The Three Ps of Marketing Operations

The Three Ps of Marketing Operations

Marketing performance measurement and management (MPM) remains among the top-three priorities for chief marketing officers and VPs of marketing, CEOs, COOs, and CFOs, according to the ninth annual MPM study from VisionEdge Marketing.

The findings reveal that Marketing as a function knows what it needs to do and has established mechanisms for MPM, but many organizations remain challenged by the lack of the following: systems and issues associated with data collection, key performance-management processes, well-defined metrics, and reporting systems.

Those challenges create a cascade effect that impedes Marketing from what it ought to do (effectiveness). So when Marketing instead focuses on what can be done, it may not be working on the things that would enable it to adequately contribute to the business, hence reducing marketing return on investment.

A solid MPM practice optimizes marketing activities, thereby making measurement more relevant and allocating marketing resources more appropriately.

One step that goes a long way toward enabling MPM is to operationalize Marketing. Creating a marketing-operations function ties analysis with performance management.

For Marketing to fully achieve MPM maturity—or even take it to the next level—the role of, and skills within, the marketing-operations function at a minimum needs to address three Ps: planning, process, and performance management.

Marketing Operations Defined

Adding dedicated resources to a marketing organization by creating a marketing-operations role is essential to improving effectiveness and efficiency. Marketing-operations personnel specialize in performance management, which includes data, analytics and measurement, financial management, strategic planning, marketing-resource management, and marketing-skills assessment and development.

As the role has evolved, it has come to encompass several responsibilities, including these:

1. Defining and managing systems and tools
2. Developing and implementing metrics, infrastructure, and business processes
3. Establishing and communicating best-practices
4. Managing the overall marketing budget and budgeting process
5. Identifying and deploying technology to support performance measurement and reporting

A marketing-operations function creates a competency center that is committed to supporting performance management.

It is the marketing-operations function that focuses on how Marketing should be supporting the business and developing and implementing the processes, systems, tools, and skills development necessary to link Marketing to business outcomes, track and report results, and suggest improvement.

Marketing operations builds the processes and manages the systems needed to implement MPM.

The State of Marketing Operations

Although many organizations recognize the importance of Marketing Operations, the 2010 annual MPM study found a decline in the number of people being assigned to the function.

For example, in the 2009 MPM study, 80% of respondents indicated a marketing-operations function consisting of a team or dedicated person. Only 66% of respondents in the 2010 study indicated that they had a marketing-operations function at all.

An additional 5% indicated they were creating a marketing-operations function. And a little more than one-third of respondents reported having no plans to create a separate marketing-operations role or seeing any need for the function.

The 2009 study found that the marketing-operations function was underused; that was a recurring theme in the 2010 study. A key takeaway: Marketing Operations is not being used to its full potential; it is not playing a broader, more strategic role by helping to examine and address how to best facilitate performance management.

The results from this year's study suggest that although improvements related to analytics have been made, efforts have concentrated more on budget management, market research, and data management than on performance measurement and management.
Moving forward, marketing organizations should build capabilities with their operational staff that better support MPM as a whole rather than simply focusing on analysis.

Getting Value From Marketing Operations

Research suggests that linking marketing objectives, programs, activities, and results to the business and creating and executing consistently on MPM practices remain challenges for most marketing organizations. That is to be expected, considering where most marketing organizations are with regard to their maturity in employing MPM.

Even though Marketing has improved its ability to manage metrics, its ability to manage performance remains elusive:

• Less than 15% of respondents now rate Marketing as being completely effective, compared with 30% in 2009.
• Most respondents (78%) indicated that they are only somewhat or marginally effective.
• The ineffective proportion increased slightly, from 8% in 2009 to just more than 10% in 2010.

That decline indicates that any gains in communicating value to the business that Marketing has been able to make are at risk.

A primary reason Marketing is not as effective and efficient as it could be is the lack of adequate metrics, which would improve marketing performance. Many executives and marketing professionals remain dissatisfied with data analytics, measurement, and process skills within the marketing discipline.

Why? Because, for many organizations, Marketing still lacks the systems, practices, and capabilities to measure what matters.

In 2009, 19% of marketers indicated that Marketing doesn't leverage MPM best-practices. Less than one-fifth of respondents were satisfied with their MPM practices.

