The Marketing Ops Leader: Personal Branding, MOPs lessons, Podcast and more...
In this edition:
Personal Branding for Marketing Ops
Problem Solving with Partner Teams
Recent Marketing Ops Lessons
Career Progression for MOPs
Early Career Vs. Later Career
Marketing Ops Breakout Event - Sign Up for Free!
Marketing Ops Team Size
New Marketing and RevOps Podcast!
For Paid Subscribers: VIDEO - How to Manage Your Time in Marketing Ops
NOTE: LXA’s Essentials of Marketing Ops Course is back! Learn about this awesome marketing ops class here.
Personal Branding for Marketing Ops Pros
We talked about personal branding for marketing ops pros - here were the takeaways:
Ideally, great marketing ops work and results can stand on their own. But be careful not to assume that.
Consider this question when thinking about personal branding: If I were to lose my job tomorrow, would I have any leads on my next role?
Many are concerned about being overly promotional or self-centered. Think instead - what skills and knowledge can I teach others?
One way to build a network is to regularly seek new connections, set up coffee chats, and ask for advice.
Introverts tend to have a harder time with public personal branding. Try async avenues instead, such as writing articles or starting a podcast.
Personal branding can drive business, but not the way you think. It’s the second, third, and serendipitous connections you make through personal branding that really pay off.
Many are concerned about getting criticized for posting advice. The truth? Criticism comes in all fields. Focus on the people you will be helping, that’s what really matters.
5 Ideas to Problem-Solve With Partner Teams
Monthly Cross-Functional Committees Schedule regular sessions with different teams to solve shared problems. For example, pull together coworkers from Martech, Analytics, Finance, Ops, and others with the goal of democratizing data for users and championing more data-driven decisions.
Workshop Problems with Other Teams When you need others to help you, make sure to include them in the problem-solving session. Hold 60-minute sessions and use a whiteboard or tools like Miro; you’ll not only bring out great ideas, but you’ll set the stage to get critical buy-in from the beginning.
Hold a Marketing Ops Monthly Business Review (MBR) Call leaders and key stakeholders into a room once a month to read out progress on key projects, how you are helping the business, and top challenges that you would like input on solving. Not only will stakeholders be informed of your work, but many will step up to help unblock you.
Have a Recurring Catch Up with a Peer Community and/or Mentors Form a group or join an existing one (shoutout to Marketing Ops Town Hall!) that meets monthly to discuss the latest best practices and marketing operations strategies. One new tool, tip, or best practice can save you weeks or even months of problems at work.
Get feedback on your projects from coworkers OUTSIDE of marketing operations. Borrow ideas from product management, business operations, finance, and many others who have developed tried-and-true practices to solve problems that can be easily applied to marketing.
Lessons Learned
One thing I love about marketing operations is that there is always something new to learn.
Here are some new lessons I've learned over the past six months.
Marketing Ops Career Progression
What's the best path to MOPs career success? Deep technical platform knowledge or broad strategic understanding?
In the early stages of your career, I recommend focusing on in-demand technical skills, even focusing on a specific platform. My reasoning is based on job security, a crucial factor in today’s... well, 'tumultuous' job market. Mastering technical aspects can provide you with a solid foundation and open up various opportunities.
However, as your career progresses and reaches a subject matter expert level, I suggest a shift in focus. Dedicate more time to developing strategic skills while maintaining technical expertise (as much as possible 😅). This advice stems from my observation of the industry, where professionals often continue to emphasize technical skills, potentially limiting their career growth and impact (although there's nothing wrong with the individual contributor route).
Switching the focus to strategy can lead to a surge in career progression (if that's your goal) and the ability to drive more significant results.
I shared more context on episode 101 of Humans of Martech. (Spotify and Apple links).
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Poll of the Day:
Check out my podcast! This is a new podcast that I partnered with Jeff Ignacio to launch.
Darrell and Jeff explore the evolving dynamics in the tech and job markets, focusing on trends, challenges, and strategic shifts. Jeff and Darrell delve into Docusign's market performance, discussing potential reasons for its decline and comparing it with other tech giants. The conversation shifts to the job market's state, especially in marketing operations, highlighting the rise of freelancing and fractional work. They debate the sales process's fluidity, specifically if deals should backtrack. The episode concludes with insights on private equity's role in tech acquisitions, using Docusign's situation as a case study.
[0:00-5:00] Introduction and Discussion on LinkedIn Polls about Job Market Trends
[5:01-10:00] Deep Dive into Marketing Operations Job Market and Freelancing Trends
[10:01-15:00] Sales Operations Insights: Allowing Deals to Move Backwards
[15:01-20:00] Analysis of Docusign’s Market Performance and Private Equity Interest
[20:01-25:00] Future Implications for Tech Companies in the Face of Private Equity Acquisitions
[25:01-30:00] Closing Thoughts and Preview of Future Topics
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