Blog: Marketing Operations

Showing blogs: 1–5 of 5

My New Year's Resolution - Improve Our Marketing Operations

Dec 10 2009

Although 2009 is drawing to a close and most people are thinking about winding down for the holidays, I'm already well-ensconced in 2010 marketing plans, programs and campaign execution.  During the past few weeks, I've spent a lot of time addressing the "marketing operations" side of the business; and while I've never considered myself an ops expert, my role has always included a significant amount of work in this area. 

Interestingly, marketing operations is one of those amorphous areas, quite different in every organization.  Here at CSG's Quaero, the goal of marketing operations is to improve the efficiency of the marketing function through people (resources), process and infrastructure/tools.  Most recently we've:

Continue Reading

Marketing Roadmaps: Prioitizing Your Marketing Investment

Oct 20 2009

Miss last week's Webinar on Making the Right Marketing Investments?  Never fear, the Webinar replay is live!Webinar Replay: Marketing Roadmap

During the event, Marketing Operations expert Niall Budds introduced the marketing roadmap as an essential tool for helping companies make the business case and build a plan for sustainable marketing improvement.  

This was not a theoretical discussion, but instead a practical guide to help marketers:

  • Understand the importance of a marketing roadmap
  • Identify the critical components and more importantly, how to get started
  • Talk about how to use the roadmap as an internal tool for building the business case
  • Learn from other companies that have parlayed roadmaps into marketing ROI

Click here to view the replay.  If you like what you see, send me an email and I'll send you a white paper on the topic (avail on October 28th). 

 

Continue Reading

Process - the often forgotten component of marketing

Aug 10 2009

Process is often a forgotten component of marketing. When it comes to marketing a lot of effort and time is spent on key issues of deliverability, targeting and relevance, but a key ingredient to success of marketing program is process. In most cases the lack of process is highlighted when a mistake occurs and in this era of digital marketing it is usually visible to all of your customers and prospects.

Continue Reading

The best thought-out Marketing ROI can still leave you empty handed

Jun 29 2009

I was talking to a senior client last week who heads up Global Customer Intelligence for  Fortune 50 company whose sales come mostly from other businesses, although they do have a substantial consumer business as well.    We were discussing the challenge of proving the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI), particularly in this challenging environment.     He said he had gone to his CEO with a well planned business case for a revamp of their website, which does a fair amount of ecommerce but is also a showcase for their capabilities.  The CEO listened patiently to the pitch, bought into the ROI estimate but then said "Just one of our sales people can get me more revenues than this by working a little harder at one or two of our major accounts.  Why should I bother investing money in the web site when I can get a lot more bang for my buck elsewhere?" 

Continue Reading

Measure twice, cut once…then execute flawlessly

Mar 31 2009

Measure once, cut twice.  I think this expression must have been started by a carpenter.  After all, making mistakes with lumber can wind up costing you a lot of money, and keep you from getting repeat business.

When I take the old adage and add those last three words (and execute flawlessly), it reminds me of some of the common themes I hear from my clients lately. 

Continue Reading