Does your MarOps need a shake up?
Drive business value with better marketing operations by Bret Sanford-Chung, Managing Director, Marketing Consulting, KPMG US
Something is broken in the world of marketing operations.
We know that MarOps is all about people, process, and technology – and when those pieces come together seamlessly, so does business value. But what is actually happening on the ground?
In a 2021 BrandMaker survey, a staggering 90% of CMOs expressed dissatisfaction with their company’s marketing technology.
CMOs are not alone. It’s not looking great for their teams, either: 33% of CMOs feel that their teams struggle to integrate and correlate data from across the company to draw meaningful insights, and 28% feel that their company’s current processes are inflexible – which in turn hampers their team’s ability to collaborate and make quick decisions.
What exactly is going on?
Marketing moves fast. Companies hire too quickly, they change their business goals in response to fleeting trends, and they attempt to adapt to new technology before they’re ready.
As a Customer Advisory Managing Director at KPMG in the Marketing Consulting practice, I receive requests all the time for help implementing the latest, shiniest marketing technology. Here’s the thing: my clients don’t always need new. Sometimes, they need help figuring out how to use what they’ve already got.
It doesn’t take long to discover why an expensive piece of marketing technology is functioning at less than half of its capacity and failing to provide the kind of high-level, in-depth insights that would allow the marketing operations team to make data-informed decisions and meet goals.
Here’s what I often identify:
- Insufficient training – Overburdened employees, understaffing, and frequent turnover means no one knows how to make the most of the company’s tech.
- Unintentional information siloing – Isolated departments fail to share what they know with their colleagues.
- Failed integrations – Even the smartest tech is useless if it clashes with current company processes or doesn’t integrate smoothly with old systems.
How do we fix it?
There is no magical piece of technology that will transform a company into a flawless, perfectly functioning juggernaut.
Real change happens when people change – and it begins at the C-suite level.
Marketing operations transcends the marketing department simply by enabling marketing to do what it does best – and when marketing works, the entire company can benefit. The strength of a CMO’s partnership with their C-suite colleagues – in particular, the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Sales Officer, and the Chief Procurement Officer – is integral to making that happen.
From those relationships spring global communication and collaboration. With a full understanding of the technology already in their toolbelt, marketing operations teams can dive into the data, identify gaps and weaknesses, and move forward more strategically.
Strong C-suite relationships are vital to any company's bottom line. Solid relationships built on trust, defined roles, and clear communication create better cross-functional teams which allow companies to be more agile and speed up governance. Problems are addressed from a place of shared knowledge, and every team is able to spend their time on what matters: improving customer experience and driving value to the business.
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