Marketing operations, or MOPS, is all about planning, process and measurement. It goes beyond project management to encompass the people, processes, technology, and data that powers a business’s overall marketing strategy.
Ultimately, MOPS should make businesses more efficient and able to adapt quickly to change. Indeed, Adobe’s 2021 Digital Trends report found that B2B organisations with defined MOPS functions were found to be 53% more likely to outperform their peers in H2 2020.
But how exactly does MOPS help? In order to find some answers, Econsultancy and Sojourn surveyed over 350 senior executives in relevant roles at B2B companies with a revenue of over $165 million.
Data is only as useful as disparate teams can make it
The rapid digital acceleration seen in 2020 has further highlighted the need for companies to break down business function silos, particularly when it comes to communication and collaboration between marketing and technology teams.
Interestingly, Econsultancy and Sojourn’s survey found that 89% of companies with a defined MOPS unit say that “it helps marketing and technology work together.”
A key part of this relationship is data (or what MOPS enables organisations to do with it). MOPS enables companies to standardise data and insights, leading 67% of respondents to agree that operations impacts efficiency by “centralising complex tasks around data handling and providing a single source of truth.”
Improving technology vendor management
Vendor management is critical to robust marketing operations, especially considering the number of IT or technology supplier portfolio continues to grow. According to a 2019 study by Netskope, enterprise organisations can work with over 120 cloud services, with each one requiring varying degrees of integration.
MOPS enables companies to streamline and improve vendor management. In fact, 73% of survey respondents said that it “simplifies interaction with technology vendors and internal tech/IT stakeholders”, with MOPS organisations also twice as likely to rate vendor management capabilities twice as effective as their peers.
Greater efficiency in this area is typically achieved through the standardisation of processes, such as negotiation, capping price increases, and setting KPIs.
MOPS can stop the funnel leaking
Another area of high performance is lead generation. Again, this is largely a question of Marketing’s alignment with other teams, as MOPS helps to establish common metrics and technology with Sales.
MOPS companies are 47% more efficient at managing funnel leaks, preventing leads from getting lost or dropping out. In this way, MOPS can help to accurately predict and grow revenue.
In conclusion…
Not only can MOPS impact and improve efficiency in these three areas (and many more), but it moves these activities from being ad-hoc to ‘always on’, which can ultimately have a positive impact on wider business results.
In 2021 and beyond, it is likely that we will see marketing operations mature to become an essential part of many successful B2B businesses.
The most important point is MOP stopping or reducing funnel leaking because that is still a big issue in 2021.
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