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What is marketing operations?
I'm trying to break into the marketing industry and have heard comparisons between regular marketing and marketing operations. What makes marketing operations better? And what criteria encompasses a person to become/attain a marketing operations role?
Best Answer
- Recommended by:
- Roger Tung,
- Amruta Gore
Roger and others,
As an add-on to our discussion, thought you'd be interested that my company is launching a new online course on Marketing Operations 2.0. You can see a free preview here:
http://www.slideshare.net/mopartnersceo/free-course-preview-marketing-operati...
- Recommended by:
- Gary Katz
Marketing Operations helps all the areas of marketing overcome dysfunction, connect strategy and execution, build shared vision and accountability, and have a stronger strategic impact on the company.
Marketing Operations is the application of tools from other disciplines to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of all of the components of Marketing (product, price, place, promotion, etc.). These tools include change management, systems thinking, pareto analysis, process improvement, stakeholder alignment, balanced scorecard, competency development, knowledge management, organizational learning, fact-based decision-making, accountability, financial analysis, gap analysis, roles and responsibilities, process standards, end-to-end management, closed-loop management, and more.
While many companies are striving to master marketing accountability and efficiency (tactical MO 1.0),
others are leaping forward to *integrate* strategy, guidance, processes, metrics, ecosystem and technology (strategic MO 2.0) to run your marketing organisation as a value center, driving long-term company growth.
Marketing Operations 2.0 takes marketing operations to a higher level of return on investment (ROI). MO 2.0 is an agile, customer-centric and scalable approach to Marketing Operations that enables Marketing to deliver high-value impact on corporate strategy and business results.
You can learn more about MO 2.0 at www.marketingoperations2.info -- an online course (including 11-minute demo webcast).
- Recommended by:
- Matt J
As a high level overview, I see it as a systematic approach to increasing effectiveness and ROI as well as streamlining process and efficiencies. By implementing a marketing operations function, immediate results will be seen, but the real power is over time with the marketing intelligence you're able to gain, thus improving your campaign and marketing program effectiveness for the ultimate goal of ROI and increased sales.
Gary, thanks for the great response! I appreciate that you took the time to give me such a detailed answer. I have a lot on my plate right now, but your suggestions are definitely on my radar and in my priorities now. Thanks!
As a high level overview, I see it as a systematic approach to increasing effectiveness and ROI as well as streamlining process and efficiencies. By implementing a marketing operations function, immediate results will be seen, but the real power is over time with the marketing intelligence you're able to gain, thus improving your campaign and marketing program effectiveness for the ultimate goal of ROI and increased sales.
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Hi Roger,
Suggest you check out my primer on Marketing Operations 2.0 here on Focus:
http://www.focus.com/briefs/marketing/marketing-operations-20-realizing-visio...
A great resource on Marketing Operations career-wise is the Marketing Operations Cross Company Alliance (MOCCA), http://www.moccabayarea.com.
MOCCA devoted a meeting to Marketing Operations Career Paths on February 24, 2009. According to MOCCA, people interested in a career in Marketing Operations can apply a variety of skills and expertise to the discipline. Some of the competencies employers are looking for include general marketing, analytical, project management, IT, change management and lead management skills. Based on MOCCA's membership surveys and my own research, people in the field tend to have a diverse variety of backgrounds including campaign/program management, database marketing, internet marketing, public relations, marketing communications, engineering, manufacturing, finance, statistical analysis, quality (Six Sigma, Lean Enterprise), customer experience management, agency, etc. Many people in these other fields are attracted to Marketing Operations as a new sandbox to apply their skills. A MOCCA survey found that about 30% have a graduate level education and 1 in 10 have special certifications such as PMP.
You might be interested in a course I teach on Marketing Operations through both UCSC Extension, and my own company, Marketing Operations Partners. Both courses are online and cost around $500. The UCSC Extension course starts January 31 and runs 7 weeks. You can learn more at:
http://courses.ucsc-extension.edu/ucsc/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?me...
If that schedule doesn't work for you and you're not concerned about CEUs, I suggest you check out the Marketing Operations Partners-sponsored course. It's turnkey, self-paced, always available. We are making it available to the public this week. It's actually better integrated and will thus be a better learning experience than the UCSC course, IMO, because of the direct control we have over the platform and content delivery.
Contact me directly if you want to learn more about either or both.
I wouldn't go so far as to say Marketing Operations is better than Marketing or visa versa. Having lived in both worlds, there are lots of opportunities in both. It depends on where you can best apply your unique talents and aspirations.
In Marketing Operations, your focus will be more on effectiveness, efficiency, accountability, consistency, sustainability, alignment, integration and, generally, how the Marketing department functions.
Rather than a particular program, campaign or sub-function, you'll be concerned with how the Marketing function operates across the board.
You'll be more focused on bridging the gap between strategy and execution, rather than the strategy or the execution itself.
You'll be at the heart of change and the cusp of learning in your organization, which can be very meaningful and exciting.
You'll be solving big challenges like how to effectively manage data, knowledge and leads, get the most out of marketing automation, design key cross-functional processes, build bridges between marketing and other functions, link Marketing efforts to the enterprise strategy, measure the contribution of marketing to the enterprise.
The field is still very young so there is tremendous opportunity to differentiate yourself from the average marketer.