Marketing Profs

What does "best practices" in Marketing Operations (MO) look like, and how do industry-leading companies operate and integrate this highly valuable function? Marketing Operations Partners recently polled more than 80 marketing leaders to find out.

Key Findings

Four factors that survey participants say have contributed significantly to their MO success:

1. Clarity and consistency across the organization—shared practices, a well-defined road map and enabling infrastructure, reinforced by clear and pervasive communications that keep everyone on the same page.
2. Executive advocacy and support to champion the value of the MO function in achieving the organization's objectives.
3. A culture of accountability and alignment that fosters buy-in at all levels and rewards productive behaviors consistent with the desired vision.
4. Processes and technology that are fully leveraged to achieve and sustain operational excellence.

To get an in-depth understanding of current MO functions, Marketing Operations Partners' benchmarking study solicited feedback from more than 80 technology companies. Participants were primarily CMOs, VPs of Corporate Marketing and Marketing Operations Directors with high-level marketing responsibilities at some of Silicon Valley's most recognized Fortune 100, 500, and 1000 enterprises.

What Is Marketing Operations and Why Is It Important?

Marketing operations (MO) is a term that is sometimes used differently across organizations. We define MO as a thorough, end-to-end operational discipline that leverages processes, technology, guidance, and metrics to run the marketing function as a profit center and fully accountable business. The goal is to do two things exceedingly well:

1. Drive the achievement of enterprise objectives by reinforcing marketing strategy and tactics with a scalable and sustainable enabling infrastructure
2. Nurture a healthy, collaborative ecosystem both within and outside the marketing department that optimizes Marketing's value and fuels enterprisewide success

In this article, we will focus on responses to one question summarized in the Journey to Marketing Operations Maturity—Best Practices in Marketing Operations Series benchmarking study report. We will see what bubbles up to the top for those marketing executives working "in the trenches" as they identify their most critical success factors.

Question: To what combination of factors do you attribute your MO success to date?

1. Clarity and Consistency Fuel MO Excellence

To achieve "best practice" status, clarity and consistency across the organization are critically important. All key players need to be operating with a common vision and road map that fosters consistent business practices, relevant metrics definition, and audience-appropriate reporting.

The best-performing companies have an enterprisewide dashboard at a corporate level, with each functional area setting goals and measuring performance for their key deliverables that cascade up to the enterprise strategic objectives. In short, success is driven by integrated processes, an enabling infrastructure, clear and pervasive communications, and ongoing metrics that are consistent and meaningful to the organization leadership.

2. Executive Buy-in and Advocacy

Clearly, survey respondents feel that their MO function can thrive only in an environment of executive advocacy and support. In the best-case scenario, MO is tightly integrated with Sales Operations and is highly regarded within the organization for its value and contribution.