Measuring the Value of Marketing Operations

The hardest task in marketing operations isn't managing data or keeping leads flowing. It's proving the value of those tasks to the business. Operations is a cost-centre in any business function - it doesn't directly generate revenue. However, marketing is incapable of generating new revenue without effective marketing operations. The difficulty is in proving that to the board. After all, when budgets are tight, marketing leaders will naturally be looking for additional money to fund a packed events schedule or a comprehensive campaign calendar. The ops budget is an easy target for possible cuts.

Changing the Question

It's notoriously hard to prove a negative, but that is exactly what marketing operations needs to do. When executives start asking about ROI, turn the question around. If the CMO wants to know the impact of marketing automation on the pipeline, calculate how many leads would be generated without automation. The answer is a lot fewer, but proving that is hard. Marketers are used to measuring success by attributing individual leads to individual campaigns. However, operations affects all campaigns. A strong marketing operations function raises performance levels across the board. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Some CMOs do attribute parts of the operations budget to individual activities. Campaign delivery is a classic example of this. Even technology spend can be attributed to the campaigns run through the individual platform. But you can't just attribute the entire marketing operations budget to every marketing program. You have to show the effect that better data has on all campaigns, how improved reporting has allowed more comprehensive ROI measurement across the board, or how more efficient lead processes drive improved conversion rates. The trouble is that such measures are much more difficult to calculate than your standard ROI calculations.

Measuring Key Metrics

Unlike traditional marketing attribution, there's no measurable link between individual improvement projects and individual opportunities. Instead, a different kind of attribution methodology is needed; one that many operations teams struggle with. Fortunately, Ops teams will already be generating all the required numbers. Any good CMO should be reporting on funnel conversion rates to the business - it's a standard metric. CMOs may not be monitoring individual channel metrics, such as email click-throughs or form completion rates, but marketing managers will be. These top-level analytics aren't just used for campaign performance, they also form the basis for marketing ops reporting.

The missing step is storytelling. Marketing ops needs to be looking for general trends that span multiple campaigns, and linking them back to specific improvement activities. Look at MQL conversion rates before and after a lead scoring update goes live. Compare email click-through rates before and after a database clean-up project. If you're seeing noticeable improvements in top-level metrics then shout about them, and construct a narrative about how your activities help make a difference. Creative agencies and campaign managers will be doing the same thing, and they won't mind if you seek to share the credit.

Numbers and Narrative

When CMOs report on marketing's overall contribution, they tell a story about customer influence, brand reputation and revenue generation. It's a story backed by hard numbers, but generally only the ones that the CMO wants the board to see. Storytelling is a core skill for marketers, so it comes naturally. Marketing operations, not so much. Ops leaders often rely on the numbers to speak for themselves, which ironically means that they tend to show the wrong numbers.

Marketing operations projects are hard to measure. Everyone understands that. It's the trend which is important, rather than the exact values. When measuring the impact of individual projects, rough guesses and ballpark figures can be accepted, provided they can be justified and are framed correctly in the accompanying narrative. The numbers are there to back up the story explaining why the project was a success. They are not the validation in itself. Of course, different rules apply to revenue numbers, which must be 100% accurate in order to meet accounting standards. However, ops is rarely justified in revenue terms. That gives ops leaders more flexibility than a CMO gets. They just need to take advantage of the additional leverage.