9 Actionable Ideas to Level Up Your Marketing Operations

Also - guess who is the new co-host of the Humans of Martech Podcast!

In this edition:

1. 9 Actionable Ideas to Level Up Your Marketing Operations

2. Some Exciting News: Darrell is Joining as the New Co-Host of the Humans of Martech Podcast!

3. POLL - What Should the Single Source of Truth be for Sales and Marketing Teams?

4. For Paid Subscribers: Key Thoughts for a Successful Career in Martech

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9 Actionable Ideas to Level Up Your Marketing Operations

For years, I believed that if I kept upgrading my technical skills, I’d keep leveling up in marketing operations. I thought mastering new tools and platforms was the key to success.

I was wrong.

The moment I changed my mindset, everything shifted. The results were quick and dramatic.

Now, marketing ops is evolving from “unsung heroes” to critical strategic partners in the business. And it’s not just about working harder—it’s about working smarter.

While this list isn’t comprehensive, here are 8 actionable ideas to level up your marketing operations:

1 - Free up your time to become more strategic by templating and making checklists for everything. Planning, briefs, intake, builds, reports, and slides - everything. You will also reduce errors.

2 - Get your campaign tracking on point to make sure revenue impact is accurate. Deploy and track your UTM parameters and keep everything organized with a solution like UTM.io.

3 - Upgrade your internal documentation by screen recording processes and tasks and upload to an internal wiki for new and existing team members.

4 - Create your marketing ops roadmap (list of projects and when they will be completed) and hold roadmap reviews with other teams for feedback and alignment.

5 - Discover and experiment with new tools and tech. Emily Kramer does an excellent new tech showcase, follow her and check out her stuff.

6 - Create 2 internal newsletters. A monthly newsletter for your stakeholders, a weekly update (low lift, high-level) for your boss and skip level.

7 - Periodically calculate, defend, and socialize your tech stack ROI. Doesn’t have to be perfect - make estimates on cost-reductions, time-savings, incremental revenue increases, campaign performance optimizations, data quality improvements and more.

8 - Create early warning reports and alerts in all core systems - MAP, CRM, CDP/DMP, CMS, ad platforms, analytics tools, event and webinar tools, integration platforms and more.

9 - Don’t forget to lean into your network! Seeing the success of others raises your own standards. Speaking of which, join us Wednesday for the last marketing ops town hall of the year at the December MOPs huddle.

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Announcement: Darrell is the New Co-Host of the Humans of Martech Podcast!

I’m thrilled to share that I’m joining the Humans of Martech podcast as a co-host alongside the incredible Phil Gamache.

I’ve been a big fan of this podcast since its inception because:

1️⃣ It features real, authentic conversations with martech practitioners and innovators.
2️⃣ The content is a perfect mix of deep insights and relatable, human storytelling.
3️⃣ The guests are brilliant thinkers from diverse industries and levels.

The pod is at 10K monthly listeners and growing fast, and I’m honored to join the ride as it skyrockets up.

Oh and we’re going to be on YouTube as well! Phil has already helped me upgrade my audio and video, and we’re ready for this next chapter of bringing the best ideas and insights to the world of marketing operations.

For content ideas, shoot me an email, for sponsorship opportunities, get in touch with Phil.

Darrell@humansofmartech.com
Phil@humansofmartech.com
Listen at Humans of Martech

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POLL: What Should the Single Source of Truth be for Sales and Marketing Teams?

Top Commentary from Social:

I obviously believe in the shift of source if truth from CRM to DW/CDP (it’s the big bet we are making at Inflection) but honestly more people said that than expected. Combined more than CRM. 4 years ago it wouldn’t be close at all. Where will it be in 4 years from now? - Dave Rigotti, Inflection.io

Depends on the sophistication of the MarTech stack. If all activity leads to CRM then it could potentially be CRM. This is typically a small company though. You quickly start to realize that the more sophisticated and complex the stack gets the less likely like it is that any one platform in the stack has the whole truth about anything. That’s why the data warehouse with custom reporting usually take its place (e.g. fivetran + snowflake + tableau). - Vinny Sosa

All three, but requires the right design. Data Warehouse ultimate source of truth that feeds CDP (composable, zero copy) and CRM. CDP then becomes activation source for audience targeting and marketing touches, and CRM source for sales to retrieve relevant information and capture interactions. CDP and CRM then feed data warehouse to keep enriching. - Ben Downing