Search Results

Smurfit Westrock , which operates in 40 countries with 100,000+ employees, is a global leader in sustainable paper and packaging solutions. The B2B company has grown over the years both organically and by acquisition. While Sojourn Solutions has been helping Smurfit Westrock transform its marketing operations since 2017, a primary focus of the last 3 years has been on lead management. We recently spoke with Hee Suk Ko , Director of Enterprise Marketing for Smurfit Westrock, about the company’s lead management challenges, and how they were tackled. What follows is an excerpted version of that conversation:  What were the biggest challenges Smurfit Westrock faced around lead management? Ko: Our primary challenge was limited visibility into lead progression through the funnel. Previously, leads would be handed off to sales without a unified process for follow-up or optimization of the lead-to-conversion process. While certain divisions and teams may have had more mature processes, holisitically, we lacked comprehensive visibility to share learnings and improve our lead quality, lead velocity and closed/won deals.  What was the impact of that previous lead management process on (1) the relationship between marketing and sales, and (2) the customer experience?  Ko: The lack of visibility resulted in inconsistency in both the relationship between marketing and sales and in the customer experience. Some sales team members were eager to receive leads regardless of quality, while others might disregard leads they deemed insufficient. This disparity created misalignment in the customer experience where marketing communications often failed to align with the actual buyer journey and sales interactions. What needed to change?  Ko: We needed to standardize our approach and definitions regarding lead quality and scoring across the organization. Despite having a unified CRM, its usage and data quality were inconsistent. We had to develop a formal framework for lead quality and scoring and streamline the process for sales to follow up on leads, ensuring we – both marketing and sales – could track whether leads were accepted or not as well as their dispositions.  How did you go about working with Sojourn to gain more visibility into the customer journey? Ko: We began by consolidating data from our CRM and marketing automation platform to create initial enterprise marketing attribution dashboards. We then focused on standardizing the definition of a marketing qualified lead (MQL) and tracking key metrics such as MQL acceptance rates, contact rates, and conversion opportunities with each business unit and corresponding sales leaders.  This process evolved into a more holistic approach, incorporating data from additional sources like our web analytics platform and internal financial systems to enrich our understanding of our prospects and customers.  Note from Sojourn:   Smurfit Westrock’s Eloqua-Salesforce integration was updated to match its current business needs (each campaign response would create a new Lead (MQL) in Salesforce.).  The work included changing the lead model, lead assignments, and adding new fields for Lead/Opportunity objects to the integration, and adjusting the sync'd campaign fields.  Overall, these changes meant giving Sales greater context into Leads, and more rich data being available for Marketing to use in segmentation and scoring.  How did these changes impact how marketing and sales worked together? Ko: The improved visibility has fostered a more collaborative approach between marketing and sales. We’re now more intentional and data-driven in our resource allocation for external activities such as trade shows and campaigns. Collectively, we have a better understanding of our customers’ buying journeys, which allows us to identify gaps, improve channel performance, and optimize our targeting. This improved visibility ultimately drives better orchestration, engagement, and conversion rates.  What changes were made with your technology infrastructure and data? Ko: We enhanced our existing CRM-marketing automation platform integration to provide sales with more comprehensive and up-to-date lead information relevant to their division and end market segments. We implemented a contact validation tool and a thorough data cleanup process. Additionally, we optimized our form fields to ensure sales had sufficient information to effectively evaluate and follow up on leads. While we have made great improvements, we recognize that this is an iterative process as we introduce new data sources, technologies, and teams.  Note from Sojourn:  We created dashboards to analyze marketing's influence on revenue, while allowing analysis of channel, buyer role, and buyer journey.  All analysis is split by division giving insight into regional/solution and product differences. Sojourn's recommendations have covered:  (1) optimization of targeting by buyer role in the buying group, (2) optimization of segmentation, including earlier identification of contacts and increasing use of automation to manage contacts across the buying group, (3) optimization of channels, including which channels to prioritize because of their impact on pipeline and revenue. What have been the main benefits of the transformation? Ko: Tangibly, we’ve achieved significant cost and time savings that will compound over time. We now have greater visibility into the buyer journey and marketing influence, all while tracking conversion rates by division to have more informed decision-making conversations with our sales leaders. This improved visibility has also built trust in our data as well as within marketing and sales relationships, both of which were previously lacking and/or inconsistent across teams.  Marketing and sales teams now engage in data-informed conversations about lead prioritization and lead allocation. There’s been a cultural shift, with a heightened appreciation for lead management and tracking capabilities. The ability to have a 360-degree view of customers has become increasingly valuable, especially as we continue our focus on first-party data and consider factors beyond just closing deals, such as payment behavior and cross-selling opportunities. Note from Sojourn: $250K cost savings in FY24 when compared to implementing a productized attribution tool. 85% reduction in event data processing time (7 days reduced to 24 hours), thus speeding up follow-up emails and sending more timely, relevant communications. Open and click through rates improved 14.78% and 17.80% respectively, showing a positive trend in email engagement. What capabilities has Sojourn contributed to Smurfit Westrock? Ko: Sojourn brings two critical areas of expertise: 1. technical knowledge of our tools, integrations, and backend systems and 2. a strategic partnership that understands the nuances of our organization. Our day-to-day partners at Sojourn have been able to adapt to our needs, provide best practices, and offer insights from their consultative experiences while recognizing our unique challenges and requirements at Smurfit Westrock to build authentic relationships internally with sales and externally with our customers.  Learn more about how Sojourn Solutions can help improve your   Marketing Operations  - or feel free to   reach out  to us today.