In general, study participants are not satisfied with Marketing's processes and ability to set performance targets, develop metrics, and measure—the areas where a marketing-operations function can make a difference.

Putting the Three Ps Into Practice

The following three Ps—process, performance management, and planning—provide a foundation on which to build a marketing-operations function.

1. Process

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." Key to the definition is the reference to a set of processes.

A performance-driven marketing organization needs 10 essential processes:

1. Market intelligence and customer insight
2. Planning
3. Budgeting
4. Market asset development and management
5. Performance measurement, management, and reporting
6. Metrics and performance target-setting and benchmarking
7. Auditing
8. Data management and collection
9. Professional-development processes
10. Infrastructure management

The best-in-class marketing-operations functions should focus on developing, managing, and optimizing those processes to enable the marketing organization to improve performance.

2. Performance management

MPM is the process of analyzing and improving both the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing through a framework of metrics that monitors Marketing's contribution to business goals.

Although it is the responsibility of every marketing professional to engage in performance management, Marketing Operations plays a pivotal role.
It is the marketing-operations function that governs the process and provides the data, analysis, systems, and tools that enable Marketing to link its initiatives to the business and then monitor and report on performance through a marketing dashboard.

Properly developed and deployed dashboards give the performance-driven marketing organization an advantage over competitors that are still operating with little or no essential data, analytics, or performance standards.

3. Planning

The point of any marketing plan is to identify the initiatives, strategies, tactics, and activities that the marketing organization will deploy to help the organization succeed.

Therefore, a key part of the marketing planning process is to have a clear road map to demonstrate how Marketing is moving the needle for the organization. That requires clearly linking Marketing's objectives, strategies, programs, and tactics back to business outcomes.

Doing so requires the marketing-operations function to interface with the organization's finance, sales, service, product, and management players; that interaction is vital to capturing the business outcomes, clarifying which ones Marketing is expected to influence, and defining the corresponding key performance indicators (KPIs).

* * *
Marketing organizations that have dedicated resources for the marketing-operations function ensure that the rest of the marketing organization adopts and implements performance-management best-practices to positively affect their organization's business outcomes.

They enable Marketing to become a performance-driven team and provide the processes, performance management, and planning skills, tools, and systems that empower Marketing to demonstrate value and be more effective and efficient.
By creating or expanding the marketing-operations role and skill set to include performance-targeting skills, process and technology optimization, and strategic capabilities to drive change, Marketing can reach the next step in its performance-management journey.

The bottom line: Marketing Operations facilitates a much better return on marketing investments.

7 Time-Saving Productivity Tools

Here are 7 simple but effective productivity tools that can help
you save time and get things done:

1) Your Planner

Of all your productivity tools, your planner is one of the most
important ones, because it's something that you'll use every day to
get things done.

Productivity often comes down to having a clear system to
capture, organize, prioritize, plan and take action on all the
projects, tasks and activities that you need to get done each day.

A good planner can make a big difference in your results, but
even a simple blank notebook can do wonders if you're used to
keeping everything in your head.

If you want a proven software planner for Windows that can help
you get organized and take control of your time, you'll want to
check out Achieve Planner:

2) Dry Erase Calendar

You may also find it helpful to buy a large dry erase calendar
and hang it in a prominent location in your home or office.

A wall in your office, the kitchen or a frequently-traveled
hallway are good locations.

On this calendar, you can mark down important activities and
commitments for all members of the family.

For example, you can record your kids' activities, your own
meetings, doctor and dentist appointments, special functions,
etc. You can plan a week ahead of time, or even a whole month at
a time.

After each event has passed, erase it so you have a clear,
at-a-glance view of the things coming up next.

3) A Password Manager

If you use a web browser and need to keep track of passwords for
different websites (who doesn't?), then a password manager can be a
BIG time saver.

In case you are not familiar with this kind of software, it's a
tool that helps you keep track of your online passwords so you
don't have to remember them off the top of your head or use silly
little passwords that are easy to crack.

The best password managers even auto-fill the login forms for
you so you don't even have to type the passwords yourself.
A very popular and well-known password manager is RoboForm:

4) Reminders and Alarms

Many of the email, planning and organization software programs
available today offer great little settings that can remind you of
important activities.

You can schedule everything from birthday and anniversary
reminders to notes of encouragement for yourself!

