Marketing Operations Essentials for Growing Businesses

1. Goals Without a Strategy Are Meaningless (and Vice Versa)

Setting goals without a larger strategy in place is a recipe for wasting time and effort. While it’s not impossible to do good work while lacking a wider strategic vision, this situation can often lead to confusion about priorities, duplicate tasks, inefficient use of time, or even contradictory efforts. So can having a strategy without setting measurable goals: how will you (and your team) know whether or not it’s working? 

If you want to set your marketing up for success, you need a marketing director who can define a strategic plan that breaks down into smaller targets and milestones. If you don’t have one or can’t afford to hire one full-time, consider hiring a fractional CMO. 

2. Optimization Should Be an Ongoing Effort

Maybe an ad, email, or campaign didn’t perform like you thought (or hoped) it would. In thinking about how to troubleshoot your marketing efforts, it’s easy to get into an all-or-nothing mindset: “Well, that didn’t work, so let’s not do that again.” But it’s worth remembering that perfect is the enemy of good, and often, a consistent effort over time can be more effective than even the most incredible single campaign.  

Instead of hyperfocusing on the ideal, build optimization into your marketing processes. A healthy marketing operation might look something like: plan, execute, measure, reflect, refine, repeat. No one simply stumbles upon success; it’s built over time on the foundation of continual improvement. 

If you don’t know where to start when it comes to putting these operations structures in place, we can help. Crisp has introduced clear processes and repeatable systems to countless marketing departments with our fractional marketing services – is yours next?

3. All Marketing Activities Are Connected to Outcomes

If you run a business, you already know that operational excellence isn’t about being busy; it’s about being productive. Even though marketing involves some creative processes, it’s no different from any other business function: every activity should have a purpose.

Successful marketing departments tend to be run by leaders who have an all-encompassing view of the team and their performance, and who understand the relationship between actions and outcomes. Having a talented marketing director at the helm will ensure your team is focusing on the activities that genuinely drive results.   

4. Create a Culture of Excellence

Of course, a great team isn’t just defined by what it does. It’s about who makes up the team, and how they work together. Departmental culture is where leadership and processes meet, and they work together to support the uniqueness and talent of the people on your team. 

Like an orchestra conductor, a strong marketing director can bring out the best in each individual and create a team that’s more than the sum of its parts. They will define and demonstrate their expectations, and encourage and celebrate excellence. 

Looking to improve your team’s culture? A Crisp fractional CMO can manage your team and contractors, or even provide team coaching sessions. 

5. Make the Most of Your Time (and Budget)

Now that you understand the relationship between the day-to-day of marketing and the bigger picture, it’s time to take some steps toward operational excellence. The good news? You don’t have to do it alone. And it doesn’t require somehow coming up with a 6-figure marketing director salary. 

Fractional marketing leadership allows you to hire a senior marketing leader on a part-time or hourly basis. It costs far less than a full-time hire, while still allowing you to reap the benefits of a marketing director or CMO who can drive your marketing operations and business forward. And if you already have a leader in place, a fractional CMO can coach or advise on any pieces of the picture they may be missing.