IMPROVE YOUR TEAM PROCESSES TECHNOLOGY RESULTS Control the Chaos.™ HOW TO CHAMPION A MARKETING OPERATIONS INITIATIVE WHAT IS MARKETING OPERATIONS AND HOW TO TAKE YOUR MARKETING ORGANIZATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL For some, Marketing Operations is not exactly the most exciting subject. But ask marketers in some of the world’s biggest and most successful companies and about Marketing Operations and marketing program measurement, and they’ll have glowing reviews. What Is Marketing Operations? numb to the pain that consumes day-to-day work. The term, “Marketing Operations,” was first coined by the At the end of the day, the measurement of marketing research firm IDC. The purpose of Marketing Operations effectiveness is largely evaluated on the power of the brand is both to increase marketing efficiency and to build a and the perceived impact on revenue. But therein lies the rub: strong foundation by providing your marketing operation “perception” is in the eye of the beholder. The CFO, CEO with processes, technology, metrics and best practices. In and shareholders want tangible justification for marketing short, Marketing Operations is the internal infrastructure spend, they want precise marketing program measurement, that allows an organization to efficiently transform and they want marketers to step up to the plate and be creative ideas into marketing messages, while allowing accountable for performance. Naturally, organizations for increased measurement of marketing effectiveness. become laser-focused on measuring the revenue generated from creative campaigns and less concerned about For many organizations, the processes and tools that operational efficiency. Over time, the processes that support support Marketing Operations are expected to deliver “getting the campaign out the door” become neglected value for years or even decades. As enterprise marketers, and stale. By the time the organization notices it has an we’ve probably all experienced those shocking moments of efficiency problem, it’s a BIG problem, and it has a direct realization where we ask: How come executing a campaign impact on revenue growth and marketing performance. takes that many manual steps? Why do I have to enter the data twice? Isn’t this custom application 15 years old — why Framing Marketing Operations Challenges do we still use it? Like any good corporate citizen, we accept They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so as what we cannot change and figure out how to do the best marketers it’s important to keep a watchful eye on the possible job with the tools (or lack of tools) at hand. rust that accumulates on campaign execution processes and technologies, and educate the executive level about The truth is, most marketing leaders place operational these challenges and their solutions. Changes and efficiency and marketing “optimization,” including marketing improvements in Marketing Operations are inevitable. program measurement, on the back burner for as long as New marketing channels demand tighter cross-channel possible. Why? Because, optimization is perceived to be integration, more sophisticated customer analytics demand disruptive — it’s like trying to change a tire on a car that’s moving at 65 miles per hour. As a result, many marketers get by quarter after quarter on legacy applications and processes, driven by a sense of accomplishment from actually getting the campaign out the door and becoming marketspheremarketing.com IMPROVE YOUR TEAM PROCESSES TECHNOLOGY RESULTS Control the Chaos.™ HOW TO CHAMPION A MARKETING OPERATIONS INITIATIVE - page 2 more robust data, changes in consumer behavior demand agility in campaign cycle-time and the list goes on. In the next section we will outline some of the most common and impactful reasons to place operational efficiency at the forefront of marketing optimization. The more visible these challenges (and benefits) are within the organization, the more likely steps will be taken to alleviate today’s challenges before they become BIG problems. Workflow Challenges If we break down the fundamental components to executing a marketing campaign, we are left with the marketing value chain. It’s a series of connected activities executed in a specific order where each step adds value to the final outcome. For large enterprise organizations, executing these steps can be very complex. Many organizations struggle from too many manual tasks or interactions within the marketing value chain. This results in longer cycle times to get campaigns out the door. Since digital media has largely contributed to exponentially increasing complexity in marketing (new channels, rapidly changing customer expectations, mobile access to information, etc.) it’s only natural to turn to technology and Marketing Operations partners for a better way to manage these challenges. In highly complex distributed corporate marketing environments, hundreds of resources may be executing hundreds of campaigns on an annual basis. If email is utilized to trigger successive stages in the marketing value chain, it’s nearly impossible to manage the marketing execution in a consistent way. People leave on vacation, the process breaks, changes to creative must be re-approved, the process breaks, and the list goes on. dynamics or competitive forces cannot be incorporated into marketing campaigns until it’s too late. » Resource efficiency derails efforts to actively monitor historical performance to improve future campaigns. If resources are under time constraints because of the need to manage manual tasks, then less effort is placed on insight and the measurement of marketing effectiveness from the performance of prior campaigns. This has a direct impact on marketing effectiveness and revenue. » Marketing becomes too dependent on IT for distribution of “secure” information. In automated workflow systems, data can be automatically integrated into specific steps in the workflow processes and managed through user security permissions. Without a centralized vehicle to manage security, data must be owned and managed by IT and marketers are forced to wait in IT queues for time-sensitive data. » Marketers spend inordinate amounts of time figuring out who needs to approve content or just plain getting content approved. If many resources are involved in developing