Focuses on the Technology
As you can see, marketing operations is a very broad term that encompasses many different elements. Each of these elements plays a role in the overall success of your business objectives. However, one area where marketing operations do differ from other areas of the organization is their focus on technology. The technology that marketers use will have a direct impact on the way they are able to engage with customers and prospects. In today’s world, it’s imperative that businesses utilize technology to stay connected with their customers and stay top-of-mind among potential customers.
Builds the Operations
- Define the problem first. When it comes to goals, start by figuring out what you want to achieve and why—and don’t forget that goals are measurable and achievable. If you need help getting started, try completing the sentence: “I would be successful if _____________________________.”
- Don’t worry about other people’s goals. It’s great when your friends or coworkers are setting their own personal fitness goals, but be sure to create your own unique ones. This will help you stay focused and motivated, rather than comparing yourself to others.
- Set ambitious, realistic goals for yourself. If we haven’t said it enough already: Goals should be challenging, but also realistic! They should also be specific and have an end date—this will keep you on track and help prevent injury from overtraining/overreaching or burnout from undertraining/underachieving (or both!). For example, a short-term goal might look like this: I want to run two miles comfortably by June 1st (that’s 6 weeks away). With that in mind, here are some other examples of short-term fitness goals:
- Running a 5K in four weeks
- Swimming three laps without stopping in six weeks
- Biking eight miles in eight weeks
Focuses on Data and Analytics
In addition to overseeing processes and managing marketing technology, a good marketing operations team also has data and analytics in its purview. Data is the lifeblood of modern marketing, with many decisions made on the basis of how people are engaging with your ads and content. And without good analytics, it’s impossible to have confidence in those decisions. Marketing operations make sure that the right data is collected, analyzed, and distributed to the rest of the team so they can make informed choices about their campaigns.
Ensures Quality
As a customer, you probably understand how disappointing it can be to buy a product and discover that it doesn’t live up to the claims its marketing made about it. This is why quality matters in marketing. Customers today have more access to information than ever before, and as a result, they’re able to make more informed choices when choosing which brands they want to support. By ensuring your brand’s marketing claims are accurate and consistent across channels, you’re making sure that customers don’t feel misled.
If your customers feel like they’ve been lied to by the advertising of your company or brand, they’ll have no reason not to take their business elsewhere—but on the other hand, if you can prove that your brand is one that always delivers on its promises and aims for accuracy in all things public-facing (aka “marketing”), then people will believe in you. They’ll trust your products (and services) and will be more likely to invest in them because they know that what they see is what they get. In this way, good-quality marketing becomes a valuable asset—but only if you have appropriate levels of control over it.
Marketing operations are all about making marketing work better.
Marketing operations are all about making marketing work better.
The role of marketing operations is to centralize otherwise fragmented processes and infrastructure, enabling marketing to be more efficient and effective, connecting marketing with sales, and creating a single source of truth for marketing data. Marketing operations should be in the business of standardizing workflows that maximize productivity as well as increase accountability across the entire marketing organization and sales teams. Marketing ops can also help to optimize toolsets so marketers spend less time on manual tasks, such as updating spreadsheets or tracking down assets from different departments. By optimizing processes and toolsets, marketers are able to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.
