The difference between good and excellent is action: this is a common refrain from organizational development experts and technology and processes are among the key tools best-in-class Marketing organization use to take action and strive to ensure the work of Marketing achieves the expected outcomes successfully.

These tools are often within the responsibilities of the Marketing Operations (Marketing Ops) function. It is their job to select and employ the processes and technology (MarTech) needed to increase Marketing effectiveness and efficiency and use these capabilities to support effective planning, execution, and reporting across Marketing’s functional areas. Because of this critical role, Marketing Ops serves as the focal point for fostering a culture of performance excellence and enables running the “business” of Marketing.

Without question, MarTech plays a critical role in enabling Marketing Ops to drive operational excellence and Marketing to accomplish its tasks and mission. MarTech used to provide a significant competitive advantage to a company. However, with the explosion of MarTech, solid technology is cost-effective for companies of all sizes. The advantage now comes from how a company uses it.

Data from our Marketing Performance Management (MPM) Benchmark studies have consistently shown six essential areas in which best-in-class Marketing Ops successfully implement MarTech:

1. Implementation of a data-driven approach
2. Creation of a technology strategy and road map
3. Investments in change management, adoption, and training
4. Evaluation, improvement and innovation of processes before implementation
5. Leveraging of internal and external experts
6. Collaboration with internal resources and seeking expertise

How to Succeed With Your MarTech Deployment

MarTech encompasses all the techniques, skills, methods, and processes needed for achieving operational excellence. When properly deployed, MarTech facilitates Marketing’s ability to find, keep, and grow the value of customers while proving and improving its value.

Unfortunately, we often hear stories of failed Marketing technology projects; failures that reduce the credibility of Marketing Ops and Marketing as a whole.

The root cause of these failures can come from many areas. You can ensure your success with these four steps:

1. Determine the order in which you want to implement your technology solutions. This is an essential step because of the integration and implementation implications. Remember Marketing Automation is only one aspect within MarTech.
2. Clearly establish your evaluation criteria before the selection process. There are numerous technology options, and therefore suppliers, for every category, as illustrated by this MarTech landscape infographic.
3. Make sure you have a clean, well-defined process before you implement any tool. If you haven’t done so, map and document all your critical processes.
4. Create your communication, training, and change management plan. There are often multiple functional areas that will be affected by the implementation. You will want this plan to extend across all these functions, both inside and outside of Marketing.

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It can be challenging to get it all right, but the effort is critical. The success of your MarTech affects more than your Marketing Ops. If implementation is incorrect, or if the technology breaks, there is tremendous risk to your company’s reputation, trust, and revenue.