Ask anyone who has been in marketing operations more than a few years and they will likely tell you how much harder it has become. But why is it?In this week's episode, we're discussing the changes we've seen in marketing and revenue operations in the last 11 years we have been in the space and we believe that the reason things are harder all comes down to one thing. Tune in to find out what that reason is and also what you can do to make things, well, easier!

In this week's episode, we're joined by Kirti Dewan, VP of Marketing at Bugsnag (a SmartBear Company), who has had a career as a marketing leader at different technology companies for almost a decade.Kirti takes us through her journey as a marketing leader transitioning from large, in-house work to fast-paced start-ups, a few years consulting, and back to tech start-ups. She also talks about her roles leading marketing teams and how she has taken all of her cumulative experience to build strong value-based teams that do amazing work- without burnout.So, if you're in a leadership position (or hope to be one day) and are looking to learn more about hiring practices, this is definitely the episode for you! And be sure to sync up with Kirti on LinkedIn.

Fwd:thinking is back! And in this week's episode, we're joined by seasoned start-up marketer, Sruthi Kumar who is currently the Director of Demand Generation at TripActions. Sruthi has been immersed in marketing her whole career and has worn dozens of hats. This has helped her develop a wide-ranging skillset and become a marketer with a wide range helping her get closer to her goal of becoming a CMO one day.In this episode, Sruthi takes us through her field & content marketer journey and deep dives into her best strategies for integrated event campaigns, pre, and post-Covid. She walks us through planning, hosting, and extracting data from the events to best inform business decisions. So listen up for a great jump back into fwd:thinking and be sure to follow Sruthi on LinkedIn.

In this week's episode we're joined by Francis Brero who is the Co-founder and CPO at MadKudu, where they are working to help B2B companies use predictive modeling and AI to improve their operations and drive more revenue.Francis takes us through all of the facets on today's AI in marketing. We chat about how to get your team onboard and comfortable with AI, where it can be the most (and least) useful in your business and how it can even help improve your customer experience. So if you've ever been interested in learning more about artificial intelligence and data science in B2B marketing, this is definitely the episode for you! And be sure to sync up with Francis on LinkedIn or check out MadKudu here.

In this week's episode, we're joined by Toby Murdock, co-founder and CEO of Highway Education. If you are looking for MOps talent and haven't heard of this company yet, or you are new to the field and wanting to learn more about opportunities in MOps, then be sure to listen along to this episode!Finding young MOps talent is hard work. So on this week's ep we're discussing how Highway Education is helping to close the gap in the digital marketing and MOps field by providing aspiring marketing professionals with the skills they need to thrive. Their platform also helps connect employers to the new talent as well! Be sure to connect with Toby on LinkedIn and check out www.highwayed.com/

This week's episode is a great level-set for anyone who owns, inherited or may be implementing a new sales engagement platform (ie SalesLoft or Outreach) in their business. We're going to walk you through 5 best practices we've learned over the years about what to do when adding this type of solution to your tech stack. We're covering a lot of great info including, platform ownership, email deliverability/opt-in protocol and lead stage mapping tips. So if you want to make sure you don't make some commonly made mistakes with your sales engagement platform, then be sure to check out this episode!

What happens when you are propelled into a leadership position and then handed over managing the SDR team right when a pandemic starts? In this week's episode with Be'Anka Ashaolu (VP of Marketing at Propel) she shows that your leadership skills really stand out!On this week's episode, Be'Anka walks us through her history in various roles leading up to running marketing at a Silicon Valley based start up, where she quickly built out a strong operational foundation and secured tight alignment between the SDR team and marketing when she took over as their manager just under a year ago. If you are in marketing or demand gen and want to be inspired to take on more leadership at your company, then this podcast is for you! And after you are done, be sure to follow Be'Anka on LinkedIn so you can add her to your growing network: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bashaolu/

In this week's episode, we're joined by the Head of Demand Gen at Qualified, Sarah McConnell. Sarah's path has not been linear by any means, from competitive volleyball to PR to B2C at a small beer company, her past experiences have helped shape her into the rockstar marketer she is today.In the chat, we're tackling the hot topic of conversational marketing- how you can implement it into your ABM strategy and how it can improve your pipeline! Sarah takes us through the basics of ABM and conversational marketing but also how to operationalize your strategy leading to revenue growth.Be sure to follow Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahscott5/ or on Qualified.com in the chat!

