What is marketing automation technology? How does it work? Why has the adoption rate been so low historically?
These were just a few of the questions addressed during an AMA Boston (@amaboston) panel I participated on this week with Will Schnabel (@wschnabel) from Silverpop and Brian Kardon (@bkardon) from Eloqua focused on “The Future of Marketing Analytics and Automation Technologies.” As evidenced by the event’s strong attendance and the following Q&A session, it was a compelling topic. One that I’m sure deserves even more contemplation and debate.
One of the discussions I found most compelling was related to the role of marketing operations, and the importance of this function in ensuring a successful marketing automation implementation.
This has been a recurring theme of late. For example, IDC’s Gerry Murray recently discussed it during our “Keys to B2B Marketing Automation Success” webinar, citing that one of the most critical success factors to achieving marketing automation success is supporting the marketing operations role.
In terms of the AMA panel discussion, we all agreed that marketing automation implementation is not always an easy process. It requires thorough up-front planning and a well laid out strategy in order to achieve success.
It is for this reason the marketing operations role has become increasingly important. The function not only requires specific technical knowledge, but also an understanding of planning and forecasting, marketing performance measurement and executing best practices, all of which are critical to marketing automation’s success. Unfortunately, we have seen quite a few failed implementations due to organizations not having someone with the appropriate skill set or the required time to commit to the project.
Because this role is so specialized, there are a limited number of experienced marketing operations professionals in the industry right now. However, for those marketers seeking to hone their skill sets in a particular niche, this may be one to consider based on future demand. With the adoption rate of marketing automation poised to increase over the next few years, this function will become increasingly important over time.
In addition to the marketing operations discussion, the audience was particularly engaged on topics such as the relationship between marketing automation and privacy. We’ll tackle that topic in a future post.
Interested in sharing your insights on the future of marketing operations? Feel free to share your comments and opinions below.
