{"id":23498,"date":"2022-12-14T20:21:10","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/14\/a-4-step-guide-to-creating-a-self-service-marketing-organization\/"},"modified":"2022-12-14T20:21:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:21:10","slug":"a-4-step-guide-to-creating-a-self-service-marketing-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/14\/a-4-step-guide-to-creating-a-self-service-marketing-organization\/","title":{"rendered":"A 4-step guide to creating a self-service marketing organization"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Marketing operations<\/a> teams have a big problem with staff burnout and turnover. Among the many reasons for this is the amount of time spent doing the same tasks over and over for different campaigns. Fortunately, there is a solution \u2014 one that resides entirely in MOps itself.<\/p>\n

And what is that solution?<\/p>\n

\u201cSelf-service, something that I really think is a huge missed opportunity for many marketing operations teams,\u201d said Justin Sharaf, vice president of marketing operations at data intelligence company Collibra. \u201cThe best way to be more productive yourself is to train others to do their own work and do their own work better. This is what I mean by self-service.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words, get the marketers up to speed on these basic things they need so they can take care of it for themselves. This increases efficiency for both marketers and marketing operations. For marketers there\u2019s less time spent waiting for someone else to do the thing they need to do their job. For MOps it means more time they can spend on strategic issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dig deeper: <\/em><\/strong>Strategic marketing operations leaders can earn a seat at the top table<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking to advance your career in marketing operations and get out of the execution and into the strategy,\u201d said Sharaf, speaking at The MarTech Conference<\/a>, \u201clooking at self-service options for your marketers can really get you on your way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are four things you need to focus on to \u201creally make self-service pop for your organization.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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  1. Documentation\u00a0<\/li>\n
  2. Enablement<\/li>\n
  3. Robust QA process\u00a0<\/li>\n
  4. Access management\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    1. Documentation<\/h2>\n

    Training is essential, but it isn\u2019t enough. No matter how good the training, many people won\u2019t come out of it completely ready to execute. Things will be forgotten or misremembered. As a result some steps don\u2019t get done or get done in the wrong order. Either way, the result is the same: It doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s why you have to document what you want them to do and how to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cYou can use Confluence or Wiki or SharePoint as an encyclopedia of knowledge for your marketers,\u201d said Sharaf. \u201cYou can teach them and train them on what they need to do to be able to utilize Marketo or Eloqua HubSpot themselves. [That way they\u2019re] using your team as a support mechanism rather than using your team as an execution mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n

    This is really important for marketing operations professionals trying to move from execution to strategy and advance their career. This is a piece that I think a lot of marketing operations professionals are able to take advantage of and many are not.<\/p>\n

    2. Enablement<\/h2>\n

    For Sharaf enablement means two things: reference and support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cEnablement to me is the most important thing that marketing operations can do for the marketing organization,\u201d said Sharaf. \u201cBecause the more you enable others, the more time that marketing operations professionals can focus on more strategic projects and advancing the goals of the marketing organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Documentation is one part of reference, the other is recordings of regular trainings. \u201cYou want to constantly be doing trainings and recordings so that new people in the organization are able to access the information they need for self-service solutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    Support means being available to answer users questions, but need to set boundaries around that. If you don\u2019t, you encourage them to contact you about anything at any time. That undermines their ability to \u201cstand on their own\u201d with marketing tools.<\/p>\n

    Dig deeper: <\/em><\/strong>Marketing operations talent is suffering burnout and turnover<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

    The solution is setting up regular office hours \u2014 like a professor does \u2014 when people can come and ask questions about things you\u2019ve previously trained them on. These can be weekly or daily. That depends on the size of your group and the needs of the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cShowing them how to do these things through regular trainings and then answering their questions through office hours is a great way to get them up to speed quickly and also keep them up to date with what you\u2019ve been up to more recently,\u201d Sharaf said.<\/p>\n

    3. The QA process<\/h2>\n

    \u201cOne thing marketing automation professionals miss when they\u2019re doing self-service is they don\u2019t have a great QA process and they don\u2019t have a great go-live process,\u201d he said. \u201cThey do all the training in the neighborhood and they just send the marketers on their way. Then the marketers make some mistakes and you think, \u2018Oh man, I don\u2019t want them to do it anymore because they\u2019re making mistakes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

    Don\u2019t do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Instead, create a robust QA process. Have the marketers do the self-service by building the email, landing page, program, etc. Then, have your team confirm it\u2019s ready before it goes live.<\/p>\n

    \u201cA robust QA process makes the marketers feel more comfortable, makes you feel more comfortable, and gives you a lot of time to focus on other things rather than building and rather than worrying about something going wrong after the fact,\u201d Sharaf said.<\/p>\n

    4. Access management\u00a0<\/h2>\n

    Access management is key to protecting both you and your users. Everybody needs access to the level of their skills and no further.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cYou don\u2019t want a beginner to be able to make edits to your database,\u201d he said. \u201c[Proper access management] limits the risk of mistakes being made and allows you to progress users through the access process. So, as they become better they get more access and more autonomy to be able to do more with the marketing automation platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Most marketing automation tools<\/a> let you create different roles for different users. Sharaf suggests having beginner, intermediate and expert roles. Not only does this limit access appropriately, it lets you know how well your training is going.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cIf we see too many people in the beginner role, it means that we\u2019re not doing our job training them,\u201d Sharaf said. \u201cIf we have too many in the expert role, it probably means that we\u2019re being a little too little, too flexible in allowing people to get through to that expert role.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Self-service takes work but it\u2019s a win\/win proposition. Marketers get more skills and you get more time to help the organization and yourself by working on bigger picture issues.<\/p>\n

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