Or, you can use a reminder service. There are also reminder
services out there that are absolutely free to use. You simply sign
up for a free account, set the dates and activities you want to be
reminded about, and they will send an email notification on the
date and time you specify.

This is a handy tool worth using if you need help remembering
activities and special occasions.

One popular service is www.MemoToMe.com; or try an internet
search for "reminder service."


5) "Text Replacement" Utilities

This is another little productivity tool that can save you a lot
of time and effort. It works great for common email replies,
signatures, quotes and lots of other boilerplate text that you may
need to type.

I recommend that you check out, Direct Access which reduces time
consuming, repetitive tasks through the use of abbreviations for
text replacement and application launching.


6) Outsourcing Services

If your daily schedule is packed full of chores and obligations
that you can't seem to pare down or delegate, consider outsourcing
some of them to individuals or companies that can help.

For example, if you find that you spend a lot of time nagging
your spouse to do the yard work (or you're forced to do it yourself
and it poses a real drain on your time and energy), call a few
local landscaping companies and check out their rates.

Do the same for housecleaning services, dog walkers, grocery
delivery services, and more.

You might think these services are too expensive, but you'd be
surprised at how inexpensive they CAN be.

Of course, you're going to have to decide if the costs are worth
the extra time you get by using these services. It all depends on
your budget and time commitments.

You might also consider a 'virtual assistant' to help you with
errands and other computer-related busywork.

7) Organizational Tools

If you spend a lot of time hunting for things you need because
you're swimming in a sea of clutter, consider investing in a few
good organizational systems and tools.

Once again, this probably will involve some extra expense at
first, but the extra organization and peace of mind may well be
worth it.

All of these tools may seem overly simple, but don't be
fooled! They can go a long way toward helping you save time,
be more productive and balance your life activities.

The Principle of the Objective

The Principle of the Objective

Learn from the Lessons of History

The concepts of military strategy have been studied and written about for more than 4,000 years, going back to the early works of General Sun-Tzu in China more than 2,000 years BC. These principles of strategy that have been developed and perfected over the centuries have direct applications and implications for strategic thinking, both personally and corporately.

Decide In Advance What You Want

The most important military principle is the Principle of the Objective. This principle requires that you decide in advance exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish. What exactly is your objective? In my experience, fully 80% of all problems in personal and corporate life come from a lack of clarity with regard to objectives and goals.

Clarity Is Critical

Clarity of objective precedes all other elements in strategic thinking. Here are some questions that you can use over and over again to focus and clarify your objectives. The first question is, "What am I trying to do?" The second question is, "How am I trying to do it?" The third question is, "What are my assumptions?" And the fourth question is, "What if my assumptions were wrong?"

Question Your Assumptions

Having the courage to ask these questions, and to question your assumptions, both spoken and unspoken, is a key mark of the superior person. Sometimes individuals avoid questioning their assumptions for fear that they will have to change their minds or do something other than what they started out to do. However, false assumptions lie at the root of almost every failure. The only way that you can root out these wrong assumptions is by carefully analyzing them and discussing them, and then by demanding proof or evidence that these assumptions are still valid.

Project Forward In Your Mind

Another method for clarifying your objectives is for you to project forward and look backward. In other words, imagine that you have already achieved the objective that you are working toward. Project yourself forward in your mind and then look back to the present day, to the present moment. What do you see? What changes could you make looking back from this imaginary perspective of hindsight? This is a key peak performance thinking technique.

Determine Why You Want It

The final part of clarifying your objectives revolves around your identifying the reasons why you want to achieve this objective in the first place. Why is it important? Is it still as important as when you started off? Is this objective more important than any other objective that you could be working on? It is essential that you be clear about the answers to these questions.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to apply the principle of the objective to your personal and business life:

First, take out a piece of paper and answer the question: "What am I trying to do?" What are your goals? What are your objectives? Why are you doing what you are doing in the first place? Is this the very best use of your time and energy?

Second, question your assumptions. What things are you assuming are true about yourself, the people around you and the situation? What if one of these assumptions turned out to be false? What changes would you have to make if you found that your most cherished assumptions were not based on reality, or were contradicted by facts?

Product Creation: Avoid this 5 mistakes to increase information product sales.

Have you ever created an information product- say a home study or membership program, an e-book or online workshop that didn’t sell? I have. Are you surprised?

