More than ever, field marketing is working closely with marketing operations since there are no in-person events. Their shift more to digital programs comes with more reliance on marketing operations for them to be successful. So it's important MOps knows how to support them in 5 key areas:

• Providing data and insight to help with regional decision making
• Training and templates in your marketing automation platform to help them scale their programs
• Developing segmentations specific for each region
• Setting up your online event channel and processes to work seamlessly
• And making sure your tools and processes are implemented properly for direct mail

Just keep in mind - a stronger field marketing team supported by marketing ops will result in a stronger pipeline.

In this third installment of our “5 Ways Marketing Ops Can Win Over…” series, we dive into these areas and explain how you work in alignment with field marketing to maximize effectiveness.

Transcription

Crissy:

Okay, so episode three of our "How to Win Over..." series. And today we're focusing on field marketing. So for a marketing operations team, field marketing is, one of your important customers, I would call them, team that looks to your team for guidance on a myriad of things to help them do their job better.

Field marketing works closely with sales. They usually own more of the event strategy, and now more and more taking on campaigns, running digitally since a lot of the channels that they normally use, like in person events can't really be leveraged anymore. So they're looking to online.

Crissy:

So right now, more than ever, field marketing is working closely with the marketing operations team. So here are five ways you can win over your field marketing team, but also just work with them better, you know? And they're going to be asking things of you, but when you guys really work in lockstep with each other and create a system and a process to help scale their programs, that's when you'll really see results there and also not get frustrated by all the requests. So do you wanna dive in the first thing, Charlie?

Charlie:

Sure. So as a marketing operations person, you're obviously the closest person to data and like all other teams and like we've talked about in other videos, if I'm trying to please the sales team, the CMO, giving people good data and access to data so they can help make decisions is really important. And that's especially important for the field marketing team.

So a lot of times the field marketing team is going to be broken out by region. So trying to regionalize that data, showing them your final data by region, campaign performance data by region, attribution data by region, and then especially pipeline data by region. A lot of times field marketing is gonna be working really closely with the sales team. And they are pretty responsible for, like all of us responsible for creating and nurturing pipeline.

Charlie:

But because they have that really close relationship with sales, giving them insight into pipelines so they can run pipeline acceleration programs, and also trying to flag different regions that might be having pipeline problems or different reps within their region that might be having pipeline problems can be really powerful for them to be able to generate and create the right programs to help influence and create pipeline.

Crissy:

Totally. That's something that I've used before. And I think that is when the field marketing team can really be nimble as they work closely with their sales team, but also can be that source of data for the sales team to say, "Hey, you know, you're lacking pipeline for two quarters from now. What can I do now for you so you don't get to that quarter and you know, not hit your number." So, super important.

Charlie:

Yeah. And then more tactically, you might be providing campaign performance data for people like the whole team in general, but they're gonna wanna know how well their campaigns are performing. They're going to want to know what kind of email subject lines might be working in their region. They're gonna want to know the specifics around what they're doing and being able to have a dashboard or a place like in your quarterly deck or something, that's going to be able to show them their specific region.

Crissy:

Totally. Okay. So number two is all about training and providing templates so that you can kind of create a self service model for field marketing. This works really well on the demand gen side too, but for field marketers, I think who don't normally have the backgrounds of using systems, now's the time to invest some time into training them. So kind of understand the basics of marketing automation.

Charlie mentioned this, but not only is it good for them to understand the tool and to use it, but also even if they're not going to be setting up their programs, it's really valuable 'cause they can see what's possible. And so when they're developing their campaign ideas or like, "Oh, I know I can do this in Marketo." Or, "I can then hook this up to this," then they're really gonna think creatively on how they can best set up an ABM program that has a multichannel approach and is really going to be effective in getting into that target account.

Crissy:

But then selfishly for marketing ops folks, if you do train them on the tool and give them templates where they can just go in and create a webinar or go in and create an event program, that's not work that your team then has to do. You can create a system where you are reviewing it, doing QA, then launching the emails or anything that is tied to it, but they feel like they have control over the programs and really can execute.

And I think right now, since that in-person element has been taken away from their responsibilities where we're not doing the in person events, it's even more important that they then have something to do and can provide value and using your program templates within your market automation platform, I think is super key. This is really easy to scale as well if you use Marketo.

Crissy:

Also on the training point, I think along with the, is a training like a one time? Is just having a resource for the field marketing team to really check in with marketing ops. And I used to run office hours in and pass rules. You know, I think I even had them when we worked at Jive together. And one of the most well attended group to the office hours was our field marketing team because they were, you know, I created that self service model. They're creating their programs, but then they maybe were like, well, I actually wanna do this.

How do I do this? Or I'm looking for this type of reporting and giving them that one time where they can ask you those questions also made it so that I can be a resource to them, but not constantly be slacking people left and right. And it's sucking up all my time when I'm focusing on other projects.

Charlie:

Yeah. Okay. Number three? So focusing on segmentation's obviously part of what Chrissy was just talking about templatization and helping them across campaign execution. Segmentation is really important. And I felt like every time, every campaign that ends up having lots of back and forth and just a lot of drama, it's always around the list.

And it's always so hard to get a list, especially when you're trying to get it by region and they don't really have insight into how many, the number of key percentages they have within that region or the amount of contacts on the target accounts within that region and things like that. And it turning into a nightmare and they get surprised when they're trying to get people to an event and then they've only got a list of like 20 people to email. Turns into a nightmare.

Charlie:

So taking first step, before even they're coming to you on developing that list for that specific campaign, being proactive and then building that list, building the segmentation, whatever marketing automation platform that you've got and getting it ready for them.

