The future of marketing operations looks bright. To find out how bright that future is heading into 2015, we reached out to marketing operations thought leaders for their top New Year’s predictions and compiled them into one eBook: The Future of Marketing Operations: Expert Predictions for 2015. While predictions and opinions will vary about the future of marketing operations, we can say for sure that there’s plenty of optimism surrounding this important function as we head into 2015.

1. The Future of
Marketing
Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015

2. Over the past couple of years, the visibility and
responsibilities of marketing operations have expanded
dramatically as more companies require the marketing
function to run as a fully accountable business unit.
In fact, the role and discipline of marketing operations
becoming more ubiquitous is one of the common themes
revealed in this eBook, The Future of Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015.
To learn more about the state of marketing operations
heading into 2015, we reached out to content marketing,
demand generation and, of course, operations thought
leaders for their top New Year’s predictions.
As you read through these predictions, you might notice
some other common themes, such as the emergence of a
“Chief of Staff” reporting to the CMO and the necessity for
all marketers, regardless of function, to understand process,
technology and data as part of their overall skill set.
While predictions and opinions will vary about the future of
marketing operations, we can say for sure that there’s
plenty of optimism surrounding this important function as
we head into 2015.
We hope you enjoy The Future of Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015.
The ProofHQ Team
Do you have a prediction of your own about the role and
discipline of marketing operations in 2015?
Visit our blog at bit.ly/operations2015 and leave a comment.
Introduction
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015

3. 12
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015
Carlos
Hidalgo
Marketing Operation’s
Role in Business Success
Will Increase
For years, organizations have built
up and invested in sales operations.
Now we’re seeing the same
investment being made in
marketing operations. Increasingly,
CEOs are demanding that CMOs
demonstrate the value of their
respective marketing departments
and be held accountable for the
revenue those departments help
drive for the company.
In today’s business environment,
the key to ultimate success of this
directive will be the role of
marketing operations and its use of
advanced analytics, predictive tools
and big data to run the marketing
machine. I believe that marketing
operations will play a pivotal role in
the maturation and recognition of
the marketing department as a fully
accountable business unit,
elevating the role from cost center
to valuable business partner.
Carlos Hidalgo
CEO & Principal | ANNUITAS
www.annuitas.com
Twitter: @cahidalgo

4. Jascha
Kaykas-Wolff
Marketing Operations: The Lynchpin of a
Strong Marketing Team
More and more, I see the function of operations
(process engineering, data, technology and
development) becoming the lynchpin of a strong
marketing team. As we move into 2015 and beyond, I
expect demand generation to find a home as a
speciality within marketing operations. When a strong
operations team exists within a marketing group, the
ability for the organization to drive strategy based on
empirical data is heightened. A data-driven marketing
team can benefit the company through its positive
influence in sales, product and more.
It’s my opinion that the maturation of marketing
operations over the last handful of years has secured
its place at the proverbial leadership table. What’s
most interesting to me, right now, is how we will
find and nurture the next generation of marketing
operations professionals and what kind of new
perspectives they will bring to the discipline.
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff
CMO | BitTorrent
3
www.marketingiteration.com
Twitter: @kaykas
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015

5. Jenna Keegan
Marketing Operations Will Become the
Cool Kids at the Table
The processes and technologies that marketing
operations staff manages empower the marketing
department to measure its performance in
quantifiable numbers, which makes the entire
department more strategic and effective over time.
And because the insights and data that marketing
operations gathers, analyzes and presents to every
level of the organization are hot commodities,
visibility of the operations function is at an all-time
high. It’s in this data that marketing departments−all
the way up to the CMO−prove their worth.
Consider marketing operations the glue that holds
marketing and sales together. Touching every
department within the organization, marketing
operations gains unique perspective into the needs of
sales and can translate that back to marketing.
Further cementing our new status as members of the
“in crowd,” we’re at the forefront of emerging
technology that can change and even improve the
way a company generates revenue. That can turn
some heads on the executive floor.
So in 2015, I see marketing operations becoming the
“cool kids’ table.” Why? The world’s become more
data-driven, and guess what? We’ve got all of the
numbers.
Jenna Keegan
Marketing Operations Manager | Lattice Engines
1
www.lattice-engines.com
Twitter: @jennakeegs
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 20154

6. Allison MacLeod
From Backstage to Center Stage: How the
Role of Marketing Operations will Emerge
The role of marketing operations will be much more
visible in 2015 as it strengthens its position as a
strategic partner that helps the CMO and marketing
team drive the marketing strategy of a company. I see
marketing operations as more than managing process
and systems; it’s an up and coming function that uses
data, analytics and technology to enhance how and
when a company targets and markets to prospects
and customers, and ultimately contributes to the
business.
I also see marketing operations professionals taking
on a greater advisory role by helping the rest of the
marketing team determine where they can be most
effective. And, with a focus on data and use of
predictive analytics, I think we’ll see an even larger
shift to quality over quantity in 2015.
Marketing operations skills will no longer be the
exclusive domain of marketing operations specialists.
All marketers, regardless of function, need to
understand process, technology and data in today’s
business environment.
Allison MacLeod
Sr. Director, Demand Generation & Marketing Operations |
Rapid7
www.rapid7.com
Twitter: @allib1121
5 5
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015

7. Jon Miller
Marketing Operations
Follows Adoption of
Marketing Automation
1
The concept of marketing operations is
still a new one for most companies,
and so the discipline of marketing
operations more often than not follows
the adoption of marketing automation.
As more companies adopt marketing
automation, then, we’ll see marketing
operations establish a stronger
foothold.
A lot of companies buy marketing
automation first to solve specific
business problems — lead nurturing,
lead scoring, lead management,
marketing analytics, etc. And, most of
the time, companies adopting
marketing automation for the first time
haven’t yet established formal
marketing operations processes.
As companies use automation and
mature in their use of the technology,
that’s when they start embracing
marketing operations as a more formal
discipline.
What marketing operations can do is
become the “Chief of Staff” for the
CMO. And in companies where
marketing operations isn’t yet thriving,
the question becomes, what can they
do to step up their game?
Jon Miller
VP & Co-Founder | Marketo
www.marketo.com
Twitter: @jonmiller
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015 6

8. 17
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015
Gerry
Murray
The Rise of the
Marketing Chief
of Staff
The responsibilities associated with
marketing operations — campaign
management, marketing
technology, data and analytics,
budgeting and planning — are
becoming more complex, spanning
multiple departments, divisions and
geographies. As that complexity
increases, the role becomes divided
among specialists in each of these
areas. That creates the need for a
more senior role that can
coordinate global marketing
operations. In 2015, we’ll see more
companies establishing a “Chief of
Staff” role that reports directly to
the CMO and who manages the
various specialties, freeing the
CMO to focus on facilitating
growth, sales and marketing
strategy.
Gerry Murray
Research Manager, IDC | CMO
Advisory
www.idc.com
Twitter: @murray_gerry

9. David M. Raab
The Marketing Operations Function
Becomes More Complex
Marketing operations will continue to become more
important as marketing systems and programs
become more complicated. In particular,
cross-channel projects will require marketing
operations professionals who stand outside the
channel-specific departments such as Web site
management, email marketing or advertising media.
New types of training will be needed to help
marketing operations staff run new types of systems
and do more complex analytics needed to evaluate
and optimize the more complex programs.
But marketing will continue to be run by people with
strategic vision and deep customer insights. That’s not
the skill set of marketing operations.
David M. Raab
Principal | Raab Associates, Inc.
8
www.raabassociatesinc.com
Twitter: @draab
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015

10. Kathleen
Schaub
Operational Excellence
will Separate the Leaders
from the Laggards
1
Marketing leaders dramatically
outspend their peers in marketing
technology. Companies just can’t reap
all of the benefits of marketing
technology without proficiency in
operations. Collaborative,
systems-oriented approaches go hand in
hand with content marketing,
data-driven marketing and other modern
marketing competencies. Leading
organizations are operationally effective
– laggards are not, simple as that.
Every marketing professional would
benefit from having a working
understanding of core operational
constructs. It should be part of a
marketing leader’s repertoire along
with things like finance, people
management and data/technology. Not
every CMO needs to be an operational
expert or specialist, but every CMO
should have a key member of their
senior team who is responsible for
improving operational competency in
the organization.
Kathleen Schaub
Vice President, IDC CMO Advisory Service |
IDC
www.idc.com
Twitter: @kathleenschaub
The Future of
Marketing Operations:
Expert Predictions for 2015 9

11. 1
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