B2B marketers have seen AI integrated into their martech tools for a while now. Some of the most popular AI use cases include conversational chatbots, email send time optimization (STO), and email subject line optimization (SLO) to name just a few. These limited forms of AI have been deployed to work on specific tasks. They've pulled from limited sources of data in order to “learn,” such as using a specific company’s digital knowledge base to inform how a conversational chatbot interacts with customer queries. Generative AI: ChatGPT launches On November 30, 2022, ChatGPT  (a free tool) was launched with much fanfare and has garnered widespread attention since then for its potential to transform B2B marketing content creation, from blog posts to emails to landing pages. Many copywriters and creative marketing types have wondered whether the emergence of ChatGPT - also called “generative AI” because it learns/trains itself based on a larger scope of online source data - would mean the end of their jobs. Some human writers have criticized ChatGPT for simply parroting the vast scope of online content it “learns” from, but if deployed effectively this AI parrot can sound pretty good. However, no matter how “well-trained” ChatGPT becomes on the back of human-generated content, it should not be used without a human reviewing the resulting content because: The generated content can be inaccurate.  For instance, if the majority of the source data ChatGPT scours through says “the moon is made of cheese” or “2 + 2 = 5,” its generated content would reflect that collective “wisdom.” Remember that ChatGPT is a form of large-scale crowdsourcing of information, with all the risks such an approach entails.  The generated content can “sound wrong,”  in terms of your desired tone and brand voice. You’d need a human marketer to review tone. The generated content might be non-compliant  with privacy standards and other strategic considerations defined by the B2B brand’s content strategy and guidelines.  Typing a generic prompt into ChatGPT (“write a landing page about our new product”), generating unreviewed content, and then deploying said content for your B2B marketing needs can create more brand harm than good. Like any tool, ChatGPT is best deployed by a knowledgeable and experienced practitioner who has a clear strategic direction and understands how to use the tool. ChatGPT for B2B Marketing: 2 warnings As a general rule, you should approach ChatGPT the way former President Ronald Reagan dealt with the old Soviet Union: “trust, but verify.” Why? 1. Generated content can be wrong or biased.  B2B marketers should never forget the oldest maxim in the world of data: “garbage in, garbage out.” The garbage can show up as inaccurate information and biased opinions that ChatGPT pulls from (or crowdsources). You need to be skeptical and check whatever content ChatGPT generates for you. 2. The quality of your prompts impacts content quality.  Veteran marketing copywriter David McGuire used ChatGPT for the first time, as described in his blog post , and quickly discovered that the quality of the generated content was closely related to the quality of his queries/prompts. McGuire found that the process of using the AI tool was highly iterative. For example, when he wrote a generic prompt asking for a blog post on “email best practices in B2B marketing,” he didn’t like the resulting content’s generic, boring tone and its complete lack of links to other sources.  So McGuire had to keep iterating his prompts to include [the initial prompt] plus [“in a chatty tone”] and [include links to other sources]. Think of ChatGPT as a honing or navigation system that can continually bring you closer to your destination. McGuire notes that B2B marketers will need new skills, “like writing an AI prompt that delivers good results, and knowing where to spot the weaknesses in AI-generated copy . . . Writing still takes skill, thought, and – above all – empathy.”  5 tips on using ChatGPT for B2B marketing campaign content The tips detailed below should be used when deploying ChatGPT to create B2B marketing copy for email campaigns, landing pages, or other content formats. 1. Start with your “why.”  Without a strategic context in place, you’re just flailing around. Don’t turn to ChatGPT for help generating copy until you clearly understand: (1) your audience (2) where they are in the buying journey (3) what message(s) will move them forward (of course, an email campaign can be orchestrated in a sequence) and (4) the requirements/standards for each content format (a blog post is different from a quick email). Pro tip: You can even, ironically, use the tool to help sharpen and formalize your “why.” 2. Write a basic prompt.  This is just the beginning of an iterative/learning journey of sharpening your prompt and improving the generated content. You might refer to this useful list of 120 Best CHAT GPT Prompts for Marketers , which includes these email-related prompts: “Write a persuasive email to increase attendance at our upcoming event” “Create a reminder email for our upcoming event” “Generate a thank-you email to send to customers who attended our event” 3. Define a tone of voice and length.  You can typically improve the quality of the prompt by asking ChatGPT to adopt/use a particular tone of voice, such as "act as an email marketing copywriter” or “use a chatty, fun tone.” You can also specify your content’s length by limiting the number of characters you want generated.  4. Ask ChatGPT follow-up questions.  The generated content will generally sound bland and generic out of the gate. B2B buyers/audiences are generally not blown away by cliches and calls to action they’ve heard a million times before. So keep iterating your prompt, asking ChatGPT to give you better, more “human-sounding” alternatives that you can mix, match, and stitch together into something that meets your needs. 5. Learn as you go.  Don't just treat ChatGPT as a mindless automation tool, but learn from each interaction. Ask it why it has chosen particular approaches to help inform your own copywriting approach as well as how you deploy the tool in the future. Just as ChatGPT will continue to learn and improve as a tool, so must you as a user. To better illustrate the "ask it why" point, we entered our example prompt "Write a persuasive email to increase attendance at our upcoming event," and ChatGPT generated a well-written email. We then asked it why it included such a sense of urgency in the email- its response was correct (and very polite):    Do you have any additional tips on using ChapGPT to help create B2B marketing campaign content? Or any questions to this point that we didn't address in this post? Contact us  to share / learn more.

In the dynamic realm of marketing, where change is the only constant, navigating the landscape has become increasingly complex. As a seasoned marketing executive, you are no stranger to the challenges posed by rapidly evolving technologies and buyer behaviors. One area that often demands your attention is Marketing Technology, or Martech, and ensuring that it aligns seamlessly with your overarching business objectives. Martech alignment with customer journey One critical question to ponder is: Is your Martech stack effectively aligned with your customer journey? As the custodian of the company's marketing vision, it's imperative to ensure that every piece of technology in your arsenal plays a role in enhancing the customer experience. The journey from awareness to advocacy should be seamless, and your Martech stack needs to be a cohesive force, not a collection of disparate tools. Supporting marketing use cases Does your Martech have the right capabilities to support your diverse marketing use cases? In a rapidly changing marketing landscape, where channels and strategies evolve swiftly, having the right tools for the job is paramount. Your Martech should be versatile, capable of adapting to the unique demands of your various marketing initiatives, whether it's a social media campaign, a personalized email outreach, or an immersive digital experience. Integration across technologies Integration is key. Can your Martech integrate seamlessly with existing and new technologies? In an era where data is king, the ability of your Martech stack to communicate and share information with other business-critical systems is non-negotiable. Siloed data is a roadblock to effective decision-making. Your technology should be an integrated ecosystem, fostering collaboration and ensuring a unified view of your marketing efforts. Evaluating license costs License costs can be a significant pain point. Are you getting the best value for your investment? As a seasoned leader, you understand the importance of optimizing budgets. Evaluate the costs associated with your Martech stack and ensure that the functionalities align with your needs. It's not just about cutting costs but maximizing the ROI on your Martech investments. Scalability for growth Is your Martech scalable to meet the growing needs of your organization? Your role is not just about meeting today's objectives but envisioning the future. Your Martech should be scalable, adapting to the evolving scope of your marketing strategies as your company grows. What serves you well today should seamlessly transition into a tool that propels you towards tomorrow's goals. Pro tip: Scalability is indeed important, but before scaling it's critical that you prove the martech and its supportive elements are positioned to be sustainable - if not sustainable, your scaling efforts will more than likely fail. Many see this as a failure of the martech, and while this might be the case, we typically see this in approaches that don't consider sustainability before scaling. People and enablement Having the right Martech is crucial, but do you have the right people and enablement strategies in place? Your team needs to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to harness the full potential of your Martech stack. Training and development should be a continuous process, ensuring that your team remains at the forefront of industry trends and technological advancements.  In a landscape marked by change, it's not just about addressing these challenges but turning them into opportunities for growth and innovation. As you steer through the complexities of the digital age, consider partnering with a consultancy that understands your unique challenges and offers both strategic insights and hands-on expertise. Tailoring solutions to your unique profile Given your background, goals, and pain points, a Marketing Operations consultancy can serve as a strategic partner in your journey towards marketing success leveraging your martech stack. A focused approach, when aligned with your vision, can provide innovative solutions to complex challenges, leveraging their deep understanding of market trends and buyer behavior. When selecting a consulting service, focus on their ability to align marketing operations strategies with your business objectives. Look for evidence of expertise through success stories and a consulting approach that resonates with your company's vision and values. Emphasize a partnership that not only solves problems but contributes to your strategic marketing success. The challenges you face in the realm of Martech are not obstacles but opportunities to evolve and excel. By ensuring alignment, embracing integration, optimizing costs, and fostering scalability, you pave the way for a marketing ecosystem that not only meets today's demands but anticipates and shapes the future. Questions? Let's talk! Contact us  or email us directly  today to get a conversation started. Update: In late 2023, Thomson Reuters (TR) and Sojourn Solutions (Sojourn) began an ambitious project to optimize the Thomson Reuters marketing technology stack, seeking to create an effective, efficient, and centralized operating model for long-term stack management. The project concluded in 2024 with great success - learn more: A StackTastic Project: How Thomson Reuters Transformed Its Martech Management and Performance.

