most exciting subject. But ask marketers
in some of the world’s biggest and most successful companies and about Marketing
Operations and marketing program measurement, and they’ll have glowing reviews.
What Is Marketing Operations?
numb to the pain that consumes day-to-day work.
The term, “Marketing Operations,” was first coined by the
At the end of the day, the measurement of marketing
research firm IDC. The purpose of Marketing Operations
effectiveness is largely evaluated on the power of the brand
is both to increase marketing efficiency and to build a
and the perceived impact on revenue. But therein lies the rub:
strong foundation by providing your marketing operation
“perception” is in the eye of the beholder. The CFO, CEO
with processes, technology, metrics and best practices. In
and shareholders want tangible justification for marketing
short, Marketing Operations is the internal infrastructure
spend, they want precise marketing program measurement,
that allows an organization to efficiently transform
and they want marketers to step up to the plate and be
creative ideas into marketing messages, while allowing
accountable for performance. Naturally, organizations
for increased measurement of marketing effectiveness.
become laser-focused on measuring the revenue generated
from creative campaigns and less concerned about
For many organizations, the processes and tools that
operational efficiency. Over time, the processes that support
support Marketing Operations are expected to deliver
“getting the campaign out the door” become neglected
value for years or even decades. As enterprise marketers,
and stale. By the time the organization notices it has an
we’ve probably all experienced those shocking moments of
efficiency problem, it’s a BIG problem, and it has a direct
realization where we ask: How come executing a campaign
impact on revenue growth and marketing performance.
takes that many manual steps? Why do I have to enter the
data twice? Isn’t this custom application 15 years old — why
Framing Marketing Operations Challenges
do we still use it? Like any good corporate citizen, we accept
They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so as
what we cannot change and figure out how to do the best
marketers it’s important to keep a watchful eye on the
possible job with the tools (or lack of tools) at hand.
rust that accumulates on campaign execution processes
and technologies, and educate the executive level about
The truth is, most marketing leaders place operational
these challenges and their solutions. Changes and
efficiency and marketing “optimization,” including marketing
improvements in Marketing Operations are inevitable.
program measurement, on the back burner for as long as
New marketing channels demand tighter cross-channel
possible. Why? Because, optimization is perceived to be
integration, more sophisticated customer analytics demand
disruptive — it’s like trying to change a tire on a car that’s
moving at 65 miles per hour. As a result, many marketers
get by quarter after quarter on legacy applications and
processes, driven by a sense of accomplishment from
actually getting the campaign out the door and becoming
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INITIATIVE - page 2
more robust data, changes in consumer behavior demand
agility in campaign cycle-time and the list goes on.
In the next section we will outline some of the most
common and impactful reasons to place operational
efficiency at the forefront of marketing optimization. The
more visible these challenges (and benefits) are within the
organization, the more likely steps will be taken to alleviate
today’s challenges before they become BIG problems.
Workflow Challenges
If we break down the fundamental components to executing a
marketing campaign, we are left with the marketing value chain.
It’s a series of connected activities executed in a specific order
where each step adds value to the final outcome. For large
enterprise organizations, executing these steps can be very
complex. Many organizations struggle from too many manual
tasks or interactions within the marketing value chain. This
results in longer cycle times to get campaigns out the door.
Since digital media has largely contributed to exponentially
increasing complexity in marketing (new channels, rapidly
changing customer expectations, mobile access to
information, etc.) it’s only natural to turn to technology
and Marketing Operations partners for a better way to
manage these challenges. In highly complex distributed
corporate marketing environments, hundreds of resources
may be executing hundreds of campaigns on an annual
basis. If email is utilized to trigger successive stages in the
marketing value chain, it’s nearly impossible to manage the
marketing execution in a consistent way. People leave on
vacation, the process breaks, changes to creative must be
re-approved, the process breaks, and the list goes on.
dynamics or competitive forces cannot be incorporated
into marketing campaigns until it’s too late.
» Resource efficiency derails efforts to actively monitor
historical performance to improve future campaigns.
If resources are under time constraints because of the
need to manage manual tasks, then less effort is placed on
insight and the measurement of marketing effectiveness
from the performance of prior campaigns. This has a
direct impact on marketing effectiveness and revenue.
» Marketing becomes too dependent on IT for distribution
of “secure” information. In automated workflow systems,
data can be automatically integrated into specific steps in
the workflow processes and managed through user security
permissions. Without a centralized vehicle to manage security,
data must be owned and managed by IT and marketers
are forced to wait in IT queues for time-sensitive data.
» Marketers spend inordinate amounts of time figuring out
who needs to approve content or just plain getting content
approved. If many resources are involved in developing and
approving marketing campaigns, manual communication
becomes very time consuming for execution resources.