You see when I first decided to add information products to my business years ago I made the same rookie mistakes I see many small and solo business owners making today. Yet abandoning the idea was not an option since creating information products is still the best way to sell your knowledge and expertise to a large audience and create multiple streams of income that don’t involve selling your time at an hourly rate.

I learned from my mistakes and with the help of some awesome mentors I ended up creating multiple home study and membership programs that are highly successful. And I’ve helped many clients do the same. So I’d like to share the mistakes you need to avoid if you don’t want to struggle like I did years ago.

Mistake #1: Deciding what people want without knowing what they want.

So many people have a wonderful idea and immediately get to work creating an information product based on that idea. They decide it’s what people need. The problem is that clients buy what they want, not what they need. Sometimes they don’t even know what they need. To discover what they really want a little simple keyword and competitor research can go a long way and save you a ton of time, frustration and lost sales.

Mistake #2: No proven marketing system

Even if you have the best home study course or e-book ever written, if no one knows about it you’ll have no sales and nothing could be more discouraging after all the hard work you put in.

You need to have all of your marketing materials written, your e-mail marketing and affiliate programs in place, and your traffic generation system automated as much as possible before you start selling. Once I developed these systems, selling my products became so much easier and regularly produces a steady stream of leads and sales.

Mistake #3 Not having a sales page that converts buyers

Imagine that you’ve finally finished your product, you’ve got your marketing system in place and you can see that you’re getting people to your sales page—but only a few are buying. Writing curiosity-building or benefit-laden headlines and powerful content that includes clear results buyers can expect from your product, legitimate testimonials and an ironclad guarantee will go a long way toward improving your sales conversion. Including video will make a big difference because you can show visitors how and why you’re passionate about your product.

Mistake #4 Not giving more value than the price implies

People tend to buy online when they really want a solution to a problem and they see your product as that solution. By adding more components to your product, such as worksheets, audios, videos or checklists and by adding bonuses the perceived value goes beyond the price you’re charging. And of course your price has to be right in terms of what the buyer perceives the value to be. If the price is perceived as too high you won’t get many sales. If it’s too low, your product may be perceived as inferior. Do some research to find the pricing on similar products to give you a benchmark.

Mistake #5 Not even starting because you’re afraid it’s too hard

You can create an information product in anywhere from one week to 60 days, tops. And it can produce ongoing sales for months or years. Plus it can build your expert status and be the foundation for other programs. In other words you can leverage the content you create and use it in other types of programs and services. So not creating one actually ends up being harder because it keeps you stuck selling your time hour by hour and it keeps you at survival level.

Are You Truly Excited About What You Sell

Are You Truly Excited About What You Sell

We all know that sales are really all about "Closing The Sale". There is not a salesperson alive who does not use a variety of techniques to help them be successful with customers. However, I believe passion is the most underrated and underutilised sales tool in our arsenal because it is too hard to measure and no one has found an effective way to teach it.

Passion is an effective sales tool because it isn't artificial and can't be faked for a long period of time. It is displayed in people who genuinely care and are willing to take the time to serve their clients in whatever manner is necessary.

Passion in sales is evident when the coach takes the time to listen to their prospect and attempts to really understand what it is they are looking for. It is displayed not only in the questions that are asked, but also in the tone of voice and body language that is used and the follow-up that is demonstrated after the sales call. Coaches who have passion are able to create long-term profitable relationships with their customers. They also routinely benefit from referrals by their existing clients and, on many occasions, these prospects come to them ready to buy.

Before you rush out to practice your body language and tone of voice in an attempt to find passion, let me add the secret ingredient: heart. Passion comes from a genuine belief of wanting to help the client in both good times and bad.

Passion can actually be measured in a couple of ways. Begin by asking yourself this simple question: "When the day is over and my clients are reflecting back on the people they've interacted with and the activities they've done, do they think of me in a positive light that contributed to them having a good day?" It is important to consider whether your clients truly believe you are helping improve their day and their business. Another assessment tool is found in analysing the number of referrals you get. Referrals are an accurate measurement of how your clients view you. If they honestly believe in you, they recommend you to others

Passion in sales is underrated. Therefore, your ability to genuinely care about your clients, to show an interest in them, and to serve them will determine your long-term business success.