And it's not as simple as just thinking, okay, I need a list of everyone in New York for my in New York or my East Coast field marketing person. There that might be different intricacies, different nuances based on each region. So for example, in New York, your company might have a more heavy focus on finance. In the Bay Area they might have a more heavy focus on tech.

Charlie:

So the type of personas and the type of people that you're going after in each region might be different. And you might have other ways to build their segmentations with different builds in your marketing automation and CRM, but making sure you take that into consideration. So when you are creating that campaign and when you're building it up, building out that program in Marketo or whatever else, you're able to really deliver that quickly.

And then the other benefit is they then can then get insight. So creating a dashboard in Salesforce or lists in Marketo or whatever, just to be able to show them how many people they have in their region in each persona.

Charlie:

So then they're not surprised when it comes to campaign execution time and you say, okay, this is how many people, then they can be proactive and go, "Oh God, I didn't realize I only have 25 people in this persona in my region and target accounts. I need to go and do some contact acquisition and work with sales to build that out.”

So just making sure that you've got those segmentations ready for that quick campaign execution and so they really know what they've got to work with in that region.

Crissy:

Yeah. And I think another added layer on that is also being able to also then see how many people in their target accounts that they have. I think that's super important. And along with like the templates for the programs, once you have these segmentations, you can do some really crafty cool things where it's kind of like a choose your adventure list building.

It's like you have your regional Smartlist and on top of that, you have your persona and, you know, marketing ops is gonna have the foresight to know, "Okay, if I'm running a regional list, I know all the zip codes to include, like what data to use."

Crissy:

If a field marketer tries to go and build it themselves, likely there could be some oops, you know, mistakes there, including the wrong regions. So giving them those standardized list templates or kind of like filters to use, I think is super important.

Charlie:

For sure, especially if you're using enrichment tools or using multiple enrichment tools, you might have multiple ways to go filter on where someone is. And then inferred information and account level information versus legal contact. So it can get very complicated for them. So making sure that you have it readily available is very important.

Crissy:

Totally. All right, we're on the fourth thing. So online events, well, and just events in general, but you know, right now we're really focused on online events and marketing ops is gonna be really focused on how they can best scale those because most of the time they're creating the programs, but also if you're using those templates, you're creating a process for them to be self service.

You then can create a process for your online events and a big part of that is what tools do you use. If you don't have an online event tool right now, you're probably looking at some and marketing ops, you know, you wanna be part of that selection process.

Crissy:

Sometimes this happens a little bit backwards where the field marketer chooses their tool and then goes, "Hey, marketing ops, you need to implement this." And it might not even been the right tool. They don't have the knowledge or background to even know what questions to ask in that demo. And so if you know that online events is gonna be somewhere where you're gonna focus, try and get in there early.

You know, lend your hand, say, "Hey, do you want help with that decision making process? I can be on the demos. I can vet it out." And that'll be super helpful when then it falls onto your plate, you know, that you need to actually roll it out for the team.

Crissy:

And then the second thing to that is make sure that they work for the team. So, figure out what the goals are with your events, figure out like what that process is going to look like. What's going to be that end user experience and then make sure that is nailed down and then integrated into your system.

So most of these tools integrate into your market automation platform or your CRM, making sure that you're capturing the engagement insights that you can, but also have the basics nailed down, like getting your registrant's attendees in there, making sure they're getting their info for the event. And so everything's seamless.

Crissy:

So super important, make sure that online event experience operationally is nailed down and be a part of that whole process. And then for in person events, I think, being part of that same thing, once we do get back to it, and really focusing again on that end user experience. And then even one little added thing you can do there too, is events are super important for the sales team. So you can add a calendar into like your CRM for the sales team so they know exactly when these virtual or in person events are okay.

Crissy:

Last one. So just like how the online event technology is important, so is direct mail. So for all the reasons I listed out for being part of that POC for the online event tool, I think it's also important to be part of that direct mail tool selection. And I say that because if you ever tried to scale direct mail without a tool, it's so impossible.

And I think if you are low on budgeting, you're testing out direct mail campaigns, go that route, you know, try it. But then if it's going to be a big channel for you, you need to invest in the tools to do that. They have the warehouses, they make sure that your sales team can actually leverage it.

Crissy:

So like tools like Sendoso and they also have the option for online kind of mailers or gifts and then offline. And so, figuring out what tool is best for your team, implementing it, making sure it's integrated and then also training them on how to best use it for their programs. So where can it be placed in a program? Where does it most effective? What do they need to keep in mind? Like are the addresses right?

And then how can they then train their sales team to best use it as part of their process as well? So direct mail, super powerful for field marketers, especially right now where you can maybe send a digital gift and be part of that whole process and make sure that it's all operationally sound.

Charlie:

Yeah. Quick recap. So the first one is make sure you have your regional reporting down, making sure that they're able to access it. It's the right metrics and right data they're looking for. The next one, number two, making sure that they're well trained and you've got everything that you can to emphasize so they're able to get in there and have fast campaign execution.

The third one, make sure they've got the right segmentations in there for that fast company execution, but also, so they can get ahead of it and know where there might be gaps within their region.

Charlie:

And then the last two were online event tool, obviously massively important. Now everyone in marketing operations has probably implemented one in the last couple of months, even a second or third one or at least has been a heavy user of their existing one. And then also direct mail, another important channel to field marketers. Make sure you've got all of the processes and the tool implemented properly.

Crissy:

Yeah. So those are five ways to win over field marketing, you know, soon they'll be singing your praises, which is what we want for you marketing ops folks. All departments or people you work with should be really understanding your value. And that'll just help further elevate this department, which is our end goal with this whole series. So look out for the next one, for "Five Ways to Win Over..." and we'll see you then.