Workflow capabilities in Marketing Resource Management
(MRM) tools help automate the marketing value chain
and provide real-time access to campaign progress.
Since different channels may have different processes for
campaign execution, MRM can be customized to uniquely
address the most complex campaign processes. Workflow
data can also provide a window into operational efficiency
and true marketing cycle-time for a better understanding
of marketing program measurement (and about where
marketing may be falling short or exceeding expectations).
Building a Case for Workflow Automation
The following are some of the top reasons why enterprise
marketers have turned to Marketing Operations
partners to automate marketing processes:
» Campaign cycle-times are 3 to 4 times longer for
organizations that don’t have an automated workflow
management technology. This means changes in market
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productivity and time savings are real, tangible costs that can
help justify investments in Digital Asset Management tools.
» Companies using workflow automation include:
Sears Holdings, Bank of America, Wal-Mart, Best Buy
A lack of centralized Digital Asset Management can lead to
violations in licensing restrictions and monetary penalties.
Digital Asset Management Challenges
Automated tools can automatically remove assets from
Digital content such as images, video, sound files, and more
being utilized based on licensing details. DAM can reduce
is expanding at exponential rates. A growing number of new
creative costs and agency spend. For organizations that
marketing channels have given rise to a new category of
rely heavily on one or more agencies and lack a central
marketing technology — integrated marketing. These tools
digital asset repository, the agency often becomes an
help create, manage and distribute content across multiple
outsourced Digital Asset Management provider. Requests
marketing channels. But, digital assets are the lifeblood of
for creative content or older materials results in billable
an integrated marketing system. This means that creating,
hours to the agency, inflating overall agency costs.
editing, storing and accessing the right content for integrated
messaging is essential. The ability to find and utilize licensed
The use of online video and audio have exploded in
assets, reuse content or develop a new creative brief at
recent years. Since these unstructured mediums have
appropriate stages of the marketing value chain is critical for
no text to search for, it’s often difficult to locate content.
the marketing function. If files reside on individual hard drives
Technology can incorporate meta-data and keywords
or are tucked away on ftp servers, it’s very difficult to maximize
with unstructured content to make it readily available
the return on marketing investments in an efficient way.
if and when it is needed by marketing or sales.
Digital content strategy in large distributed organizations
Today, technology can help centralize and track utilization
used to be an IT issue. But over the last decade, it has become
of marketing assets for real-time access to digital content.
a marketing issue that is critical to operational success and
These capabilities are often delivered in Marketing Resource
marketing effectiveness. Marketing leaders have been tasked
Management, Marketing Asset Management, Digital Asset
with managing the brand reputation and the customer
Management, and Web Content Management tools.
experience. This requires a trade-off between structure
and autonomy, so business units or regions can address the
unique needs of different target audiences and corporate
marketing can control the overall brand experience.
Key Considerations:
» Companies that use a Digital Asset Management
system include: Boston Scientific, Kohl’s, Nationwide, eBay
Multi-Channel Execution Challenges
When it comes to marketing execution, most large
• Do marketers frequently store files on hard
organizations have developed years of experience and
drives or share them over email?
discipline across one or a few marketing channels: direct
• Does the organization have a systematic way
mail, email, catalog, media, etc. Internal domain knowledge
to ensure creative licenses aren’t violated?
and campaign execution are often compartmentalized. For
• Can corporate marketing manage brand
example, the email team is exceptional at email, but knows little
consistency within the field?
about direct mail. But, consumers have changed considerably
Building a Case for Marketing Asset Management
Digital Asset Management (DAM) capabilities can save
money by centralizing marketing content to one repository.
Organizations run the risk of purchasing multiple licenses
for the same content if content isn’t centralized. This can
amount to millions of dollars in savings depending on the
volume of assets that are used each year. If files are stored
on individual hard drives or secure shared servers, they can
be very time consuming to locate. Increased employee
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corporate objective or strategy. How does the CMO
over the last 30 years, and new digital media channels
executing campaigns that align with the goals in the annual
have given consumers more influence than ever before.
corporate marketing plan? MRM give the CMO a better
know the regions and business units in the field are actually
understanding about the number and type of campaigns
Marketing Operations enables an organization to run the
marketing function as a fully accountable business. The
processes within the marketing value chain can be viewed as
that went into accomplishing a particular corporate target.
Automate the measurement of marketing effectiveness
the “cost of goods sold.” This constitutes the resources and
in dashboards. Consider this: the value of measurement
infrastructure necessary to develop marketing campaigns. A
is not just in the accuracy of the metric, but in consistently
deeper understanding of internal marketing efficiency and
benchmarking the same metric over time. Creating real-time
marketing program management can help the organization
dashboards that allow the same metrics to be benchmarked
save millions in cost savings by eliminating inefficient
over time can dramatically improve business decisions
campaigns, reducing redundant vendor spend and improving
because trends can be easily identified in the data.
the effectiveness of human capital. This has a direct impact
on increasing overall return on marketing investments.
