Marketing operations managers tend to come and go (average tenure mirrors other B2B marketing roles at 2-4 years, especially in tech) and that transitory nature means that it’s more difficult – and less common – for companies to adopt a strategic, long-term vision for their marketing automation system.
One of the consequences of this short-term focus, coupled with the constant day-to-day demands of the MOPs function, is that MAP instances often become cluttered, disorganized, and out of date. (Bad news for the company, good news for service providers like us who are paid to come in and clean things up.)
Fortunately, adhering to even a few best practices can help better maintain a marketing automation system and minimize the need (and cost) for “spring cleaning.” Furthermore, maintaining a clean, well-organized instance has other benefits:
* Improved data quality and more accurate reporting, leading to better decision-making
* Easier compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA
* Lower license cost by eliminating outdated, inaccurate, or invalid records
* Reduced confusion and streamlined processes for internal teams
* More effective personalization, segmentation, and campaign triggers
Below is a checklist containing some of what our team finds to be the most effective ways to keep a marketing automation system up to date:
1. Audit data regularly.
Conduct audits on a regular prescribed schedule to ensure data accuracy and relevancy. Remove outdated or redundant contacts, segments, and lists.
2. Standardize naming conventions.
Use consistent naming conventions for campaigns, workflows, lists, and tags. This helps overall organization and makes it easier to locate items and identify outdated assets.
3. Implement data hygiene protocols.
Set up processes to validate and cleanse data at prescribed, regular intervals. This includes merging duplicates, appending incomplete records, and removing outdated information.
12 Tips for Keeping Your Marketing Automation System Clean Share on X4. Monitor campaign performance.
Review campaign performance metrics quarterly to identify underperforming or obsolete campaigns. Remove, archive, or replace campaigns that no longer serve your goals, feature outdated content or branding, or simply don’t reflect current best practices.
5. Optimize workflows.
Regularly review and optimize automation workflows. Remove unnecessary steps and update triggers and other actions based on performance data, changes in your strategy, or best practices.
6. Document processes and rules.
Document rules for data entry, segmentation, and automation workflows. This ensures consistency and clarity for all users, current and future, and makes it easier to maintain and optimize the system.
7. Train users on best practices.
Provide training for your team on how to use the platform effectively and adhere to clean data practices. This reduces errors, misuse, and the cost of bad data.
8. Use permissions and access controls.
Limit access to sensitive or critical functions within the platform. Assign roles with appropriate permissions to maintain security and data integrity.
9. Archive inactive or outdated data.
Move inactive contacts, old campaigns, and outdated content to an archive rather than deleting them outright. This preserves historical data while keeping the active platform clean.
10. Regularly update and maintain integrations.
Ensure integrations with other systems (CRM, analytics tools, ABM platforms) are up-to-date and functioning correctly. This prevents data syncing issues and keeps your data consistent across platforms.
11. Adopt and enforce a global form strategy.
Creating and using a standardized set of forms across all channels and campaigns helps maintain data consistency and accuracy, ensures data privacy compliance, and makes it easier to implement global updates. Aim to have 2-3 forms at most to facilitate any future changes.
12. Create, maintain, and enforce use of an approved template library.
Maintaining a standard, approved set of email and landing page templates for core use cases (promo emails, invitations, product announcements, etc.) ensures that all campaigns adhere to brand guidelines and email best practices. Review and update templates annually at minimum to incorporate brand updates, design trends, or compliance requirements.
Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash