Overview
In today’s economic landscape, marketing teams face the challenge of optimizing their marketing operations while working within tighter budgets and leaner teams. As someone who has been in marketing operations through the boom times, through the pandemic, and now in the current environment of higher interest rates and even higher inflation, I’ve observed several key trends shaping the marketing operations industry.
- Marketing operations teams facing resource reduction (layoffs, budget cuts, or both). Organizations must stretch their resources through layoffs and decimated budgets to meet the same goals. They face a reckoning: they may need to migrate to a cheaper marketing automation platform or engage a marketing operations agency to compensate for reduced internal resources.
- Teams with stable goals but tight budgets. Some marketing operations teams have significant projects to complete for or with their marketing teams, but they aren’t getting additional budget for headcount to help complete those projects. In these scenarios, they must cut all but the most mission-critical projects and strategically prioritize them. These teams may also consider downsizing their marketing automation platform and/or hiring a marketing operations agency.
- Teams with stable resources but lofty (or VERY lofty) goals. There are also organizations that didn’t have budget cuts, but their teams are still tasked with lofty goals. Even if budget cuts don’t directly impact a marketing operations team, being strategic with resources is essential for maximizing efficiency and driving impactful results.
Regardless of the scenario, marketing operations play a pivotal role in process standardization, campaign management, and team training and enablement, ensuring that marketing initiatives deliver maximum value with minimal waste.
The Role of Marketing Operations in an Uncertain Economy
The current economic climate is marked by uncertainty, with factors such as fluctuating market conditions, unpredictable consumer behavior, and global events impacting businesses worldwide. In such an environment, doing more with less isn’t just a choice—it’s a necessity for survival and growth. It means optimizing resources, streamlining processes, and maximizing speed to market to maintain competitiveness and drive success.
And who’s right in the thick of it? Yep, marketing operations teams. You. You’re the one tasked with keeping the ship steady amidst all this chaos. In this wild ride, it’s not just a smart move to do more with less—it’s downright survival mode. Marketing operations have always been tasked with driving well-executed, sensible processes documentation, and being good stewards of their company’s budgets. As such, they are all about squeezing every ounce of juice from their resources, streamlining processes, and kicking efficiency into high gear. The success of your marketing operations team hinges on remaining agile, adaptable, and proactive.
Why Marketing Operations Must Prioritize Efficiency
There are several compelling reasons why companies must strive to do more with less, particularly within marketing operations.
- Speed to Market: A well-optimized marketing operations team enables rapid execution of campaigns, creating a competitive advantage.
- Budget Constraints: Rising costs and economic downturns require marketing operations to maximize the impact of existing resources.
- Innovation and Creativity: Limited resources often drive innovation, pushing teams to develop innovative ways to achieve their goals through marketing automation and process standardization.
Success in this environment requires marketing operations leaders to champion process standardization, optimize campaign management, and foster collaboration across departments.
When to optimize (even more than before!) in marketing operations: Doing more with less
The imperative to do more with less isn’t just a response to current economic conditions; it’s a mindset that should be continuously ingrained in the culture of marketing operations teams. While this approach is always important, it becomes crucial during economic downturns, market disruptions, or budget constraints. Taking this proactive approach helps companies establish resilience, adaptability, and sustainability within their operations, regardless of external challenges. By adopting efficient processes, leveraging technology effectively, and fostering a culture of innovation, marketing operations can navigate challenges and drive success even in the face of adversity.
But how can I derive more value from my existing [tool/team/process]?
Achieving more with less requires a strategic approach and concerted efforts across the organization. Here are some key suggestions and free resources to get you started.
1. Build a Repeatable, Scalable Campaign Demand Center.
One way to make sure your marketing operations team is preventing waste and using resources to their maximum potential is by overhauling and streamlining your campaign operations. This process can be started by downloading Etumos’ campaign demand center kit. From this kit, you’ll be given the tools to:
- Create efficient processes: Audit your current processes to uncover opportunities for optimization, allowing you to squeeze more value out of every dollar spent and every hour worked, supported by detailed guides and templates.
- Define operational architecture: Establish clear expectations across your team by implementing content submission templates, SLAs, and marketing automation platform program templates. This ensures that every resource is utilized effectively, maximizing the impact of your budget and team efforts.
- Scale marketing operations: Develop a flexible system tailored to your team’s needs, capable of scaling seamlessly as your team grows and as you execute more campaigns. This scalability ensures that you can achieve more significant outcomes without overextending your resources, allowing you to maximize your budget and team capabilities.
2. Implement Program Templates for Faster Execution.
Program templates are easily clonable by your marketers, so they can simply clone, edit, QA, and ship. For example, if you offer more in-house hosted webinars to generate business relatively cheaply, that offering stands up much quicker if there is a standardized, plug-and-play program template. Etumos can get you started through our expert’s guide to advanced program templates. This will enable you to:
- Enhance marketer productivity: Enhance the productivity of your marketing team by leveraging fully tokenized program templates and streamlining the Marketing Operations request process. This allows you to amplify the impact of every marketing activity, ensuring that you’re getting the most out of your team’s efforts and budget.
- Maximize program success: Elevate the effectiveness of your marketing programs by integrating best practices and advanced tips that enhance prospect experiences and boost program conversion rates. By implementing these strategies, you can optimize the outcomes of your programs, extracting maximum value from your marketing investments.
- Develop a template for every initiative: Empower your team to work smarter and faster by creating templates for various marketing initiatives, including webinars, events, gated content, email campaigns, and more. This comprehensive guide serves as a roadmap for generating consistent, high-quality deliverables, allowing you to standardize processes and drive repeatability across your marketing operations function, ultimately maximizing the value derived from your budget and team efforts.
3. Optimize Your Marketing Automation Platform.
As a marketing operations leader, if your organization utilizes Marketo Engage, it might be beneficial to consider a comprehensive health audit. Whether you’ve recently inherited a Marketo instance, are preparing to scale your marketing efforts, or simply seek fresh perspectives, we’re here to assist. We offer a complimentary health audit, providing practical insights and actionable recommendations to optimize your Marketo setup. Experience firsthand the value of our audit with a real sample, showcasing potential insights and improvements.
If you are a Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot) admin, your instance might need some love, too. An organized structure with folders and clear naming conventions forms the foundation for scalability in marketing automation. Neglecting these crucial elements at the start of your journey can lead to chaos. A well-structured Marketing Cloud Account Engagement instance enables marketers to accomplish tasks with minimal time, effort, and resources. Explore Etumos’ guide to creating concise naming conventions, effectively grouping assets, and optimizing scalability across regions and business lines for enhanced marketing operations.
4. Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration.
While the marketing operations leadership sets the tone for operational excellence within the function, they cannot achieve this alone. Collaboration is key, and they need the support and involvement of multiple stakeholders, including the marketing automation platform owners, CRM owners, marketers, data analysts, and more. Each role is crucial in minimizing resource waste and deriving more value from existing processes.
During economic uncertainty, aligning across departments becomes even more pronounced for businesses. In such challenging times, resources are scarce, and proving your organization’s effectiveness is paramount. Working cross-functionally ensures that every department works towards the same objectives, optimizing resource allocation and minimizing waste. By fostering a culture of collaboration and alignment, businesses can navigate economic challenges with resilience, ensuring they emerge more substantial and competitive in the long run.
Conclusion
Marketing operations teams are at the forefront of driving efficiency and ensuring businesses thrive despite economic challenges. By leveraging marketing automation, optimizing campaign management, and focusing on process standardization, organizations can enhance operational efficiency while maximizing the impact of every dollar spent. Adopting this strategic mindset enables marketing operations to navigate uncertainty and drive sustained success.
Note: This post is part of a series covering how you can do more with less as a marketing operations function. Check out the other articles including:
