In marketing operations, it’s no doubt that you’ve run into team structures of every kind. Decentralized, hybrid, centralized and every possible variation, there are different approaches on how your team handles marking operations.

At Mops-Apalooza 2023, we dove into the advantages of a centralized campaign operations model and how it can help your team scale faster and provide talent development opportunities, among other benefits. Let’s dive into why a centralized model may work best for your team!

What is a Centralized Campaign Team?

First, let’s dig into what this means. In a centralized campaign operations model, a dedicated MOPs team takes charge of managing campaign requests from the marketing team. They are responsible for building and launching campaigns, maintaining the campaign calendar, and establishing centralized processes. This not only streamlines operations but also ensures consistency and efficiency across campaigns.

How can you balance scalability and individual talent development?

A centralized campaign model can allow you to structure your team’s responsibilities in a way that allows you to balance requests, as well as focus on the personal development of your team members. One example of this is creating space for each team member to own either end-to-end campaigns or entire business units if bandwidth allows. This allows them to have ownership of a specific area from initial conversations through build all the way to reporting.

In a centralized model, your MOPs team often owns all functions including more platform operations responsibilities. This can also be a valuable opportunity for skill development, involving tasks such as owning new integrations and projects, thereby enhancing individual and team capabilities at the same time.

How can training lead to improved campaign outcomes in an organization?

Training is pivotal in a centralized model, enhancing campaign outcomes by aligning all marketing stakeholders with every step of the campaign process. You should think about your training and education in two different ways: training on new processes and on-going training for new stakeholders.

When it comes to training on new processes, this can naturally come through the form of webinars, office hours and documentation. When it comes to on-going training for new stakeholders you should think of ways to meet them where they are at. This may be through a series of on-demand resources, continually updated communication, Slack channels or becoming a part of an onboarding training agenda.

Some examples of training you could complete include: overview of your intake process including SLAs and minimum requirements; special campaign builds including engagement programs; requests that involve integrations; how to access reporting and dashboards; etc.

By understanding why your team works the way it does and how to work best with your team, it will make the entire team more streamlined. This not only improves efficiency but also facilitates effective communication throughout the campaign process.

How is change management handled in a centralized model?

The first step of change management in a centralized organization is making sure you get buy-in from marketing and other departments your team supports, as well as senior leadership. You’ll initially start with high-level conversations, but as your plan continues to develop and you move further down your timeline, it’s important to provide updates every step of the way.

As you work through your change, you should also establish partnerships with a few of your marketing stakeholders to get feedback so there are no surprises once it’s implemented. This could involve having them do testing of the new process or being a part of a smaller pilot to ensure the new process or technology works as expected and iron out any issues.

Finally, as you roll out your change, it’s important to have the proper tools to share the process with the entire marketing team. This could involve hosting overview webinars, creating process docs and on-demand walkthroughs, as well as having regular office hours to work through the weeks after the initial launch. This ensures there are minimal disruptions as the new process is rolled out to the larger team.

How can leveraging vendor relationships enhance campaign operations, especially in resource-constrained scenarios?

Effectively leveraging vendor relationships is crucial in resource-constrained scenarios. Vendors, such as agencies or consultants, can act as temporary extensions of the campaign team. This proves especially beneficial during staff changes or project adjustments. Vendors can seamlessly integrate into the team’s processes, providing additional resources when needed, either on a project-based or retainer-based capacity.

How can project management improve campaign success?

Having a project management function within your campaign team as well as a clear intake process can make sure your team has the minimum requirements to get started. Depending on your team size and roles, you’ll have to determine if you can have a dedicated project manager or if it’s another team member’s assigned responsibilities, this will make sure your team is set-up for maximum efficiency and success.

A project manager’s responsibilities could include managing campaign intake, communicating with stakeholders, assuring all minimum requirements are included, managing a campaign calendar, overseeing team capacity and many other items.

Conclusion

There are many advantages to having a centralized campaign model from opportunities for the team’s personal development to educating your stakeholders and effectively managing change. This is just a few examples for why a centralized campaign model may work for you.

A centralized campaign operations model not only answers key questions surrounding team structure, talent development, and change management, but also provides a robust framework for achieving efficiency and quality in today’s fast-paced marketing landscape.

If you want to learn more about other approaches you can still sign up for a virtual pass to Mops-Apalooza 2023 and watch the complete session or contact us to learn more about what may work for your team.