Marketing Operations - My Next Adventure

I stumbled into Marketing at a point in my career where I was ready for a change. I had spent five years building large-scale data warehouses and business intelligence systems. During that time I enjoyed speaking with end users and their executives and understanding how the systems would be used. But for the most part, my work didn’t require me to understand the businesses I was supporting. Technology was safe for me at that point, but the constant feedback from every mentor was that I needed to focus on the business aspects of these projects as I progressed up the ranks. Good advice. After years of pure technology focus, I decided to look for roles that bridged the gap between business and tech.

I found a role that required a deep understanding of data warehouse technology, but applied that thinking to the business aspects of marketing databases. Yes, my teams were still building large scale customer databases – one client had 70 million customer accounts – but my personal work was focused on delivering related business process improvement. To accomplish that, I spent most of my time meeting with client side marketing executives and learning about their needs. As I listened, I realized that I had always paid close attention to how companies marketed to me in both a personal and professional context. I was particularly interested in what happened after I gave my name to a company for the first time. How soon did they follow up? Did it appear that they resold my data? Were they respectful of me and did they honor an opt-out when I registered one? I had always loved database marketing; I just hadn’t realized it until then.

In the years following that realization, I built multiple marketing automation systems, learned how to measure the ROI of marketing programs, developed integrated sales and marketing lead generation programs, and managed global customer data quality at a name brand company. Those roles taught me the ins and outs of CRM Marketing, and from there I felt confident that I could take on any role in the database marketing space.

With that in mind, I was excited when I found my new role. I am building a Marketing Operations team from the ground up at a global software company that focuses on oil, chemicals, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Marketing Operations is defined many ways, but for me it means efficiently managing marketing resources by improving technology, process, and measurement. Woo-hoo! I know how to do that. I’m excited for this new role, and plan to focus upcoming blog posts on establishing robust marketing process, integrating sales and marketing programs, and marketing automation technology. I’m sure I’ll write about other aspects like yearly planning, reporting/analytics, and of course… data quality.