In today’s digital-first world, the landscape of marketing is constantly evolving. Businesses are increasingly relying on a diverse array of marketing technologies to streamline their operations, engage customers, and drive growth. As the number of tools in a company's MarTech stack grows, so too does the complexity of managing these tools effectively. This is where a marketing technology audit, or MarTech audit, becomes crucial. Basically put, a MarTech audit is a comprehensive evaluation of all the marketing technologies, platforms, and tools that a company uses. The purpose of this audit is to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and alignment of these tools with the company’s overall business objectives. Here we’ll explore what a marketing technology audit entails, why it’s important, and how it can benefit your business. Understanding the Marketing Technology Stack Before diving into what a MarTech audit is in detail, it’s essential to understand what constitutes a marketing technology stack. A MarTech stack refers to the collection of software, platforms, and tools that marketers use to execute, manage, and analyze marketing activities. This can include tools for email marketing, social media management, content management systems (CMS), customer relationship management (CRM), analytics, advertising platforms, and more. Over time, as companies grow and their marketing needs evolve, the MarTech stack can become unwieldy, with redundant tools, outdated platforms, and underutilized software. This is where a MarTech audit comes in. What is a Marketing Technology Audit? A marketing technology audit is a systematic process of evaluating and analyzing the MarTech stack to ensure that it is optimized, efficient, and aligned with the company’s strategic goals. The audit involves taking inventory of all marketing tools, assessing their performance, evaluating integration and data flow, identifying redundancies, and uncovering opportunities for improvement. Key Objectives of a MarTech Audit The main objectives of a MarTech audit include: Inventory and Categorization: Identifying and categorizing all the tools within the MarTech stack, including their functions, users, and costs. Performance Evaluation: Assessing the effectiveness of each tool in achieving marketing goals, including its impact on ROI, customer engagement, and campaign performance. Integration Assessment: Evaluating how well the tools integrate with each other and with other business systems, such as CRM or ERP platforms. Cost Analysis: Analyzing the costs associated with each tool, including licensing fees, subscriptions, and hidden costs, and comparing these costs to the value delivered. Data Flow and Management: Reviewing how data is managed across the stack, including data accuracy, consistency, and accessibility. Compliance and Security Review: Ensuring that the tools comply with relevant data privacy regulations and that security measures are in place to protect sensitive information. Strategic Alignment: Determining whether the MarTech stack aligns with the company’s broader business objectives and marketing strategy.   Why is a Marketing Technology Audit Important? Conducting a MarTech audit is essential for several reasons, all of which contribute to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of a company’s marketing efforts: Optimizing Tool Utilization One of the most significant benefits of a MarTech audit is the ability to optimize the use of existing tools. Often, companies invest in sophisticated platforms with numerous features, but only use a fraction of their capabilities. A MarTech audit can identify underutilized tools, enabling the company to either maximize their use or switch to more cost-effective alternatives. This optimization can lead to better resource allocation and improved marketing performance. Reducing Redundancies and Costs Over time, as companies add more tools to their MarTech stack, redundancies can occur. Multiple tools may be performing the same or similar functions, leading to wasted resources. A MarTech audit helps identify these redundancies, allowing the company to consolidate tools and reduce unnecessary expenses. This not only saves money but also simplifies the management of the technology stack. Enhancing Data Integration and Flow Data silos—where information is isolated within different systems—are a common challenge in many organizations. These silos can lead to inefficiencies, inaccuracies, and missed opportunities. A MarTech audit assesses how well the tools within the stack integrate and whether data flows seamlessly between them. By improving data integration and flow, companies can gain a more comprehensive view of their customers, make better-informed decisions, and deliver more personalized marketing experiences. Ensuring Compliance and Security With increasing data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, ensuring compliance is more critical than ever. A MarTech audit reviews whether the tools in use comply with relevant regulations and whether adequate security measures are in place. This helps protect the company from potential legal risks and ensures that customer data is handled responsibly. Aligning Technology with Business Goals Marketing technology should support and enhance a company’s strategic objectives. However, as new tools are added, it’s easy for the MarTech stack to become misaligned with these goals. A MarTech audit ensures that all tools are working towards the same objectives, whether it’s increasing customer engagement, improving lead generation, or enhancing brand awareness. By aligning technology with business goals, companies can ensure that their marketing efforts are both effective and efficient. Facilitating Continuous Improvement The digital landscape is constantly changing, and so too are the needs of businesses. A MarTech audit is not just a one-time activity but part of a continuous improvement process. Regular audits help companies stay up to date with the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. This continuous evaluation and adjustment ensure that the MarTech stack remains relevant, efficient, and capable of meeting the company’s evolving needs.     The Value of a MarTech Audit A marketing technology audit is an essential process for any business that relies on digital marketing tools to drive growth and engage customers. By evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency, and alignment of the MarTech stack, companies can optimize their resources, reduce costs, improve data management, and ensure that their marketing efforts are aligned with their strategic goals. In an increasingly competitive digital landscape, the value of a well-conducted MarTech audit cannot be overstated. It’s an investment in the future success of your marketing efforts, providing the insights and direction needed to stay ahead of the curve and achieve lasting business success. Schedule your MarTech stack review with us today.

Thomson Reuters  is a global AI and technology company that provides trusted data and information/business intelligence to professionals across 3 different industries: (1) Legal; (2) Tax and Accounting; and (3) News & Media. In business since 1851, the company currently has over 25,000 employees worldwide. In 2023, Thomson Reuters (TR) and Sojourn Solutions (Sojourn) began an ambitious project to optimize the Thomson Reuters marketing technology stack, seeking to create an effective, efficient, and centralized operating model for long-term stack management.  The roots of the change go back to 2021, when TR recognized the need to build a consolidated marketing operations group. Prior to that, TR’s marketing operations were embedded within each of its different business units, which led to a fragmented martech stack that nobody had centralized management and control over.  A Difficult-to-Manage Martech Stack   The legacy TR martech ecosystem was complex, vast, and difficult to manage and/or map. It was made up of 125 + apps and platforms, and was managed via 4 databases across multiple teams, preventing visibility into TR’s complete stack and stack investment.  TR had different silos of people, processes, and martech tools across its three main business units, with each having martech specialists embedded within them. TR’s different teams were using its primary marketing automation platform (MAP) in very different ways and for different use cases. Besides challenges around stack scale and visibility, other major martech stack challenges included: 1. Lack of detailed, centralized reporting,  especially re: data flows, integrations, and technology performance, meaning that gaining necessary visibility into stack capabilities and costs was difficult-to-near-impossible. 2. Limited visibility into stack-related costs.  A fragmented tech stack made it difficult for TR to determine ROI and track software costs as business units funded platforms from their own (separate) budgets. 3. Manual updates of the ecosystem were time-consuming and prone to errors,  causing problems around data quality that often went unrecognized/unreported for long periods of time, negatively impacting stack performance and costs.  4. Lack of comprehensive integration maps for the entire martech ecosystem,  making it harder to recommend new martech because redundancies and/or gaps in capabilities and tools might go unrecognized. Defining Success TR knew it had to eliminate its siloes and different reporting structures in order to get on the same page. Related to that, it had to have standardized tools that would also be flexible enough to accommodate differing needs and use cases.  After evaluating the challenges, TR and Sojourn developed some key goals for the transformation project. including: 1. A Need to Gain Greater Visibility:  TR wanted to construct an accessible, shared directory of martech capabilities, applications, integrations, spend and renewals to support stakeholders across the Thomson Reuters organization. The objective here was to introduce transparency and efficiency into a process of martech acquisition, implementation, and management that had previously been fragmented. 2. A Need to Streamline its Stack:  TR wanted to better assess platform performance and leverage those assessments to streamline and optimize the number of martech products/tools it was using, thus helping to better manage costs and drive stack capabilities. 3. A Need to Develop New Approaches to Workflows and Resource Allocations:  TR wanted to find a new way to objectively assess the martech it was using, and rethink internal workflows and resource allocations to optimize its stack. Defining the Solution Sojourn collaborated with the TR team to design and implement a solution to the challenges above. The major components of that solution were: Deploying an organizing platform.  TR and Sojourn decided to deploy CabinetM , a user friendly, automated martech management platform. In implementing the solution, Sojourn supplied strategic support and its expertise around marketing operations in order to develop a Platform Performance Scorecard and martech governance recommendations (more specifics on those below). The CabinetM platform organized TR’s stack and apps/tools in one place, increased organizational visibility, and documented their entire martech ecosystem, as well as clearly defining and delineating technology owners, integrations, and contracts. These assets had previously been spread out across multiple spreadsheets and in different databases.  Creating cross-functional alignment around the stack.  To make the newly-organized structure work effectively, TR collaborated across multiple departments and functions to track, optimize, and report on TR’s martech infrastructure, expense, renewals, adoption, and strategy.  Gaining visibility and streamlining its martech stack.  