In this week's episode, we're talking about a topic that every MOps person should care about... data governance! And we're joined by someone who knows all of the ins and outs of data, Asia Corbett, the Director of Revenue Operations at Postal.io.With a background in economics and finance, Asia gives us her insights on data governance based on years of experience working in the field. Now in revenue operations, she takes us through her best practices for starting a good data foundation, monitoring, and maintaining a healthy database. Most importantly, she talks about why data governance is so important and why you and your company should invest time and resources in it.So listen in to this week's episode and get ready to feel empowered to take your business's data governance head-on! And don't forget to follow Asia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-corbett-02433b84/

In this week's episode, we have a very special guest, Brooke Bartos, who is the Director of Marketing Operations & Analytics at Invoice Cloud! With years of marketing experience both in-house and at an agency, Brooke takes us through her journey in MOps and some of the advantages and challenges she's faced in these roles along the way.Brooke also goes into depth on how her career has helped her develop a foolproof nurture strategy leveraging your content to engage and educate your audience that, most importantly, leads to conversions! She talks us through where to start planning your nurture strategy and goals, personalization to drive revenue, and the best content tips & tricks she's learned over the years! So take out your pens and notepads because this episode is super insightful for all marketing professionals! And be sure to follow Brooke on LinkedIn for more insights from her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookembartos/

The journey to a marketing career doesn't have a specifically laid out path. And this week's guest Bartek Woroniecki is a great example of that. From BDR to now running demand gen programs and marketing operations at a fast-paced startup, Bartek has grown his career by taking on different roles that helped him hone a broad skill set across marketing and even operations. Bartek is a rare unicorn demand gen lead who really understands how to execute all parts of marketing from developing a campaign idea to creating paid campaigns, developing content, and then reporting on its success. In this week's episode, follow Bartek along his journey and find out how he was able to develop these skills and why it has really paid off for his career in a B2B SaaS startup. Follow Bartek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartekworoniecki/

2020 proved that having a strong operational foundation was the key to success for the move to relying on all things digital. Companies that had the most strategic advantage to stay agile during an uncertain time were the ones who had their sh*t together operationally.In this week's episode, we're talking about how having strong operations can be a key differentiator in make your marketing and your company successful and truly be a competitive advantage. Topics we cover include;-Scaling online programs- Easily adding tools to a tech stack for supporting digital events and activities- Implementing reporting structures to determine where to spend money when your budget gets slashed- How to use (not abuse) email as a channel of communication and as a PART of a marketing strategy

Are you struggling to keep up with 'industry' benchmarks? Do you even know what yours are? Do you think they're useful? Well, we think they're a bit pointless and in this week's episode, we're discussing why we think so.We get asked this question A LOT- specifically, anything around funnel reporting. So in this podcast, we'll go over why we don't find industry funnel benchmarks helpful and why you should actually be focusing on improving your marketing overall.

In this week's episode, we're joined by one of our MOps consultants, Christie Montague-Fusco, to go over the do's and don'ts of sending mass emails to your database. This is an especially tricky topic because if you want to do a mass send without getting a ton of backlash, there are very specific things to consider. But don't worry, we've created a handy decision tree to help you out!Our tips and best practices on email deliverability will not only improve your email's performance but will also help keep your database healthy and customers happy. So tune in to this episode for your step-by-step guide to mass email blasts.You can view and download the decision tree here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/blog/should-i-send-a-mass-promotional-email-to-my-database-decision-tree

In this week's episode we're hitting the ground running and taking a deep dive into data & reporting. We're joined by Klearly's Founder & CEO, Alex Krawchick who conceived the platform based on the lack of proactive analytics tools for marketing teams.We cover predictive analytics, 'invisible' touch points, how much data you should be saving and so much more. So if you feel like you're stuck in a data standstill, sit back and let us unpack some key challenges marketers have been facing and hopefully this episode will help you move your reporting in the right direction.Be sure to follow Alex on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krawchick/

In this week's episode we're taking a step back to focus on one of the most important parts of marketing ops... the people! We're taking a break from our typical tech-heavy topics to help you and your team reset, recharge and revamp your work environment.We're covering how to boost morale, drive adoption of your tools and programs with gamification in the workplace and why you should invest in your team and yourself!These quick tips are not marketing related but crucial for a good team dynamic and can improve your marketing efforts in the long run. So tune in to find out what simple things you can do to better your marketing that have nothing to do with marketing!

