How to Use Marketing Operations to Drive Team Success

You just got a new job as marketing operations leader and your top priority is making the department more efficient. Where should you start? 1. Acknowledge that you can’t track efficiency without data. If you’re not measuring, you can’t get a sense of where your problems lie. - You need to know how much you’re spending on marketing campaigns to see if your cost per conversion is increasing YoY. - You need to know how much you’re spending on SEO, the traffic impact, and the conversion rate to tell if it’s a worthwhile investment. - You need to know how long it takes to launch a campaign to see if your campaign development process is getting faster. At Scoop last week, we launched two campaigns in one day. We used detailed tracking to connect the traffic spike to the campaign that drove the engagement so we could see what was most effective (it was Alexandria Ryman's marketing email that drove a surge). Sometimes it’s easy to measure. You can easily see what traffic is driven to your website from someone clicking a blog post link, for example. Sometimes it’s harder, like when someone saw a LinkedIn ad, and then a month later search 'em up on Google to buy — was it LinkedIn that led them to you or Google? 2. Prioritize by impact Once you’ve got data in front of you, you need to sort out your priorities by what’s going to have the most influence on your department’s efficiency. Start by finding the largest gaps and the largest opportunities for increase in ROI. When you’ve flagged that in the data, you can get curious about why that change happened. Maybe your employee retention rate has dropped significantly since 2021. Your team hasn’t been in the same room for two years — could that be why folks aren’t sticking around? Sorting out operational efficiency priorities feels like an impossible task, but organizing your data by impact is a great starting point. 3. Use data to make your argument You probably can’t implement initiatives alone, so you’re going to need to get stakeholder buy-in. Before you make your argument, think through what sort of concerns they might have. - How much money is there to be gained by heading in the direction you’re advocating for? - Why would this be a marketing problem and not a sales problem? - How did you come to this conclusion? Then, pull data that squashes their concerns before they even have the chance to express them. 4. Present that data effectively The final step to making a convincing argument is data presentation — and a convoluted spreadsheet isn’t going to cut it. You need to let the data shine in the simplest way possible. If you’re looking at a wall of numbers, it’s hard to tell — is that a percent change? Is a 2% shift versus a 12% shift a big deal? Do we need to look at data over the last year or over the last quarter? This final step — the presentation — is how you make sure your findings resonate with the right stakeholders.

So many people have great ideas. So few execute on them. That's why I love marketing ops - we're the ones making things happen. Even if you're not in marketing ops, here are tangible ways you can take ownership of the work and actually move the needle: 1 - Document and operationalize A/B test results: Don’t run tests just for the sake of it. Capture insights, then apply those learnings across future campaigns. Build systems that get better over time. 2 - Double down on top-performing campaigns: Too often, we try to spread resources across everything. Instead, identify what’s working and focus on it. Cut the rest—no need to keep sinking time into low performers. 3 - Remove friction from GTM processes: Is your campaign launch process more complicated than it needs to be? Fix it. Streamline every step, reduce bottlenecks, and make it as easy as possible for teams to get campaigns out the door. 4 - Enable easy access to data: Sales and marketing teams shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get the data they need. Build systems that serve them the right insights at the right time so they can engage customers in a meaningful way. 5 - Maintain data cleanliness and accuracy: Your campaigns are only as good as the data behind them. Implement solid data governance practices so you can trust the information driving your decisions. 6 - Create clear, useful reports and dashboards: Execs don’t need 20-page reports. They need actionable insights. Build dashboards that highlight the key performance metrics so they can make fast, informed decisions. 7 - Reevaluate budgets and optimize for ROI: Don’t set it and forget it. Keep an eye on where your dollars are going and reallocate funds to the areas that are delivering the highest returns. 8 - Align teams with clear marketing plans: Want to avoid misalignment? Document your marketing plans and socialize them so everyone is moving in the same direction. Clear communication is how you avoid silos and make sure the entire team is pulling toward the same goals. Owning the work doesn’t mean taking on more. It means knowing where to focus, where to cut, and how to execute relentlessly. Execution will always outperform a shiny idea with no follow-through. Don’t just talk about it—get it done. #marketing #martech #marketingoperations PS: I'm writing more about this in next week's newsletter, search "The Marketing Operations Leader on Substack" and sign up to stay updated.

High-performing Marketing Operations professionals in 2025: 🙅♀️ Will not: 1. Juggle 10+ disconnected tools without integration. 2. Rely solely on "best practices" without adapting to their organization. 3. Blame Sales for poor pipeline quality. 4. Ignore feedback loops from campaigns. 5. Over-complicate dashboards with vanity metrics. 6. Treat Martech as a "set it and forget it" system. 7. Spend hours on manual processes that could be automated. 8. Expect success from shiny tools without strategic alignment. ✅ Will: 1. Focus on fewer, highly impactful tools with strong integrations. 2. Build scalable, adaptable processes tailored to business goals. 3. Collaborate with Sales to refine lead handoffs and pipeline quality. 4. Create feedback loops with campaigns to iterate and improve. 5. Simplify dashboards to focus on actionable KPIs. 6. Leverage AI to automate repetitive tasks to free up time for strategic work. 7. Dedicate daily time to learning and staying updated on Martech trends. 8. Prioritize alignment between Marketing, Sales, and Revenue Operations for measurable impact. 2025 won't be drastically different from 2024, but small, consistent changes will drive longer-term transformations. Do you agree? 🤔 Would love to hear your thoughts! ♻️ Repost if you think this will define high-performing MOPs teams in 2025.