In the end, this collaborative process pulled together martech tools (CabinetM), people, and new processes/workflows. TR gained the ability to strategically streamline its martech, while developing new methods and tools to understand and track tech capability/functionality. Working across its 125+ technologies, and 5+ stakeholders, TR was able to create a one-stop shop for their martech assets within CabinetM. They gained full visibility across the organization to support better decision-making around martech stack performance and investments. Results of the Project 1. TR built a visual directory of martech capabilities, applications, integrations, spend and renewals.  This martech directory listed over 175 martech platforms that were either active, under consideration, or retired. In addition, TR:  Established its stack mechanics, architecture and martech landscape layer categories. Determined and established baseline product attributes and incorporated pertinent information. Captured integration connections and details. Captured and created details as they’re forming to capture its capability models. Built a historical record of all platforms and activities regardless of status for future use. 2. TR shifted to a capability model.  TR moved from managing its martech tools under the umbrella of its separate business units to a model that now assigns managers based on the capabilities that a particular platform might support. For example, it has a manager who supports the Web Operations team and the tools they need. TR has another manager who supports the demand generation team and the tools they need. So in theory, two people are managing one platform, but they're managing it to drive optimal value for the stakeholders who use it and for the specific use cases of those stakeholders.  3. TR and Sojourn developed a Platform Performance Scorecard  to enable TR’s central team to support their technology review process across all its platforms.  The Performance Scorecard described the top business use cases each tool addressed, as well as ratings for how well the tool was actually addressing those specific use cases. The Scorecard also provides relevant information about the vendor, levels of user support, contract/renewal information, as well as the vendor’s future roadmap for the tool/platform.  The Platform Performance Scorecard helps fuel better, more informed discussions within TR when decisions need to be made about its  martech stack. 4. Sojourn recommended an improved Martech Request structure  for TR including a consolidated, automated new martech request / renewal request process using Workfront, an existing tool in their stack. The existing request process was scattered across teams and sources, and Sojourn saw an opportunity to improve it using an existing tool to centralize the net new requests, pilots, and renewals as applicable. In addition to workflow effectiveness, a centralized model provides better reporting and actionable insights for improved decision-making.  Reaction from Thomson Reuters Here’s some final words on the project from Thomson Reuters: The solutions and the new, consolidated structure we’ve built is going to allow us to expand, grow, and keep infusing other areas like AI, where Thomson Reuters is currently putting lots of emphasis. – Kim Kraetzner, Thomson Reuters’ Marketing Operations & Technology Manager. It's great to now see our Martech SMEs having the time to concept TR's “tomorrow position.” Because of our streamlined management model and process, they can focus on higher value activities – and we can pivot a lot easier than we used to. – Carol Mendenhall, Thomson Reuters’ Senior Director of Marketing Operations P.S. The Project described above has been submitted as a presentation topic at The Martech Weekly’s World Martech Forum  this August in San Francisco. (Fingers-crossed!) In addition, the Project was submitted for a The Stackies 2024: Marketing Tech Stack Awards . See TR’s submission here , and explore TR’s martech stack  yourself!  Last, but certainly not least, TR’s Carol Mendenhall  shared her expertise at the 2024 Martech Conference  in a session titled “How MOps should prepare their stacks and teams for customer experience-based AI. Watch it on-demand now . Learn more  about how Sojourn Solutions can help take your Marketing Operations team martech management and performance to the next level. Questions? Contact us  today.

The biannual (twice per year) CMO Survey has just been released, and it offers some eye-opening revelations about the state of marketing operations. Almost 300 marketing leaders participated in the survey, and the topline findings are not good. In fact, the surveyed CMOs say that: Only 56% of the martech tools they’ve purchased are being used at all , Only 34% of martech tools are meeting expectations in terms of delivering on anticipated results, and The biggest challenge cited by the CMOs, related to the two data points above, is "integrating marketing technologies across other data systems in the organization." That last problem around integration, as every MOPs professional knows, is a foundational one. Most marketing orgs are currently exploring how to leverage artificial intelligence in order to drive marketing ROI. But a lack of martech and data integration has a huge negative impact on any marketing organization’s ability to access the benefits of AI, now and/or in the future (more on this key challenge below). After we’ve fully explained the key findings of the CMO Survey, we’ll offer a few recommendations for how you can drive improvement in how you optimize your martech stack. CMO Survey: 6 Key Findings Martech investments continue to increase Most companies plan to increase their martech budget annually, from the current 19% of the marketing budget to 23.5% next year. Martech investments are expected to be 31% of total marketing budgets in 5 years, so the “spend trend” is clearly upward.  But as martech budgets continue to increase, there’s growing pressure on CMOs to deliver a seamless integration of newly-purchased martech tools in order to drive a sufficient return on their martech investments. 2. AI is making an impact The marketing leaders surveyed say that AI is beginning to drive significant impacts. In fact, they say AI has:  Improved sales productivity by an average of 5.1%, Enhanced customer satisfaction by an average of 6.1%, and Decreased marketing overhead costs by an average of 7.0%. Impressive results, yes, but we’ve only just begun to integrate AI into marketing workflows. AI must be built on top of a firm foundation of (1) integrated martech tools and (2) martech tools that share data with each other and across the entire organization. 3. A disconnect between martech purchases and organizational goals Martech purchases have little or no value unless they’re supported by strategic goals and connected to specific use cases (such as enhancement of customer experience). When purchases are not clearly aligned with business goals and specific use cases, organizations are tossing their money out the window.  The CMO Survey shows that one of the root causes of martech underutilization is a lack of connection to any strategic focus on specific use cases. “Buying stuff” doesn’t necessarily drive ROI. 4. Martech tools are going woefully underutilized CMOs may be purchasing more martech, but a failure to maximize their value is the rule, not the exception. About two-thirds (66%) of purchased martech tools are not delivering on expectations. When CMOs were asked “how well is your company performing on each of the following marketing technology activities?,” on a scale from 1 (poorly) to 7 (very well), CMOs responded as follows: “Designing the broad architecture of our marketing technology systems” rated 4.4. So CMOs seem to be just bolting on parts to a machine that’s disjointed and increasingly difficult to manage. “Generating ROI from marketing technologies” and “Developing capabilities for using marketing technologies” both rated 4.5. So CMOs understand that they’re not maximizing martech value, not enabling their people to use it, and not driving sufficient ROI. “Integrating marketing technologies into our customer funnel,” “Leveraging data for tactical decision making” and “Leveraging data for strategic decision making” all rated 4.6. Again, failures around integration lead to a fragmented funnel and an inability to implement AI. 5. More focus placed on top of the funnel, and not enough on full funnel The CMO survey clearly shows that the main focus of martech tools and investments are on lead generation (top-of-funnel) activities, while bottom-of-funnel (e.g., customer acquisition and nurturing) and driving long-term customer value are viewed as secondary concerns.  Meanwhile, marketing leaders and marketers know – at least in theory – that all steps in the buying journey matter to customers, not just the moment of closing. Therefore, connecting your current tech stack to all the stages of the customer journey is foundational.  Focusing on lead gen and neglecting the rest of the funnel journey is like having an incomplete map to where you’re headed – it’s a great way to get lost as you seek to optimize your martech stack. 6. Martech effectiveness metrics misaligned with full funnel focus Related to the point above, marketing organizations are also using internal metrics that are skewed towards the top-of-the-funnel and fail to map the entire buying journey. The most common metrics cited by CMOs to measure martech effectiveness are lead generation, sales, and lead conversion, which are all (of course) relevant indicators. But the three least common metrics cited by the CMOs are also important ones: lifetime customer value, customer loyalty, and pipeline acceleration. 5 Recommendation for Optimizing Martech Every MOPS and marketing organization is different, and confronts a different set of problems. With that said, we suspect that every organization struggles to optimize its martech. As such, and based on the challenges described above, we’d like to offer you a few recommendations for improvement: Audit your martech stack regularly. You can’t improve what you don’t monitor and measure. We at Sojourn Solutions know from long experience that some marketing organizations don’t even know what martech tools they’ve purchased, let alone understand: (1) the strategic focus of each purchase and (2) the specific use cases the purchases were/are intended to support. Start by auditing what you have, and then map each listed martech tool to a strategic focus and its specific use cases. Dump whatever isn’t aligned to a marketing strategy or use case. Once you’ve mapped each tool to a strategic focus and/or specific use case, you can begin evaluating what tools are actually delivering business value and which ones are just taking up space and wasting budget. If a martech tool isn’t earning its keep, move on from it as soon as you can. Evaluate the level of integration within your martech stack and across all your systems. This is a big one, because tools that aren’t connected and sharing data with each other make your stack impossible to optimize. That’s especially true when it comes to a present and future featuring AI. Map your existing integrations and identify areas where you need to integrate. Evaluate your marketing metrics, especially those around martech efficiency. The CMO Survey showed an overemphasis on top-of-the-funnel metrics like lead generation and a relative neglect of metrics related to the full customer life cycle.  Customers expect you to add value at every step of the customer journey. The marketers who focus on the entire funnel are the ones who succeed in good times and tough times. Get outside help, if and when needed. If you don’t have the internal resources to implement the first four recommendations above, consider bringing in outside expertise to help. You can read the full CMO Survey for Spring 2024 (free). If you’d like to improve your marketing operations and maximize the ROI of your martech investments, Sojourn Solutions can help.  Reach out to us today!

