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March 22, 2017
Do You Have an Operations Plan to Make Marketing Scientific?
By: Scott Gruher
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.
It’s difficult to grow revenue faster than your industry’s growth rate and faster than your competitors. Leverage the How to Make Your Number in 2018 to access a revenue growth methodology to hit your number quarter after quarter, and year after year.
A solid marketing operations plan can help you hit your number. Start with these steps. Start here to enable your marketing team with a strong marketing operations plan.
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:
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?
To support the CMO, place a strong leader within marketing operations. This recent article provides rationale for investing in marketing operations leaderhship, and download our Marketing Operations Evaluation Checklist is a helpful tool to evaluate where you sit. It will help you better understand the functions your director will be responsible for.
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:
Create Your Marketing Operations Plan
When it’s time to create your plan, use this list of questions as a guide.
This should give you a head start when you create your marketing ops plan. Need more help creating a plan that will hit the number? If you would like help with making marketing scientific, visit The Studio, SBI’s multimillion dollar, one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art executive briefing center. A visit to The Studio increases the probability of making your number because the sessions are built on the proven strength and stability of SBI, the industry leader in B2B sales and marketing.
Scott joined SBI in 2010 with years of hands-on experience in sales leadership and enterprise selling. Since his arrival, he has helped dozens of organizations dramatically accelerate growth, from Fortune 10 organizations like Phillips 66 to fast-growing cloud service organizations like InfusionSoft. Scott specializes in cross-functional alignment. He helps leaders align around the growth goal and design the right processes to bring the strategy to life. His unique combination of real world experience and a pragmatic approach to problem solving have made him one of SBI’s most demanded resources.
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