If you haven’t had a chance to read Part 1 of this two-part post make sure to do that first.
It’s been a minute since I wrote Part 1 in 2020 and I’ve changed some things on the team to streamline processes to meet the changing needs of the business. This post is going to cover some of those changes and serve as a natural continuation to the original list.
Key Area #4: Learning, Teaching, Doing – Or what I like to call, the Marketing Ops golden ratio
A rule I try to follow is to split my time split into thirds: Learning, Teaching and Doing. In an ideal world I would be doing this daily but in reality it is weekly or monthly.
Learning: The industry changes constantly when it comes to digital marketing and the tools that support it. You might remember from Part 1 that I like to structure my team with subject matter experts. Keeping on top of everything via blogs, podcasts, Slack channels and following SME on LinkedIn can seem like a full-time job. Setting aside dedicated time to personal development, earning certifications and exploring previously unknown areas are key to becoming a well-rounded Marketing Ops Professional.
Teaching:
“If you want to master something, teach it.”
-Richard Feynman
Whether it be weekly office hours, knowledge transfer during team meetings or show-and-tell calls with business partners, you can’t call yourself a master of a subject until you can pass that knowledge on to those who 1) know nothing or very little about the topic and 2) will ask questions of you that will cause you to view your area of expertise from a different angle.
Doing: Depending on your career goals, it can be beneficial to never be too far away from the technology. There is no replacement for physically getting into the tools, executing programs, working with business partners and troubleshooting issues with your team.
Key Area #5: Technology Adoption – Scalability isn’t just for tools: Finding those internal champions
Depending on the size of your organization, at times it can feel like getting the right information to the right people can be a monumental task. Ensuring that everyone your team supports either directly or indirectly is fully up to date and current with technology updates, process changes and best practices can be a big challenge.
An efficient way to combat this is to find internal champions on teams that you support, especially those who show a high technical aptitude or interest in learning new technology. Having a key person to work with who will then bring that knowledge back to their team and be that point person is critical for scaling processes as it brings the one-to-too-many relationship down to a more manageable level.
Key Area #6: Documentation is your friend – Or how to avoid Groundhog Day
Ask any Marketing Ops Professional what takes up the most amount of time in their day and 9/10 times the answer will be a combination of documentation and/or repeating the information on said documentation to stakeholders outside of their team constantly.
When questions arise it is more efficient for the entire team to respond in a consistent manner with links to documentation and short videos that can be referenced on demand. When things are hosted on a common portal and videos that can be replaced without the original URL breaking, it eliminates questions around if the most up-to-date information is being consumed or what version of a file someone is referencing.
The approach I like to take is to have a single source of truth (in our case it is a Marketing Ops portal on Confluence) with links to FAQ videos (hosted on Vidyard) that can be updated and changed out as necessary.
Created with the assistance of DALL·E Introduction and Background In 2018, Edward Unthank introduced the four pillars of marketing operations, setting the stage for the management of effective marketing technology (Martech) functions. These pillars have since been the bedrock for many successful careers in marketing operations. My journey to redefine
Introduction When it comes to account-based marketing (ABM), your marketing team might have invested in intent data, built tailored content, and spent time targeting accounts. But is the juice worth the squeeze? You could say marketing operations teams are there in part to squeeze every last marketing dollar in order
Introduction: Blending Human and Technical Perspectives in Martech Caption: Future gardens of martech will blend human and AI perspectives As a co-host of the Humans of Martech podcast, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing some of the brightest minds in marketing technology. This unique experience has provided a blend of
Subscribe to our newsletter!