Attribution seems to be a very hot topic right now. But do you know what it really is and, more importantly, how to do it the right way?This week we have our measurement and analytics expert, Alison Rouse, back to talk all things attribution. We're diving into where things might be going wrong for you (hint: using attribution to prove your pipeline contribution to the C-suite is NOT the way to go about it). We also are going over how to fix these common misconceptions so you don't start "hating" attribution for the wrong reasons.So listen in to this week's episode and join the attribution conversation!

Does your team have a clear insight into the customer journey, especially when it comes to email? Is your customer (potential and current) experience aligned to what their expectations are? Do you have clear definitions for when each department in the revenue team interacts with them? If you answered no to any of these questions, you might want to check out this week's episode!This week we are discussing customer journey ownership, mapping and documenting your customer journey, how to audit/implement necessary changes, and everything in between! So listen in to get a head start on improving your customer's experience before it turns into chaos.

In this week's episode we're helping you, the MOps extraordinaires, communicate with your teams better! We're going through the top four things you should be relaying to the revenue team to make your (and their) life easier.We dive into topics like project timeline expectation, technical debt, tool efficiency, and attribution misunderstandings. These are some great topics to start educating your revenue team on to prevent some common misconceptions and frustrations.

Has your tech stack grown out of your control? Or did you inherit one that was already a mess? Then this week's episode is for you! We're heading to the fwd:thinking laboratory to dissect the ominous Frankenstack. We'll cover how to identify if you have one (spoiler: you probably do), how to take back control, and prevent it from ever happening again!So tune in to this week to get your stack back on track!

Wondering where to start when it comes to ABM Analytics? Well, you're in luck! In this week's episode, we're talkin' all about ABM analytics- specifically how to operationalize and set up your data and reporting. We're covering target account tracking, engagement, MQAs, and everything in between.So get your checklist out and take some notes on how to get your ABM analytics off the ground!

In this week's episode, we've created a visual aid to help you understand how well your business' marketing/revenue strategy aligns with your ability to execute it through operations. The Magic-al Operations Quadrant is a great tool to help you determine where your team may need to make changes in strategy, technology, or staff in order to be what we call a "Market Winner." This episode is pretty visual so be sure to check it out on our site here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/fwd-video-podcast/the-magical-operations-quadrant

In this week's episode, we're going to show you how to develop your opt-in process the RIGHT way. It may seem simple from the outside but there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. So we've developed a great visual guide to help you stay out of trouble* and streamline the process to best suit your needs.Listen along this week to build your opt-in process from the ground up or just brush up on your knowledge.*Disclaimer: This is our personal take from years of experience but please consult your legal team for expert advice.

Got your whole marketing team on board with creating a frictionless experience and using fewer forms? Great! Or are you still in the process of swaying them? Keep fighting! Either way, this week's episode is for you because we talk all about what you need to do and keep in mind when deciding to let down those gates.We discuss the basics like when you should gate and when you shouldn't and some of our tried and true practices like alternatives to form fills. But we also dig into a few things you may forget about like how to modify your reporting for this new change, and what changes you need to inform the whole revenue team about to set expectations correctly.So, if you're about to make the leap, make sure you are prepared!

In this week's episode we're joined by Asana's Marketing Technology Program Lead, Jessenia Francisco! Jessenia takes us on her roller-coaster of a career path. From finance to sales ops and now in marketing ops, Jessenia gives us a look at how and why she made the changes she did. She also talks about the similarities and differences she's seen in her experience between marketing and sales operations for those who are interested in making the switch.Follow Jessenia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseniafrancisco/

In this week's episode, we're taking an even closer look at the Golden Rule of Marketing; market to others how you would like to be marketed to. Crissy leads us through the fundamentals of building a great marketing and sales strategy by, you guessed it, looking inwards and understanding how and why we market the way that we do. These 10 tactics can be implemented by companies of all sizes. She also gives us her opinion on how to improve current processes to make the most of your customer engagements.So get ready to take some notes and listen to this episode for Crissy's go-to tactics for great strategy.