Undertaking a marketing technology (MarTech) audit can offer several significant advantages for a large company. Key benefits include:   Enhanced Efficiency and Cost Savings Identification of Redundancies: A MarTech audit can reveal overlapping tools and platforms. By eliminating redundancies, companies can reduce costs associated with licensing and maintenance. Optimization of Usage: Audits help identify underutilized tools. Companies can either eliminate these tools or optimize their use, ensuring they get the best return on investment (ROI). Streamlined Processes: With a clear understanding of the current MarTech stack, companies can streamline processes, reducing complexity and improving overall efficiency. Improved Integration and Data Management Better Integration: Audits help assess how well different tools and platforms integrate with each other. Improved integration leads to better data flow, reduced data silos, and more cohesive marketing operations. Data Quality and Management: A thorough audit highlights issues with data collection, storage, and usage. This allows the company to address data quality issues, ensuring that marketing decisions are based on accurate, up-to-date information. Increased ROI from Marketing Efforts Alignment with Business Goals: By understanding the effectiveness of the current MarTech stack, companies can better align their tools with strategic business goals, leading to more targeted and effective marketing efforts. Improved Campaign Performance: With a clear understanding of the tools available and how they are being used, companies can refine their campaigns, leading to better performance metrics such as higher conversion rates and improved customer engagement. Enhanced Decision-Making and Strategic Planning Informed Decision-Making: A MarTech audit provides detailed insights into the performance and capabilities of existing tools. This information is critical for making informed decisions about future investments in technology. Strategic Planning: The audit helps identify gaps in the current technology stack, enabling the company to plan strategically for future MarTech investments that align with long-term goals. Compliance and Risk Management Regulatory Compliance: A MarTech audit can identify potential compliance issues related to data privacy and security, helping the company avoid legal and financial penalties. Risk Mitigation: By identifying outdated or unsupported technologies, companies can mitigate risks related to security breaches or system failures. Enhanced Customer Experience Personalization: By optimizing the MarTech stack, companies can deliver more personalized and relevant customer experiences. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Omnichannel Consistency: An audit helps ensure that the marketing tools in use support consistent messaging and customer experiences across all channels. Competitive Advantage Staying Ahead of Trends: Regular audits keep the company informed about new technologies and trends in the MarTech landscape, allowing them to adopt innovations before competitors. Differentiation: A well-optimized MarTech stack can give the company a competitive edge by enabling more effective and innovative marketing strategies. In summary, a marketing technology audit enables large companies to optimize their MarTech stack, reduce costs, improve efficiency, enhance decision-making, and ultimately, drive better marketing outcomes that are closely aligned with their business goals.

In an era where marketing technology solutions are rapidly expanding, it’s crucial for companies to understand and optimize their tech stack. As businesses strive for enhanced customer engagement, improved campaign effectiveness, and maximized ROI, maintaining a streamlined martech stack becomes essential. However, achieving this clarity and alignment often demands a thorough martech audit. For many businesses, the decision comes down to whether to conduct this audit internally or outsource to a specialized consultancy. While an in-house approach may seem cost-effective, partnering with a consultancy firm often brings unparalleled benefits that can make a substantial difference in outcome. Let’s explore why businesses should consider working with a consultancy to perform their martech audit, examining the value that they bring in expertise, objectivity, scalability, and long-term ROI.   Expertise and Specialization A primary advantage of engaging a consultancy for a martech audit is the depth and breadth of expertise they offer. With the marketing technology landscape evolving at breakneck speed, staying current on new solutions, integrations, and best practices can be a full-time endeavor. Consultants bring specialized knowledge that in-house teams lack, such as insights into emerging platforms, strategic alignment techniques, and data privacy practices. Current Industry Knowledge:  Agencies and consultants live and breathe technology and are continuously updating their skills and knowledge bases to stay ahead. This enables them to recommend the most relevant, future-proof solutions tailored to specific business needs. By contrast, in-house teams often have competing priorities, making it difficult to stay current with every trend or technology shift. Access to Specialized Tools:  Consultants typically have access to proprietary tools and subscription-based services that are rarely used in-house. These tools often provide deeper insights into data analysis, competitive benchmarking, and performance metrics, which might be cost-prohibitive for an organization to acquire on its own. Expertise in Complex Integrations:  Many martech stacks are complex, with multiple integrations that require specific expertise to optimize. Consultants have likely managed dozens of similar tech stacks across different industries and are skilled at handling these challenges, identifying redundancies, and ensuring all platforms work seamlessly together.   Objectivity and Fresh Perspective Internal teams, despite their strengths, can sometimes be limited by biases or organizational habits. A consultancy, as an external entity, offers a fresh perspective and can analyze the martech stack without any prior assumptions or internal politics. This objectivity leads to more accurate recommendations and realistic assessments. Avoiding In-House Biases:  Internal teams might inadvertently overvalue certain platforms simply because they are comfortable with them or have invested significant time in their adoption. Consultants bring an outsider’s perspective, focusing solely on the efficacy and value of each tool and disregarding any sunk cost biases. Root-Cause Analysis:  Consultancies can often identify root causes of inefficiencies more quickly than internal teams due to their objective stance. For example, a tool’s low adoption might not be due to user error but rather a poor fit for the organization’s specific needs. A consultant can pinpoint these gaps and suggest realistic improvements, maximizing the impact of each tool. Uncovering Opportunities for Streamlining:  Consultants can objectively assess which tools are underutilized, redundant, or misaligned with business goals. In doing so, they can provide actionable recommendations to streamline the stack, cut costs, and improve overall efficiency.   Scalability and Efficient Resource Allocation Martech audits require considerable resources, from expertise in specific technologies to the time needed to assess, analyze, and provide actionable recommendations. For organizations with limited bandwidth, conducting a comprehensive martech audit in-house can strain resources and divert focus from core objectives. Resource Availability and Focus:  A consultancies dedicated team can complete an audit faster and more thoroughly, as they do not face the same internal time constraints or competing priorities. By entrusting the audit to a consultant, internal teams can focus on driving business results rather than getting caught up in a time-consuming audit process. Flexible and Scalable Solutions:  Consultancies can adapt to the scope and complexity of the audit, whether it involves a single tool evaluation or an end-to-end audit of a multi-platform stack. This scalability allows for a more tailored approach, where the consultants can expand or narrow the audit scope as needed without affecting internal productivity. Cost-Efficiency in Specialized Services:  Building an in-house team with the same expertise and tools as a consultancy would be costly, especially if the skills and tools are only needed temporarily. A consultancy provides access to these specialized services at a fraction of the cost, delivering more value than an in-house approach would typically allow.   Speed and Timeliness of Execution Time is a critical factor in martech auditing. A sluggish audit process can delay crucial marketing initiatives and slow down growth. Because consultancies are dedicated to completing audits with a sharp focus on efficiency, they can provide quicker turnaround times than internal teams, who are often balancing multiple responsibilities. Established Processes and Best Practices:  Consultancies bring streamlined workflows and established auditing methodologies that speed up the entire process. With clear steps for assessment, analysis, and recommendation, a consultancy can accomplish in a matter of weeks what might take an in-house team months. Agility in Problem-Solving:  Consultancies have experience managing and overcoming common obstacles that arise during audits, allowing them to stay on track and avoid common pitfalls. Their experience enables them to work efficiently and pivot quickly if new challenges or areas of focus emerge during the audit. Reduced Downtime for Marketing Operations:  A faster audit minimizes disruption to ongoing marketing activities. Rather than tying up internal resources for extended periods, a consultancy can quickly identify areas of improvement, allowing the organization to implement changes and resume full-scale marketing operations sooner.   