and approving marketing campaigns, manual communication becomes very time consuming for execution resources. Workflow capabilities in Marketing Resource Management (MRM) tools help automate the marketing value chain and provide real-time access to campaign progress. Since different channels may have different processes for campaign execution, MRM can be customized to uniquely address the most complex campaign processes. Workflow data can also provide a window into operational efficiency and true marketing cycle-time for a better understanding of marketing program measurement (and about where marketing may be falling short or exceeding expectations). Building a Case for Workflow Automation The following are some of the top reasons why enterprise marketers have turned to Marketing Operations partners to automate marketing processes: » Campaign cycle-times are 3 to 4 times longer for organizations that don’t have an automated workflow management technology. This means changes in market marketspheremarketing.com IMPROVE YOUR TEAM PROCESSES TECHNOLOGY RESULTS Control the Chaos.™ HOW TO CHAMPION A MARKETING OPERATIONS INITIATIVE - page 3 productivity and time savings are real, tangible costs that can help justify investments in Digital Asset Management tools. » Companies using workflow automation include: Sears Holdings, Bank of America, Wal-Mart, Best Buy A lack of centralized Digital Asset Management can lead to violations in licensing restrictions and monetary penalties. Digital Asset Management Challenges Automated tools can automatically remove assets from Digital content such as images, video, sound files, and more being utilized based on licensing details. DAM can reduce is expanding at exponential rates. A growing number of new creative costs and agency spend. For organizations that marketing channels have given rise to a new category of rely heavily on one or more agencies and lack a central marketing technology — integrated marketing. These tools digital asset repository, the agency often becomes an help create, manage and distribute content across multiple outsourced Digital Asset Management provider. Requests marketing channels. But, digital assets are the lifeblood of for creative content or older materials results in billable an integrated marketing system. This means that creating, hours to the agency, inflating overall agency costs. editing, storing and accessing the right content for integrated messaging is essential. The ability to find and utilize licensed The use of online video and audio have exploded in assets, reuse content or develop a new creative brief at recent years. Since these unstructured mediums have appropriate stages of the marketing value chain is critical for no text to search for, it’s often difficult to locate content. the marketing function. If files reside on individual hard drives Technology can incorporate meta-data and keywords or are tucked away on ftp servers, it’s very difficult to maximize with unstructured content to make it readily available the return on marketing investments in an efficient way. if and when it is needed by marketing or sales. Digital content strategy in large distributed organizations Today, technology can help centralize and track utilization used to be an IT issue. But over the last decade, it has become of marketing assets for real-time access to digital content. a marketing issue that is critical to operational success and These capabilities are often delivered in Marketing Resource marketing effectiveness. Marketing leaders have been tasked Management, Marketing Asset Management, Digital Asset with managing the brand reputation and the customer Management, and Web Content Management tools. experience. This requires a trade-off between structure and autonomy, so business units or regions can address the unique needs of different target audiences and corporate marketing can control the overall brand experience. Key Considerations: » Companies that use a Digital Asset Management system include: Boston Scientific, Kohl’s, Nationwide, eBay Multi-Channel Execution Challenges When it comes to marketing execution, most large • Do marketers frequently store files on hard organizations have developed years of experience and drives or share them over email? discipline across one or a few marketing channels: direct • Does the organization have a systematic way mail, email, catalog, media, etc. Internal domain knowledge to ensure creative licenses aren’t violated? and campaign execution are often compartmentalized. For • Can corporate marketing manage brand example, the email team is exceptional at email, but knows little consistency within the field? about direct mail. But, consumers have changed considerably Building a Case for Marketing Asset Management Digital Asset Management (DAM) capabilities can save money by centralizing marketing content to one repository. Organizations run the risk of purchasing multiple licenses for the same content if content isn’t centralized. This can amount to millions of dollars in savings depending on the volume of assets that are used each year. If files are stored on individual hard drives or secure shared servers, they can be very time consuming to locate. Increased employee marketspheremarketing.com IMPROVE YOUR TEAM PROCESSES TECHNOLOGY RESULTS Control the Chaos.™ HOW TO CHAMPION A MARKETING OPERATIONS INITIATIVE - page 4 corporate objective or strategy. How does the CMO over the last 30 years, and new digital media channels executing campaigns that align with the goals in the annual have given consumers more influence than ever before. corporate marketing plan? MRM give the CMO a better know the regions and business units in the field are actually understanding about the number and type of campaigns Marketing Operations enables an organization to run the marketing function as a fully accountable business. The processes within the marketing value chain can be viewed as that went into accomplishing a particular corporate target. Automate the measurement of marketing effectiveness the “cost of goods sold.” This constitutes the resources and in dashboards. Consider this: the value of measurement infrastructure necessary to develop marketing campaigns. A is not just in the accuracy of the metric, but in consistently deeper understanding of internal marketing efficiency and