Start Here to Create a Strong Marketing Operations Plan

Empower your marketing team to do their best work. Remove Marketing’s non-program responsibilities and streamline those that can’t be off-loaded. Put together a marketing operations plan that improves efficiency through process and technology. Incorporate systems that remove the administrative burden by automating core business processes. And leverage metrics and best practices for improved Marketing success.

A solid marketing operations plan can help you hit your number. Start with these steps below.

Put the Right Leader in Place

The CMO is held accountable for keeping on top of marketing activities and performance. A strong marketing-ops leader can make that job easier.

A marketing-ops leader tracks the pulse of the marketing landscape. They chart a course to generate greater value from marketing spend. They are tasked with:

• Making sense of new marketing. They determine which tools align with business objectives and offer the greatest benefit.
• Analyzing and effectively utilizing data generated from the chosen marketing tools. They also provide data-driven insights to improve marketing programs.
• Providing an objective measure of marketing programs. They help the CMO determine what works and what doesn’t.

This leader leverages objective analysis through rigorous testing of messaging and strategies against benchmarks. This adds a new layer to marketing strategy, as it is traditionally not data-oriented. Traditional marketing measurement comes from focus groups and surveys, which are limited in accuracy. Quantitative data can give Marketing a whole new perspective.

But to succeed today, quantitative and qualitative measurement must work together. A strong marketing-ops leader can bridge that gap and drive greater marketing yield.

To enable this role’s success within your marketing department, create a charter. Clearly define what part they will play. What is this leader responsible for? Not responsible for? How can they ensure value is delivered?

Leverage Technology to Improve Productivity

Next, consider the technology Marketing is using, or could use in the future. Can you leverage new technologies to improve productivity? Are there other options within each category that may include better functionality? Think about the following:

1. Marketing automation
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
3. Email marketing
4. Website optimization/analytics/recommendations
5. Content Management System (CMS)
6. Social media management
7. Marketing analytics
8. Predictive analytics
9. Sales enablement
10. Mobile playbooks
11. Partner resource management
12. Learning Management System (LMS)
13. Social collaboration
14. Sales portal
15. Event management

Create Your Marketing Operations Plan

When it’s time to create your plan, use this list of questions as a guide.

• What are the objectives for your marketing operations team?
• What is your data plan? How do you execute it?
• What is your analytics strategy? How do you execute it? How do you incorporate predictive analytics?
• What dashboards do stakeholders need to make decisions?
• How do you track results at the campaign, program, activity, offer and content levels?
• Are there opportunities to replace qualitative with quantitative measurement?
• How do you streamline and improve your marketing budget process?
• How do you make executive reports filled with marketing insight available quickly and easily?
• What technologies does Marketing need to be effective?
• What resources are required by the marketing ops team? What is each role responsible for? How should the team be structured?

This should give you a head start when you create your marketing ops plan.