Access to Broader Industry Benchmarks and Competitive Insights Consultancies work across various industries and markets, providing them with insights into best practices, emerging trends, and competitive benchmarking data. This exposure enables them to bring a level of insight that is difficult for an in-house team to replicate. Industry Standards and Benchmarks:  Consultancies have access to data across different sectors, which can help organizations understand where they stand relative to competitors. This benchmarking is invaluable for identifying areas of improvement and strategic investment. Cross-Industry Insights:  Consultancies can apply best practices from diverse industries, drawing upon successful case studies and proven strategies. This knowledge is particularly valuable for organizations looking to innovate or differentiate their marketing approaches. Customized Recommendations:  Leveraging their broad experience, consultancies can provide tailored insights that are relevant to an organization’s industry, customer base, and growth stage. This depth of understanding allows them to deliver actionable strategies that lead to tangible improvements. Long-Term ROI and Strategic Alignment Finally, the long-term ROI of an consultancy-led martech audit outweighs the initial costs. A well-optimized martech stack improves campaign efficiency, reduces resource waste, and enhances the customer experience, all of which contribute to greater ROI. Consultancy firms can ensure that technology investments align with long-term business goals, offering strategic guidance that goes beyond immediate gains. Focus on Long-Term Value:  Consultancies prioritize long-term success by recommending solutions that are sustainable and scalable. Their approach goes beyond merely fixing short-term issues, aiming to future-proof the stack to handle evolving needs as the business grows. Maximized Tool Utilization:  By identifying underutilized tools or redundant features, consultancies help organizations optimize each tool’s ROI. For example, if a CRM system is only being used for basic functions, a consultancy may reveal how it can be leveraged more fully for advanced segmentation, personalization, and automation. Enhanced Customer Experience:  A streamlined and effective martech stack ultimately enables a more personalized, cohesive customer journey. By ensuring each tool within the stack is optimally configured, consultancies help businesses deliver superior customer experiences, which in turn drives brand loyalty and revenue growth.   Conducting a martech audit is essential in today’s dynamic marketing landscape, but the value of this exercise hinges on its accuracy, efficiency, and alignment with strategic goals. While in-house teams may have a solid grasp of day-to-day operations, consultancy firms offer specialized expertise, objectivity, scalability, and a proven track record of delivering timely, cost-effective results. The decision to work with a consultancy for a martech audit is ultimately an investment in maximizing the potential of your martech stack and driving long-term value. With the right consultancy, organizations can confidently make data-driven decisions, ensuring that their technology investments yield the highest possible ROI and equip their marketing teams to succeed in a competitive landscape. Why not get in touch today and find out how Sojourn Solutions can help you with your MarTech Audit.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integral to marketing operations, customer engagement, and operational efficiency, data privacy and compliance have emerged as key considerations for medium to large enterprises. Companies that use AI often handle vast amounts of sensitive customer data, making it essential to protect this information and adhere to evolving privacy regulations. This blog explores how enterprises can balance the power of AI with strict data privacy practices and regulatory compliance, ensuring AI serves as an asset without becoming a liability. Understand the Regulatory Landscape The first step in achieving data privacy and compliance with AI is understanding the various regulations that apply to your company. A couple of the most prominent being: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) : Applicable to any company handling data from EU citizens, GDPR mandates strict controls on data usage, storage, and consent. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) : This U.S.-based law applies to companies handling data from California residents, focusing on transparency, control, and data access rights. Beyond these, sector-specific regulations may apply, such as HIPAA for healthcare or FINRA for finance. Ensuring compliance with these laws requires that companies clearly understand where and how AI processes data, what kind of data is involved, and whether it’s in line with relevant regulations. Implement Data Minimization Principles One of the most effective ways to improve data privacy with AI is by implementing data minimization —a principle that suggests only collecting and processing the minimal amount of data necessary to achieve a specific goal. With data minimization, companies can: Limit unnecessary data collection, reducing the risk of exposing sensitive information. Minimize the storage of potentially sensitive data, which reduces liability. Strengthen compliance by only holding onto data that is truly essential to the business process. Adopting data minimization principles often requires a shift in data collection and storage practices, but it ultimately builds a more privacy-conscious approach to AI. Build Transparency into AI Data Processing Transparency in how AI processes data is essential for both regulatory compliance and building trust with customers. Transparency means explaining to customers how their data will be used, stored, and analyzed by AI, as well as offering them control over their data. To achieve this, companies can: Use clear privacy policies  and updates to explain AI-related data processing. Allow users to opt in or out of AI-based data processing where possible. Make data anonymization standard practice to protect individual identities while still allowing insights from data. Making AI systems interpretable and accountable - what’s often called “explainable AI” - is also critical. By using explainable AI practices, businesses can justify the use of data for specific AI operations, giving customers and regulatory bodies a clear understanding of why and how data is used. Adopt Robust Data Anonymization and Encryption Practices Data anonymization and encryption are two core practices to ensure that sensitive information stays private and compliant: Data Anonymization : This process involves removing or altering personally identifiable information (PII) so that data can’t be traced back to an individual. This practice is valuable for AI applications that need to analyze large datasets but don’t require personally identifiable details. Data Encryption : Encrypting data both in transit and at rest ensures that even if data is intercepted or accessed improperly, it remains unreadable. AI solutions should implement advanced encryption standards (e.g., AES-256) to protect sensitive data at every processing stage. By combining these two practices, companies can keep data secure, reducing risks associated with breaches and unauthorized access. Integrate Privacy-By-Design Principles Privacy-by-design is a proactive approach that incorporates data privacy considerations from the outset of any AI system or project. Rather than viewing data privacy as an afterthought, privacy-by-design ensures that: Privacy controls  are embedded into AI systems from the beginning, safeguarding data throughout its lifecycle. Consent mechanisms  and privacy settings are intuitive and accessible for users. Risk assessments  are performed before deploying new AI processes, especially those that handle personal data. This approach not only helps companies comply with privacy laws but also mitigates risks before they become issues. Privacy-by-design can lead to better customer trust and fewer disruptions due to privacy concerns down the line. Use Responsible Data Governance for AI A responsible data governance framework establishes policies and processes for handling data, ensuring that all data used by AI is handled ethically and in compliance with regulations. Key elements of effective data governance include: Data Stewardship : Assign roles and responsibilities within the organization for overseeing data privacy, from data collection to storage and processing. Data Audits : Regularly audit data usage and storage practices to ensure compliance with relevant regulations and internal policies. AI Model Monitoring : Continuous monitoring of AI models for unintended data processing, bias, or drift ensures that AI remains compliant and trustworthy over time. A strong data governance framework allows companies to clearly track data flow, control access, and prevent misuse, which is essential for maintaining data privacy and compliance with AI. Manage AI-Related Data Risks Through Vendor and Third-Party Due Diligence AI integration often involves working with third-party providers, including software vendors, cloud services, and data processing firms. Ensuring