Meet the team members expected to improve the way marketing teams operate, communicate with other teams, and deliver results needed for business growth.
With technology innovations on the rise, many industries are seeing booms in the number of tools for their trades. Not every industry has all of the new bells and whistles, though. Many marketing teams are stuck in the past without automation for the tedious tasks that come along with the massive campaigns they frequently create.
To truly take advantage of data, marketers first have to collect it – but even more so, they need the right person to know what to do with it. In recent years, we have been seeing an emergence of a new role in marketing teams, focused on creating a synergy between people, tools and processes. We present you - marketing ops.
Bringing Marketers to the Future
The modern marketer has a tricky role. Marketing teams are tasked with producing some of the most innovative campaigns to drive business results, but most are also still working in spreadsheets from the 80’s. The number of channels has grown exponentially over the years, but outdated practices are keeping marketers trapped behind the times. Embracing the tech era is crucial to keep the creative ideas moving forward.
The first step to bring marketers into the future is to find the right data analytics tools in order to glean the best insights. Although teams can see individual successes or need for improvement across individual campaigns, it’s crucial for them to be able to see across channels all at once to view the entire (data) picture. This integration allows teams to save time and other resources by creating a unified view both inside and outside of that team’s perspective.
Creating the Dream Team
Technology is the first piece of the puzzle but bringing on new tools is futile without the right people to use the tools to their full capacity. 73% of CMOs have committed to investing in a marketing operations role this year. There is a growing need of marketing teams for a role that can focus on the data, operations and analytics for modern marketing.
This role is fairly new to the marketing space and many wonder what the position will look like. A marketing operations role will take the lead on the martech stack, which in turn will create faster, more reliable results that marketers can take action on immediately. As data pours in from multiple channels, it’s easy for silos to be created with marketers working on a range of campaigns.
The connection that the marketing ops role creates will allow for a more successful bridge to be formed between marketers and their data across those individual teams and beyond. Marketing teams will get a broader understanding of each campaign’s performance across channels, and won’t have to wait for clunky spreadsheets to pull out insights – saving time and resources.
Bridging The Skills Gap
CMOs are constantly looking for ways to solve problems that pop up for their teams to create a more efficient workflow. That said, it can be challenging to solve a problem that the entire industry is facing – especially because the skill set required to address them is still so new.
Marketing has changed so drastically and at such a rapid pace that hiring hasn’t caught up. Data jobs typically don’t make us think of marketers, but that has to change. In order to advance the work that these creative teams are doing, measurement and new technology is key.
It isn’t enough just to create the job posting, though. Knowing you need a data-savvy employee who can manage the different technology throughout your martech stack is part one, but part two is ensuring that your organization is truly ready for that person to jump in. To prepare, companies really need to evaluate their data strategies.
In fact, 43% say their team spends more time getting data in one place than they do actually using it to make decisions. On top of that, 49% agreed that the amount of manual reporting required is putting people off wanting to work in their team. This is why it’s so critical to invest in the right technology at the onset and build a culture around data.
Why Now is the Time for Change
This role will only continue to grow in popularity as the martech industry continues to uplevel its technologies and data analytics achievements. With new needs emerging every day - now is the time to implement change across both the culture of your organization when it comes to data, and the skillsets you look for in new joiners.
Overall, it’s clear that this role is needed to solve some of the biggest challenges faced by modern marketers. As we look at the future of marketing, the importance of data will only continue to grow – meaning organizations need to prioritize it as they look at their culture, operations, and teams.
