Marketing Operations - tracking your ROMI

Marketing Operations is a relatively new term that has been tossed around over the last couple years. According to wikipedia, Marketing Operations (or Marketing Operations Management/MOM) is a vision of end to end marketing optimization, from planning and budgeting, through marketing content management, to global marketing execution and analysis. While that is correct, we would term marketing operations as simply your foundation in which you work to improve your marketing effectiveness.

When starting your marketing operations plan, here are some basic steps to get you started in marketing more effectively. 

1. Track Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) 
Any and all marketing tactics should be tracked in order to determine it's effectiveness. You can track your ROMI by use of a marketing dashboard with marketing automation programs; however if you do not have access to these programs, a simple spreadsheet will suffice. Tracking ROMI should (in the least) contain the following: cost of tactic, time for implementation (cost of internal team), leads generated, conversion rates for leads, proposal stage, and closed/won revenue. By keeping track of these numbers, you will quickly learn which tactics generate the most leads, and more importantly, which tactics generate the most sales. 


2. Develop Dashboards
Most CRM tools have dashboards that can be created in order to track your ongoing marketing and sales activities. In these dashboards you can track lead conversions (by sales reps), marketing leads generated, sales goals, and top marketing tactics as some examples. If you do not have access to dashboards within your CRM tool, these can also be created via spreadsheets (though this can often be time consuming). For more information or ideas on how to custom create company dashboards, contact us. 


3. Marketing Lead Conversion
One of the best ways to measure campaign effectiveness is through lead conversion rates. This should be tested by assigning leads to (at minimum) 3 different sales reps from the same marketing tactic. After a few weeks/months, tracking what leads convert, which sales reps are converting them, and how long the conversion rate takes, you will have not only an idea of how successful your marketing campaign was; but also which sales reps have the highest conversion rates, and what the average lead lifecycle time should be for that particular tactic. 


4. Lead Lifecycle Management
Tracking the lifecycle of your leads is a crucial part to marketing operations. When leads are not tracked, it is easy for them to slip through the cracks and potential sales could be lost. Some successful ways in tracking leads are to create a lead lifetime with your sales team that is attainable. Based on your marketing conversion rates, you will soon be able to determine what the average lead conversion rate should be. For example, if you are able to determine that a lead should convert within 90 days, than your lead lifetime should be 90 days. If after 90 days a lead does not convert, the lead then goes back into lead nurturing for marketing or gets assigned to a different sales rep. Sales should also have an average per contact touch ratio to determine how many times a prospect gets reached out to within the 90 day time period. 


5. Campaign Management
When starting your marketing operations plan, you should always make sure you manage your campaigns from start to finish. This encompasses setting up a marketing schedule and managing tactic launch dates, close dates, and multi-touch marketing efforts. This will help assure that your marketing efforts will stay within your monthly/quarterly budget and also drive consistent leads for your sales team. 

Good luck and let us know if you have any additional questions on how to start your marketing operations plan.