data privacy and compliance requires due diligence when selecting and managing these vendors. To reduce risk, companies should: Evaluate Vendors for Compliance : Ensure that each vendor adheres to the same data privacy standards and regulations as your organization. Request detailed information on their data handling practices and certifications. Include Data Privacy in Contracts : Specify privacy, compliance, and security requirements within contracts and service agreements, holding vendors accountable for any data risks or breaches. Regularly Review Vendor Practices : Conduct periodic reviews of vendor practices, especially if they manage or process sensitive data on your behalf. By vetting vendors rigorously and setting clear expectations, companies can prevent data privacy lapses from occurring via third-party channels. Empower Employees with AI Data Privacy Training Finally, a data privacy framework is only as strong as the people managing it. AI systems often interact with or are managed by teams across departments, which makes employee training essential. Proper training helps ensure: Employees understand the company’s data privacy policies and AI-related compliance standards. Teams handling AI are aware of best practices for data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance. Privacy risks are proactively mitigated at every stage, from data collection to model deployment. A well-trained team not only upholds compliance but also serves as the first line of defense against potential privacy risks. Building a Privacy-First AI Future As AI continues to shape marketing operations, data privacy and compliance must remain at the forefront. By implementing robust data privacy practices - from encryption to privacy-by-design - and staying informed on regulatory changes, enterprises can protect their customers’ data, avoid costly legal issues, and build stronger relationships grounded in trust. AI promises powerful transformations in business, but to unlock its full potential, companies need to ensure that it operates within a secure, compliant framework. Taking these proactive steps not only safeguards data but also positions companies as responsible, trustworthy leaders in a data-driven future.

Marketing Operations and Operational Process blog series Series introduction: Marketing Operations is a complex mixture of people, processes, and technology all working together to prove - and improve - the value of marketing to your company, your customer, and your employees. While the technology and people components of this “Marketing Operations Triangle” get a lot of attention, Operational Process deserves much more focus as a driver of value. In this blog series, we’ll be giving it the attention it so richly deserves. The UK telecommunications company O2 is a great example of how improved operational processes can not only drive efficiency but also enable a marketing team to free up time for higher-value marketing tasks. O2 went from having non-standardized approaches to campaign management that were creating many problems (more on those later) to a streamlined process that resulted in: a 27% increase YoY in the number of campaigns executed, and 100% accuracy in campaign execution. Campaign management challenges O2 had a small team managing all sorts of operational requests – campaign execution, peer reviewing of campaigns, building out assets and campaign flows in Eloqua, changing lead management processes, and much more. The team did anything and everything related to campaign execution, data, marketing operations, and automation. They’d receive requests from two different business units, typically via email or a quick phone call saying, “can you just do this for us now?” The problem was that these requests didn’t have a structured process behind them to ensure: (1) a clear direction and time frame for executing the brief and (2) all the information and resources needed to execute the request were included with the brief. “The briefs they received were so dramatically different. Some requests came with lots of details and relevant resources/assets,” says Rebecca Clark, Customer Success Manager at Sojourn Solutions, who worked with the O2 team on improving the process, “while others did not. The timeframes for delivery could be all over the place too.”  The O2 team simply didn't have the resources to manage it all, and they lacked enough budget to outsource the work. In fact, the team’s budget was being reduced. O2’s campaign management, especially in light of how requests and briefs were being handled, just wasn't working as efficiently as it could have. Setting expectations with the business units making requests was a massive and time-consuming challenge, and so was managing the team’s budgets, priorities, and schedules. The team would sometimes run out of budget for the month in the middle of the month and then had to seek authorization to spend more. Their operational processes clearly needed to change around campaign management. The change: Streamlining campaign management Due to the sheer volume of the O2 team’s work, much of it unplanned for requests, the team just weren’t able to prioritize work and schedule campaigns  effectively. They finally decided they needed a new process and a more supportive infrastructure around campaign management.   Fortunately, O2’s Campaign Program Manager, Nicky Clarke, had a solid background in project management so she understood the need for and challenges around driving improvement of operational processes. O2's Clarke sought to implement a streamlined process that not only allowed the team to see how their budget was being spent, but also ensured that the briefs and requests coming in had a specific process and quality standard supporting them.  “We introduced the O2 team to Smartsheet, which is a project planning tool,” says Sojourn’s Clark. “You can have forms and attachments within a Smartsheet, and the form is submitted by the person requesting the work.” The requester has to fill in certain fields and then complete a detailed brief that's attached. So it’s an automated process where updates get made, and where each request gets allocated to the right resource with a realistic time frame for executing the work. “That approach with Smartsheet gave the O2 team a more structured approach to requests and briefs,” says Clark.  Adoption of the solution took some time, as the people making the requests were used to just picking up the phone or sending quick “request” emails. They were told to make requests using the new process. “The O2 team became really good at telling business units that they needed to follow the new operational process in order to make a request,” reports Clark, “and it made the team’s workflow so much easier.” Results: Campaign efficiency & enhanced capabilities  With the new process in place, and despite a decreasing budget, the O2 team was able to increase the number of campaigns it executed by 27% YoY. The effectiveness of those campaigns increased too, some of that due to better briefs that helped inform more effective asset/content creation. There was also a huge time saving by having everything in one place and not having to chase down missing pieces of a brief. The team could actually plan their days and their weeks, because the requests were coming from one place with one standard process. “The new, streamlined campaign management process freed up the O2 team’s time to actually consider how they could manage their workload even better,” says Sojourn’s Clark. “They started asking, ‘are the processes behind the things we do as good as they could be?’” The streamlined process freed up some of their budget too, so they could analyze their tech and consider bringing in more effective tools. O2’s Nicky Clarke summarized O2’s operational process improvement journey this way: “We saw a huge increase in the volume of work coming into our team and our budget decreased by 50% at the same time, so this meant we had to optimize the way we worked in order to prioritize what we were doing and deliver more with less. We re-organized our team internally and upskilled their capabilities. We worked with Sojourn to introduce Smartsheet for brief logging and workflow management within our team and cross-functionally with our external agencies. It’s made a big difference. Now we’re constantly reviewing processes and optimizing ways of working in weekly collaboration sessions.”  If you’re interested in learning more about how to increase the efficiency - and effectiveness of your campaign production or other marketing operations related processes,  contact us  today. Next post in series:   How holistic Project Management optimizes Operational Processes in Marketing Operations (post 5 of 5)