benchmarking the same metric over time. Creating real-time marketing program management can help the organization dashboards that allow the same metrics to be benchmarked save millions in cost savings by eliminating inefficient over time can dramatically improve business decisions campaigns, reducing redundant vendor spend and improving because trends can be easily identified in the data. the effectiveness of human capital. This has a direct impact on increasing overall return on marketing investments. Organizations rarely struggle with a lack of marketing data. On the contrary, it’s about figuring out which The following is a basic return on customer data or internal marketing operations data is marketing investment calculation: relevant for generating insights that improve business decisions. Having a complete view of the customer across » ROI= ((Gross Revenue – Cost of Goods multiple functions beyond marketing is ultimately how Sold) – Investment)) / Investment to produce better business decisions. For this reason, Internal Marketing Operations processes are part of the “cost involve a combination of business intelligence tools, of goods sold,” therefore if the organization does nothing more CRM and Marketing Operations technologies. than reduce the cost of executing campaigns, overall return Marketing Performance Management initiatives usually on investment will be higher, even if the revenue generated Companies using measurement and analytics include: remains the same. Even in tough economic times, marketers Sears Holdings, Wells Fargo, Boston Scientific, Kraft have an accurate measurement of marketing effectiveness and a lifeline for improving the return on marketing investment. Organization Challenges Complacency breeds inefficiency in the marketing value Building a Case for Improved Measurement of Marketing Effectiveness and Analytics chain. We’ve all heard that successful marketing initiatives Inefficiency across the marketing value chain is a powerful if the organization isn’t aligned to fully leverage the benefits embark on Marketing Operations initiatives. Even the prospect of changing decade-long organizational practices. must address people, process and technology. But the truth is, no investment in process or technology will be successful catalyst for change and the number one reason companies of the investments. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the most successful companies have redundant or inefficient But, transformative initiatives in large organizations aren’t spending in marketing and struggle with the measurement impossible, or even difficult. In fact, there are frameworks and of marketing effectiveness. Tracking these inefficiencies often requires a centralized tool or workflow management capability, the benefits of which far outweigh the investment when poor practices are compounded over time. Marketing Resource Management (MRM) tools force marketers to align each campaign with an overall marketspheremarketing.com IMPROVE YOUR TEAM PROCESSES TECHNOLOGY RESULTS Control the Chaos.™ HOW TO CHAMPION A MARKETING OPERATIONS INITIATIVE - page 5 disciplines like change management, risk assessment and roadmaps that can help manage organizational practices. Four Initial Steps to Building a Case for Organizational Change Adapting Marketing Operations to meet the challenges of our highly competitive and connected economy won’t happen overnight. But having a clear and structured strategy that is highly visible to the organization helps ensure the initiative isn’t derailed by changes in executive leadership or missed deadlines. Build a roadmap with realistic milestones and timeline expectations. Figure out where the low hanging fruit lies within the organization. Identify what changes can be realized quickly and evangelized as small wins to keep the project moving. Build momentum by tackling highly visible challenges first. Which challenges represent the squeaky wheels in the organization? Address these challenges first and use them as stepping stones to build out additional best practices for Marketing Operations. Operations partners who offer frameworks for effectively handling change management. Often these include a long-term plan or roadmap to align the entire organization with a vision and a plan for the future. Summary Like any finely tuned engine, the processes that move creative ideas to customer facing marketing messages require maintenance. In fact, the marketing technologies and processes that support your organization can get rusty or even outdated. Just like the purchase of a new vehicle, all those investments in legacy marketing technologies started to depreciate the minute they came off the shelf. That’s the reality of today’s fast-paced, constantly changing and highly competitive environment. The marketing function must constantly adapt to keep up with the demands of today’s customers. The purpose of the Marketing Operations function is both to increase marketing efficiency and the measurement of marketing effectiveness, and to build a foundation for excellence by reinforcing marketing with processes, technology, metrics, and best practices. Marketing Operations is about performance, financial management, strategic planning, marketing resource and skills assessment and management. ■ Executive champions are absolutely critical to the success of Marketing Operations initiatives. These should include people of power and influence within the organization who demonstrate a passion for the long-term success of the company. Build an executive committee comprised of multiple resources within marketing, finance, IT and executive leadership. Use this committee to gain multiple If you’re ready to Control the Chaos™ within your Marketing Operations, contact us at viewpoints and alignment with prospective solutions. 402-681-7797 or [email protected] In most cases, organizations do not have the discipline or ENVISION. ENABLE. ENRICH. the expertise to successfully manage change management in large transformational initiatives. By the time an initiative requires significant or transformative change, the organization has developed learned disciplines and a support culture to cope with existing challenges. Naturally, it’s very difficult to break this corporate culture from within the organization. There are Marketing marketspheremarketing.com