4 reasons why it’s hard to prove impact in marketing ops

Measuring impact is a problem for marketing operations teams, according to a study of expert Marketo users earlier this year.

The main operational shortcoming, according to more than half of the respondents, is assessing effect, which is followed by resourcing people and aligning with objectives and strategy. To acquire their opinion on this matter, Perkuto + MERGE contacted some of the best minds in marketing operations.

Amy Goldfine, Darrell Alfonso, Brooke Bartos, Jessica Meyers, and Paul Ferrer participated in a webinar hosted by Perkuto + MERGE to discuss why measuring effect is a problem in marketing operations and how businesses may get over it.

1. Dirty data is a culprit

It will be difficult to demonstrate impact in marketing operations without data. However, if your data is inaccurate or out of the current, it frequently causes more harm than good. This is why all marketing operations teams must prioritize data cleaning. You should give this top priority because poor data quality costs businesses an average of $12.9 million annually.

Data literacy should be another area of attention after your data has been cleaned up.

2. Lack of alignment between sales and marketing

What aims does your marketing operations team have? What about impact? How would you characterize impact? Make sure your definitions are in line by going a step further. What, for instance, constitutes an MQL? A SQL, what about one?

Bartos suggests that you align your sales and marketing departments to deal with this problem. Growing alignment between the two teams will be facilitated through a biweekly top-of-funnel meeting where topics such as what is advancing the pipeline and what is on the shelf are discussed. It’s simpler to describe and align with the business effect when everyone is in agreement.

3. Resourcing is a reoccurring challenge

Resourcing — or its lack — is something that the majority of us in the marketing operations field are all too familiar with.

The majority of marketing operations teams, according to Amy Goldfine, struggle to pay the bills due to a lack of funding.

It costs time and money to thoroughly analyze your ROI, put new technology into use, and capture complete data analysis. Because of this, marketing operations teams lack these two resources.

If you have a small staff, Goldfine advises taking into account the opportunity cost. It’s okay if you don’t have the time for this.

In other words, don’t undervalue how challenging it could be to gather this information.

4. Lack of benchmark data

You can encounter even more difficulties once you’ve achieved alignment on the impact measurement method. This is due to the need for a benchmark after data analysis has started (such as past performance and industry benchmarks).

If you have a clothing line, it’s important to factor in the seasons. Comparing July and December wouldn’t be the best idea because your stats can be skewed in November and December due to holiday buying.

If your numbers are increasing, it’s imperative that you consider whether or not they are significant figures.

You’re getting closer to demonstrating effect in marketing operations by cleaning up your data, telling a story with your data, and achieving alignment on how you assess success.