Ready or not, 2024 is here! What is on your 2024 roadmap? Does it include partner program operations? Or are you tackling your email strategy and deliverability? Or are you prioritizing a new AI project?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re looking at all these topics and more as we count down the nine marketing ops topics and projects that are top of mind for our clients heading into 2024. Find out how we’re thinking about customer retention, ops team convergence, custom object funnel tracking, and much more for 2024.

Tune into this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects for insight into where companies are and should be investing their resources in operations this year.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at [email protected].

What’s the best marketing automation platform? It wasn’t that long ago that when clients were looking for an enterprise grade solution they did not consider Hubspot. At CS2, for example, migrating clients from Hubspot to Marketo was commonplace.

It seems the times are changing and Hubspot has stepped up to the plate to become a more robust platform that fit’s a company’s needs even as businesses grow beyond those early start-up stages. Particularly in the last year, there’s less and less of a reason to move off of Hubspot.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we ask if Hubspot is now positioned to unseat Marketo as the top marketing automation platform. To add fuel to the fire, we’ll discuss how Hubspot CRM is giving Salesforce a run for its money as well.

Tune in for a thorough discussion on Hubspot that might make you rethink your preferred marketing automation platform.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at [email protected].

Third-party intent data is a buzz-worthy topic in B2B marketing and sales, but is it useful intelligence or so much snake oil? In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re sifting through an industry report and our own anecdotes to think critically about third-party intent data.

Gain insight into the challenges of using third-party intent data effectively, learn the results of a revealing MIT research report that may shed some light on the subject, and find out what transformed our initial excitement into skepticism.

Tune in for this investigation on third-party intent data to understand if it’s a useful tool in your operations tool kit or a data source with a lot of drawbacks.

Read the MIT report referenced in this episode: "Is first- or third-party audience data more effective for reaching the ‘right’ customers? The case of IT decision-makers".

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at [email protected].

This episode is an interesting one folks! Listen in and hear Xander, Crissy, and Charlie debate on the best way to operationalize account stages for ABM.

Defining the stages for a person funnel is easy. We have that nailed down. But nailing down the BEST way to handle account stages is still a new area where we are evolving our thinking on how to advise on the best way to set it up for most organizations. To date its been more bespoke based on the client and their goals.

During our debate, we tackle everything from what the account stages SHOULD be, how your person funnel can play a role in setting them up, why ABM tool stages are not the same as account stages, and what metrics your leadership actually wants to see and how the account stages and potential account status or tier can help support that as well.

So tune in for an episode and see us battle-test our thoughts and see if it might change the way you think on account stages as well!

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at [email protected].

Over the last year, there has been an over-reliance on using email as a channel from budget-starved marketers because it’s “free” and is the quickest way to get in front of potential buyers.

But what are the hidden costs of bad email practices? Are buyers numb to email since it’s so oversaturated? And are you hurting your brand and deliverability more than the small returns you get from your “spray-and-pray” tactics?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re rethinking B2B email strategy as the world heads into 2024 and how to adjust your tactics and engagement tracking knowing email is much harder to master and also with new guidelines from Yahoo and Gmail coming in February 2024 for bulk email senders so they can ensure their messages are getting delivered.

Tune in for an episode filled with tips on how to get the whole revenue team to improve how they approach email sending and ensure you start to see more success with it in the next year.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at [email protected].

Marketing teams are working furiously to fulfill MQL quotas as the end of the year swiftly approaches. But are MQLs the best metric to determine your marketing team’s performance? What other metrics might provide a better indicator of the health of your business and the success of your campaigns?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re breaking the MQL myth that more MQLs = hitting your revenue goals. We’ve packed this episode with discussions from how demand capture is not brand-building to why some sources like content syndication have such low conversion rates and what you’re better off doing instead. And we’re going deep on why focusing too much on MQLs over other metrics will lead you astray.

Tune in to this episode and find out how to use other funnel metrics that tie directly to opportunities!

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at [email protected].

How well are you tracking your SLAs? And perhaps more importantly, how many of them are you tracking? Measuring your speed to lead is all well and good, but focusing on it exclusively doesn’t solve all your funnel velocity issues.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’ll examine the other SLAs you should be measuring to have a holistic view of how prospects are moving through your funnel. How long has it been since the last touch? How long are you letting meetings sit before they turn into an opportunity? How long are opportunities in flight before they close? We’ll touch on all of these and more.

Tune in to find out how we’re thinking about SLA management and how aligning on SLAs with your SDR, Sales, and Demand teams will help you improve funnel velocity.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at [email protected].

Over the last year an interesting debate has heated up around Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs like Marketo, Hubspot, Pardot) and if they are necessary in this modern era of martech.

The argument against MAPs is there are new more focused best in breed tools (like iPaaS, data warehouses, data automation, more advanced B2C emailing tools) that when architected together are more powerful than a jack of all trades, master of none MAP.

So in this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’ll examine the aspects you should consider when deciding if this is the right strategy for you.

We will discuss pricing, capabilities, scalability, and complexity. We’ll compare marketing automation platforms to point solutions. And how you can perform an audit to see if what you’re paying for is the best tool for the job.

Tune in to find out if a marketing automation platform makes sense in 2023, and which of the available options make the most sense for your marketing ops team.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at [email protected].

Whether you’re expanding from a mighty Marketing Ops team of one or adding headcount to an already established crew, what are the best practices for growing your Marketing Operations team?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re sharing a framework we’ve used internally at CS2 and with our clients to determine how and when to build out your marketing ops team. Simplify your hiring practices by considering our four framework pillars: splitting the workload between Marketing Ops and Campaign Ops, closing your teams’ skill gaps, considering future business needs, and preparing for increased marketing analytics demands.

Tune in to find out how our framework can help you build the ultimate marketing operations team from the ground up or expand your current team strategically to positively impact business goals.

And if you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered, reach out to let us know at [email protected].

Your website’s chatbot just might be one of your largest MarTech expenses. And this begs the question: Is it worth it?

Maybe you’d be better off with a simple (and cheaper) form. How likely is it that you’ll be able to get your sales team fully enabled in chat anyway? Would those meetings with prospects come through even without a chatbot pinging them from their browser?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re taking a critical look at website chat tools, including how they’ve evolved and how we think about using them in marketing operations today.

So tune in to find out if website chat tools are right for your business or a drain on your MarTech budget.

Key Takeaways:

• The landscape of chat tools has evolved, with several options available on the market.
• While chatbots offer enticing levels of automation, getting the most out of them requires a significant amount of setup and maintenance.
• Focusing on creating a user-friendly website and exploring other avenues like online communities might be a better way to engage with prospects.
• There’s a strong case to be made for using chat tools for customer support and a product-led motion.
• The human touch is crucial when it comes to providing the best experience for your prospects.

Jump into the conversation:

[00:03:41] Chatbots are time-consuming compared to live chat.

[00:14:51] Are chatbot getting you more meetings or are they redundant?

[00:23:04] How to evaluate different chat tools based on their effectiveness.

[00:24:51] When determining the best char solution, consider simplicity.