One of the most important roles of the marketing department is to generate leads. It usually does this by reviewing the performance of past lead generation campaigns and preparing new campaigns that take into account developments in the marketplace that have some bearing on lead generation. If a past campaign has met little success, the marketing department may decide to junk it altogether and start fresh.

The marketing operations manager works closely with a company's campaign managers to assist them in developing and executing lead generation campaigns, specifically, to make sure that the campaign is accurately targeting the correct market segments and that the necessary technology and infrastructure is being utilized to ensure that these campaigns hit the mark.

If you compare a lead generation campaign to fishing, it’s the marketing operations manager’s responsibility to make sure that the fisherman uses the right bait, the right fishing rod and that the fisherman launches his bait at the right place in the pond.

With the emergence of global markets and the increasing role of marketing in organizations, the function of marketing has become more complex. Hence, the rise of marketing operations as a means to ensure that marketing is conducted in a more efficient, accountable and transparent manner.

Many companies still do not have a formal marketing operations function. In these companies, the CMO usually acts as an informal marketing operations person. He takes on this role only when something goes wrong in the Marketing Department and the need for marketing operations rears its ugly head, which is unfortunate.

If you find that many marketing requirements are seeping through the cracks in your organization, perhaps it’s time to integrate marketing operations as a formal marketing tool.

But what exactly is marketing operations?

 

According to research studies, today's consumers are subjected to about 3,500 marketing messages a day. There is just such a broad range of addressable media available for marketers to send messages that they hope resonate with their target audience.

As a consumer, you have first-hand knowledge of this entire addressable media. When your favorite team is playing, you may get the score in real time on your Web-enabled cell phone. You can download songs to your MP3 player. You can even watch a podcast of your favorite TV show while waiting for the bus.

At the same time, consumers have so many products to choose from. For instance, just imagine the hundreds of different types of cookies, salad dressings, and even TV models out there.

For the Chief Marketing Officer, this often means that your front line staff are overworked and constantly challenged to make decisions based on an avalanche of marketing data that is getting harder and harder to understand.