A strategic focus across S&P Global is LEAN efficiency and process, and efforts like this contribute significantly to our strategic business goals, as well as helping to ensure Marketing is operationally streamlined. Zoe (Lowther) Mol, VP Global Marketing, S&P Global Platts Introduction Data in its raw, unfiltered form offers no insights to drive great business decision-making (it’s simply “more information” in a TMI world). It takes skilled, experienced professionals to make meaning and provide strategic, actionable insights from data. Enter S&P Global Platts, in business for over a century and now the leading independent provider of information, benchmark prices and analytics for the energy and commodities markets. The London-based business intelligence company has over 1,000 employees spread out over 19 offices worldwide, all of them with one goal — to leverage data to bring clarity and transparency to the energy and commodities markets. Challenge: Work differently Keeping up with the fast pace of global change has now become a core organizational capacity. Call it agility or adaptability or whatever you want (this isn’t buzzword bingo), but change happens fast today and individuals and organizations had better be ready to accommodate it. Well, S&P Global, the 17,000-people strong, global parent company of S&P Global Platts, decided that the entire global operation would migrate its marketing automation to the Marketo platform. Solution: A 3-part migration To complete the planned migration from Eloqua to Marketo, S&P Global Platts worked with its partner, Sojourn Solutions. A three-part solution was co-developed that was structured around risk mitigation, campaign migration, and multiple integrations. We'll look at how each part of S&P Global Platts’ Marketo migration solution was developed and executed... Results: Savings, plaudits, awards S&P Global Platts finished its migration on schedule and without downtime or disruption of its MAP operations, as they’d promised their parent company. Perhaps best of all, S&P Global Platts saw huge benefits to their bottom line, including a 75% savings on campaign migration costs to Marketo. This was a true collaborative effort between Platts’ Marketing, IT, and Content teams, and executed by our preferred partner, Sojourn Solutions.  Melissa Thames, Global Head Marketing Operations, S&P Global Platts In the end, the S&P Global Platts migration project was recognized with a prestigious 2018 Revvies Award, in the category “The Transformer.” S&P Global Platts saw huge benefits to their bottom line, including a 75% savings on campaign migration costs to Marketo. In addition, as the Revvie Award press release explains, “after implementing the Marketo platform, S&P Global Platts automated their subscription and information distribution process, saving more than 15 weeks of people-hours annually” and gaining massive cost benefits. (include in section where award image appears to left of text) Since 2008, Sojourn has been our go-to marketing operations strategy and support team. They most recently helped us successfully move to Marketo from Eloqua which involved many integrations and complex use cases that required solutioning. We couldn’t have done it without them. Melissa Thames, Head of Global Marketing Operations

How does an enterprise organization go about scaling adoption of its new Eloqua-driven automated email renewal solution with its sales team? In this post, we explore how Naylor’s leadership team did just that, how it addressed strong initial objections from the sales teams, and how sales reps who had once been early objectors to automation eventually became passionate advocates for the technology. In a second post, we’ll take a deeper dive into Naylor’s solution itself. Naylor Association Solutions , with corporate headquarters in McLean, Virginia, works with trade associations across the nation, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), the United Motorcoach Association (UMA), and many more, helping them maximize membership engagement and generate more revenues. Naylor’s services and business units include member communication (creating various publications for associations), event management, and association management. Naylor helps its association members develop various publications, including magazines, newsletters, and member directories. Naylor’s sales team also sells advertising space in these same publications to companies interested in engaging the association’s membership. So, hypothetically speaking, a medical device manufacturer might want to buy advertising space in a newsletter or directory from the American Medical Association. Naylor would develop the publication, working with the association, and then sell ad space to generate revenues. Naylor’s automated solution runs into initial skepticism Utter the word “automation” in almost any workplace today, and the people impacted start to get nervous about their jobs. Fears of robots stealing our jobs aren’t just fodder for science fiction, but represent a visceral concern for workers all across the global economy – especially as technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to improve.  As Naylor rolled out its automated renewal email solution to its existing advertisers, using that automation to quickly generate renewals and cash flow without the involvement of any sales reps, getting the sales team on board became an obvious challenge. Naylor’s Kent Agramonte , then Marketing and Research Manager, was tasked with getting sales rep buy-in for the change initiative. “There was early pushback from the reps,” explained Agramonte, “they felt threatened that automation was taking away parts of their jobs and commissions. They also feared we were ‘dehumanizing’ our customer service approach.” Agramonte carefully explained that “seeking renewals were taking a lot of time away from sales reps, and if they spent less time seeking renewals from existing clients (advertisers), they could spend more time upselling and seeking new clients, thus gaining higher commissions.” Many reps, understandably, took a wait-and-see stance. 3 keys to scaling adoption  Sales Reps soon recognized their liberation from routine, manual tasks.  Agramonte’s message was clear and consistent. The automated, scalable email renewal solution would give Naylor’s sales reps the gift of more time to perform higher-value tasks, like upselling existing clients and finding new clients, tasks that would actually help reps generate more leads and higher commissions. In addition, sales reps received training on how the automated application worked so they could effectively perform their follow-up roles, such as when customers opened an email but didn’t respond. Reps began performing more higher-value tasks.  Rolling the solution out slowly. The culture of any sales team can be a fragile thing. Naylor anticipated some objections from sales reps, and Agramonte rolled out the automated solution gradually, gaining buy-in from sales reps project-by-project, almost rep-by-rep. As the team observed success in these projects, they became more open to the blended “human + machine” solution.  Answering the “dehumanization” objection.  Sales reps were justifiably proud of the high level of service they were providing to customers, but they soon realized two things: (1) customers quickly grew accustomed to the automated approach, much like shopping online at Amazon, and (2) sales reps continued to be involved in higher-level follow up and upselling activities that drove superior customer experiences and higher sales commissions. “We explained to our reps that the automation would help them service clients more effectively,” said Agramonte, “while making it easier for them to go after new customers. We found that many customers actually preferred communication through the automated, DIY email approach managed by Eloqua.” Sales Reps move from objectors to advocates On average, it was taking our reps three calls to renew a client and after launching our automated renewals program we renewed 583 clients without a phone call. This saved our reps 1,749 phone calls since launching the program.  The sales reps recognized that the automated email renewal campaigns were achieving the results promised, and then some. As promised, the reps were indeed spending more time upselling and pursuing new customer leads, as well as generating more commission. “Sales reps who were initially against the automated solutions are now all for it,” said Agramonte. One of our projects reached a renewal rate of 78.6% – this was a 17% increase from last year. We also oversold our new sales target on this project by 7%. In one of the early projects, a sales rep saw that the renewals gained through the automated approach were massive, and he strongly questioned the system’s ability to accurately track results. “I carefully explained to him how the tracking worked,” said Agramonte, “and once the sales rep realized how accurate our tracking was, he quickly became an advocate for the automated email renewal.” One of our initially hesitant adopter’s has seen a 16% increase in new sales YTD over this same period last year. She attributes this increase to the time saved not having to call her renewal advertisers. In a telling adoption story, Agramonte explains that they’d planned to exclude the automated renewal email approach from a particular project. The sales rep associated with the project, who had earlier opposed the automation, “quite vocally demanded that we use the automation for it,” Agramonte chuckled. Nothing scales success like success What’s clear is that Naylor did a great job not only working collaboratively with IT, marketing, sales, and other departments to develop the automated solution, but they also did a brilliant job scaling adoption with their initially-skeptical sales reps. In the end, the solution worked: sales reps who started out as passionate skeptics of the automated approach ultimately became its strongest advocates and ambassadors. Stay tuned for our follow-up post where we look at what Naylor decided to do in terms of changing the way it emailed and interacted with its ad customers, leveraging the marketing automation power of Eloqua to work smarter in getting renewals and upselling via email. The solution was a blended approach where technology was enabled and deployed to do what it does best while sales reps were enabled and deployed to do higher-level activities they do best. Sound interesting? Reach out  to us today to learn how we can help you achieve similar results leveraging marketing automation.