In this week's episode, we take a further dive into the MOps roadmap and we get to hear first-hand from Perkuto's Director of Solutions Architecture, Justin Norris!Justin gives us a behind the scenes look at the steps of building, implementing, and maintaining a roadmap and why we should even care about this. He also gives us some great anecdotes and advice from his years of experience in the world of MOps.So tune-in to this episode of fwd:thinking to find out more about the ever-important MOps roadmap!Follow Justin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinnorris/

Happy New Year! In this week's episode, we discuss the Golden Rule of Marketing: Market to others as you would market to yourself and how developing empathy for your prospect can be the key to better strategic selling and marketing. We walk you through a simple, yet effective exercise to get you and your team to start thinking in this way.So sit down, grab a pencil & paper, and tune into fwd:thinking to improve your 2021 marketing strategy and really start connecting with your customers!

In this week's episode we dive into a topic we've been wanting to go a little deeper into with one of our own, Alison Rouse! We take RevOps head-on and discuss the wins and setbacks these teams have going on right now and if you should build (or expand) a team of your own.Interested? Tune in to find out more!

Is refining your email strategy on your 2021 roadmap? It probably should be.A successful strategy requires thorough planning and cross-team collaboration. This week, we discuss email protocols, best practices and the do's and don'ts of automation. Tune in to find out how to refine your strategy so you don't leave your readers searching for that unsubscribe button!

On this week’s episode, we take a look back from the beginning of 2020 and confirm which predictions we got right, which ones we got wrong, and what we learned through a wild year. We also dive into which predictions will carry on into 2021. Tune in!

On this week’s episode, we have not one, but two guests! Joining us are Courtney McAra and Grant Grigorian from The Society of Marketing Technology Consultants. We dive into some surprising things they've learned from interviewing MOps consultants on their podcast, the pros and cons of being a consultant, and some worthwhile advice on growing in MOps. Tune in!

On this week’s episode, we are delighted to have the CEO of Syncari, Nick Bonfiglio, joining us. We dive into the importance of a roadmap for both product and marketing teams, a deep look into prioritization, and his experiences owning the roadmap at Marketo vs. his new company, Syncari. This will give you a lot to think about. Tune in.

On this week’s episode, we are excited to have Darrell Alfonso joining us. We dive into Darrell’s transition from small-scale companies to working for Amazon, the importance of prioritizing, and tons of valuable advice for the MOps community. Tune in!

On this week’s episode, we are thrilled to have Jason Raisleger, the king of MOps memes, joining us. We reveal where it all started, the technical and creative side of MOps, and we even go through some of our favorite memes!If you’re in MOps and want something to lighten up your week, while also getting some real actionable MOps lessons, don’t miss this one.

On this week’s episode of fwd:thinking, we have the CS2 squad! We have a casual team chat discussing reactions to our "Elevate Your MOps" workshop at OpsStars.And we discuss the state of marketing ops, issues a lot of small MOps teams are facing, and how we can continue to elevate the role.

On this week’s episode on fwd:thinking, we talk about how to develop your marketing operations roadmap.We use a doctor’s office analogy to explain the steps needed to run a health check on your entire marketing ops function. We also dive into how to diagnose issues, prioritize the most important projects, and the best way to work on delivering the items in your plan.Tune in as we go further in depth on where you should focus your health check.

On this week’s episode of fwd:thinking, we dive into some of the best advice for people in marketing ops (that we crowdsourced from LinkedIn) and share our reactions to the comments.If you have great advice for someone in MOps or if you are just looking for some, tune in!

On this week’s episode of fwd:thinking, we talk about the uniqueness of MOps stress, tips on how to deal with it, and share real-life examples.So many in MOps are tired and burnt out but it doesn't have to be that way. Tune in, reduce your stress, and do your best MOps work.

