Marketing Land Asks What is marketing ops?
According to Marketing Land, we know marketing ops when we see it, but this article asks, can we define it?
The author says we need to talk about "marketing operations." The term gets used widely, but it's unclear exactly what it means. Is it automation in the form of automated email, texts, and other messages? Maybe the way to work out the answer to that question is by looking at marketing ops' relationship with marketing technology. The author says, for them, that's where the confusion started:
With the current definitions of marketing ops seeming so nebulous, the author got the opinion of two thought leaders who acknowledge the term's relation to marketing automation. Kayla Carmicheal from HubSpot defines marketing ops like this:
Michael McNeal from Centric Consulting offered another explanation for marketing ops:
"Marketing operations is beyond your marketing automation platform, it involves people, process, and technology.
Marketing automation involves a lot of different aspects, from tech to strategy and analytics. In some companies, marketing automation platforms encompass most of what's required and are likely to serve as much of the martech stack, but that isn't always the case. If marketing ops covers all of marketing, then associating it solely with marketing automation is confusing - or so the author feels.
So, what about you guys? Anyone care to offer a better explanation of what marketing ops actually is? Or at least, what it means to you?
The author says we need to talk about "marketing operations." The term gets used widely, but it's unclear exactly what it means. Is it automation in the form of automated email, texts, and other messages? Maybe the way to work out the answer to that question is by looking at marketing ops' relationship with marketing technology. The author says, for them, that's where the confusion started:
| "I first encountered this problem when I had to draft my own job description and job title, as I've originated the Marketing Technology Manager role at Western Governors University. At the time, all my boss and I knew was that we needed someone to track and manage our tech stack -- a maestro/orchestrator role -- but weren't as familiar with the greater martech community as we are now. When I was searching for comparable job postings to what we were envisioning, whenever I saw a marketing ops position, it typically meant marketing automation. We already had a team dedicated to that -- so that didn't work." |
| "Generally, marketing operations defines the team in charge of the technology and processes needed to help marketing teams run effectively." |
"Marketing operations is beyond your marketing automation platform, it involves people, process, and technology.
Marketing automation involves a lot of different aspects, from tech to strategy and analytics. In some companies, marketing automation platforms encompass most of what's required and are likely to serve as much of the martech stack, but that isn't always the case. If marketing ops covers all of marketing, then associating it solely with marketing automation is confusing - or so the author feels.
So, what about you guys? Anyone care to offer a better explanation of what marketing ops actually is? Or at least, what it means to you?