Organizations rarely struggle with a lack of marketing
data. On the contrary, it’s about figuring out which
The following is a basic return on
customer data or internal marketing operations data is
marketing investment calculation:
relevant for generating insights that improve business
decisions. Having a complete view of the customer across
» ROI= ((Gross Revenue – Cost of Goods
multiple functions beyond marketing is ultimately how
Sold) – Investment)) / Investment
to produce better business decisions. For this reason,
Internal Marketing Operations processes are part of the “cost
involve a combination of business intelligence tools,
of goods sold,” therefore if the organization does nothing more
CRM and Marketing Operations technologies.
than reduce the cost of executing campaigns, overall return
Marketing Performance Management initiatives usually
on investment will be higher, even if the revenue generated
Companies using measurement and analytics include:
remains the same. Even in tough economic times, marketers
Sears Holdings, Wells Fargo, Boston Scientific, Kraft
have an accurate measurement of marketing effectiveness and
a lifeline for improving the return on marketing investment.
Organization Challenges
Complacency breeds inefficiency in the marketing value
Building a Case for Improved Measurement
of Marketing Effectiveness and Analytics
chain. We’ve all heard that successful marketing initiatives
Inefficiency across the marketing value chain is a powerful
if the organization isn’t aligned to fully leverage the benefits
embark on Marketing Operations initiatives. Even the
prospect of changing decade-long organizational practices.
must address people, process and technology. But the truth
is, no investment in process or technology will be successful
catalyst for change and the number one reason companies
of the investments. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the
most successful companies have redundant or inefficient
But, transformative initiatives in large organizations aren’t
spending in marketing and struggle with the measurement
impossible, or even difficult. In fact, there are frameworks and
of marketing effectiveness. Tracking these inefficiencies
often requires a centralized tool or workflow management
capability, the benefits of which far outweigh the investment
when poor practices are compounded over time.
Marketing Resource Management (MRM) tools force
marketers to align each campaign with an overall
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disciplines like change management, risk assessment and
roadmaps that can help manage organizational practices.
Four Initial Steps to Building a Case
for Organizational Change
Adapting Marketing Operations to meet the challenges
of our highly competitive and connected economy won’t
happen overnight. But having a clear and structured
strategy that is highly visible to the organization
helps ensure the initiative isn’t derailed by changes
in executive leadership or missed deadlines.
Build a roadmap with realistic milestones and timeline
expectations. Figure out where the low hanging fruit lies within
the organization. Identify what changes can be realized quickly
and evangelized as small wins to keep the project moving.
Build momentum by tackling highly visible challenges
first. Which challenges represent the squeaky wheels
in the organization? Address these challenges first and
use them as stepping stones to build out additional
best practices for Marketing Operations.
Operations partners who offer frameworks for effectively
handling change management. Often these include
a long-term plan or roadmap to align the entire
organization with a vision and a plan for the future.
Summary
Like any finely tuned engine, the processes that move
creative ideas to customer facing marketing messages
require maintenance. In fact, the marketing technologies
and processes that support your organization can get
rusty or even outdated. Just like the purchase of a
new vehicle, all those investments in legacy marketing
technologies started to depreciate the minute they came
off the shelf. That’s the reality of today’s fast-paced,
constantly changing and highly competitive environment.
The marketing function must constantly adapt to
keep up with the demands of today’s customers.
The purpose of the Marketing Operations function
is both to increase marketing efficiency and the
measurement of marketing effectiveness, and to build
a foundation for excellence by reinforcing marketing
with processes, technology, metrics, and best practices.
Marketing Operations is about performance, financial
management, strategic planning, marketing resource
and skills assessment and management. ■
Executive champions are absolutely critical to
the success of Marketing Operations initiatives.
These should include people of power and influence
within the organization who demonstrate a passion
for the long-term success of the company.
Build an executive committee comprised of multiple
resources within marketing, finance, IT and executive
leadership. Use this committee to gain multiple
If you’re ready to Control the Chaos™
within your Marketing Operations, contact us at
viewpoints and alignment with prospective solutions.
402-681-7797 or [email protected]
In most cases, organizations do not have the discipline or
ENVISION.
ENABLE.
ENRICH.
the expertise to successfully manage change management
in large transformational initiatives. By the time an
initiative requires significant or transformative change,
the organization has developed learned disciplines and
a support culture to cope with existing challenges.
Naturally, it’s very difficult to break this corporate culture
from within the organization. There are Marketing
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