On this week’s episode of fwd:thinking, we discuss “lumpy” attribution models, like the w-shape model, and we react to some of your Linkedin comments on this topic. Tune in to join the conversation and be part of our #marketingopsdebate 

On this week’s episode of fwd:thinking, we discuss our love/hate relationship with MQLs through the years and why our opinion has evolved over time. We argue the case for MQLs still having a place in b2b marketing, if they are used in the correct way, and if you have a mature approach to marketing metrics. If you’re interested in reporting and tracking your lifecycle this one is for you.

On this week’s episode of fwd:thinking, we are delighted to have a very special guest, Leah Allen, VP of Marketing at ModelN. We dive into the world of reporting and the metrics that you should (really) care about. Tune in!

On this week’s episode of fwd:thinking, we talked about how complicated marketing ops is getting, why you can’t focus on everything, marketing ops anxiety, and ways to audit your skill-set in order to achieve longevity in your career.

The sunk cost fallacy is dragging down marketing. It's defined as continuing a behavior or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources (time, money or effort). Think: shelf-ware tools, poor marketing channels etc.How many marketing channels do you know are not performing but you keep them anyway? How much tech do you have that isn’t producing the results you had hoped for, but you are continuing to use it anyway because of the large investment? In B2B marketing, sunk costs are bound to happen. But don’t fall into the trap of letting them continue and get worse. Tune in to see how common it is and the questions you can ask yourself to understand when to kill something in marketing before falling for this fallacy. 

On this week’s episode, we are delighted to have a very special guest, Shonal Narayan, Sr. Director of Marketing at Everstring.“Marketing ops is the Scottie Pippen of marketing.” - Shonal NarayanWell said. Marketing operations won’t get the credit they deserve and seem to be often undervalued. Michael Jordan will get all the praise, but without Pippen, there is no championship.That’s why it’s critical not to undermine the importance of alignment, especially with demand gen and marketing ops.Having both teams on the same page moving towards the same goals of the business is so important to drive the results you need.Some great takeaways from our conversation includes:How marketing ops and demand gen can support each otherMarketing ops as strategic partners for demand genGetting into the details of an ABM Play Everstring is running nowAnd much more!Tune in for a great listen and see how marketing ops can deliver a championship to you.

On this week’s episode, we are delighted to have a very special guest, Shari Johnston, Account-Based Practice Lead, Winning by Design, previous marketing leader at Demandbase, OpenDNS, & Radius"Operations folks hold the keys to the kingdom" - Shari JohnstonIt's true. Marketing ops and B2B marketing are indistinguishable these days. I mean, how would your company’s marketing work if your marketing ops team didn’t do the work. It would be a disaster. And this is especially true for ABM. With ABM, we are getting actionable data to the people who need it, getting it to them quickly, and enabling them to take action on it to help drive revenue.Sounds like MOps could be pretty important, right?And it's even more important during "these times" when deal volume could be down. Sales NEEDS to know who is in the market NOW.This is where operationalizing buyer intent data from platforms like G2 takes your ABM to the next-level. Tune in for a great listen and see where MOps has a very particular set of skills to make shit happen.

We must stop neglecting soft skills. It is holding us and the entire marketing ops function back.Soft skills help us navigate work more effectively and in MOps they are just as important to our professional growth as tech skills.This is why we were really stoked to have an awesome guest on fwd:thinking this week. Our friend, previous client, and Crissy's old boss Kristen Alexander.Kristin was the global brand marketing leader for Disney, led marketing at Agari and the marketing platform Certain. And now she is the co-founder of Ox, a SaaS platform for training soft skills.We dive into the world of soft skill development and touch on:The three most important soft skills for people in b2b marketing/opsWhere the biggest gaps are in soft skillsWhy you need to treat soft skills training like working out and other positive habitsIf you want to move up in our career this one's for you.

On this week’s episode we are honored to have a very special guest, Dan Frohnen, CMO of Sendoso join our podcast.Dan has been a repeat client of ours at 3 companies where he led marketing at Apttus, Skedulo and now Sendoso.Dan shares some amazing insights and experiences into what a CMO looks for from their MOps team and how someone in MOps can elevate themselves all the way to CMO. Like he did.Some great takeaways from our conversation includes:Career path from MOps to CMOMOps leader traits and how to separate yourselfWhat a CMO looks for in MOps professionalsABM strategy and tech stackAnd much more!Tune in for a fun listen (you won’t be disappointed) and let us know what you think!