The document provides an overview of campaign operations processes and roles. It discusses key aspects of managing campaign production including defining program types, setting service level agreements (SLAs), understanding team capacity, and measuring key performance indicators. Common challenges like prioritizing work, handling errors, and assessing internal vs external resources are also addressed. Career paths within campaign operations such as campaign management, platform operations, and marketing intelligence are outlined.

1. Campaign Operations – A Primer
for Production Teams

2. Campaign Operations –
A Primer for Production
Teams
Josh Hill
AVP, Marketing Automation & Technology
RingCentral

3. Source: Etumos

4. Campaign Ops is the tip of the spear
Campaign Operations
Platform Ops & Architecture
DevOps/Engineering

5. The Campaign Production
Process

6. Programs and campaigns, oh my!
Theme
Tagline
Value
Prop
Campaign (Journey)
Targeted
Theme
Persona
Timeframe
Program
CTA Channel Asset

7. Roles for a successful campaign
Campaign Manager Creative Copywriters Channel Managers
Campaign Production Analysts
• Campaign
Brief
• Journey
Design
• Responsible
• Approvals
• Images
• Designs
• Copy
• PSDs
• Copy
• Copyedit
• Journey Doc
• Specifications
• Build
• Capture Data
• Audience
Selection
• Audience
building
across
channels
• SEO, SEM,
etc
• Optimize
Spend
• Data
storytelling
• Funnel
Analysis
• Tactical
Results

8. Process management
Campaign Brief
• Overall
journey
design
• Audience
• Channels
• What’s the
story?
• What’s the
goal?
Creative
• Imagery
• Design
• Brand
Journey Design
• Process
charts
• Detailed
audience
• Goals and
how do we
know?
• What should
the Lead do?
• What should
each team do
in reaction?
• Channels
and hand offs
Build
• Code HTML
• Data pulls
• integration
points
• Data capture
• Testing & QA
Launch
• Press the
Button
• Monitor initial
counts and
data for
errors
Monitor
• Analytics and
reports
• Adjust
content or
journey
• Optimize
spend
Campaign Manager
Campaign Manager Campaign Manager
Campaign Manager
Creative
Copywriters
Channel Managers
Channel Managers
Marketing
Automation
Marketing
Automation
Marketing
Automation
Campaign Manager Analysts
Channel Managers
Channel Managers

9. Your swimlane
Campaign Mgr
Creative
Campaign
Production
(MOPS)
Channels
Analytics
Campaign Brief
Creative
Session
Designs
Copy
Journey
Session
Journey Doc
Build QA
SLA
Starts
Budgeting & Plan Schedule
Plan Dashboards Data Requirements Feedback Loop
Attribution
Codes
First Send Date
SLA Ends
LAUNCH!
Approvals
Approvals
Load Up
SLA
Starts
Goal Setting
Target Lock In
Code HTML

10. Journey Doc & Process
Critical Questions Example 1 Example 2
Who - Audience
• (Target Accounts in Arizona with Grade of
A or B) and Persona X
• Customers with RC App and 25 users or
More with greater than X activity
What - Content
• 5 emails
• 2 pages
• 10 ad variations
• Add pro level Call Center capabilities to
improve your NPS
Why – Goals – Good & Bad
• Read more
• CTAs
• Form Fill Journey
Setup a meeting with your rep
How – Which Channel?
• Email
• LinkedIn
• Display networks
• Email
• SMS
• In App
• LinkedIn, Display Networks
When – Cadence? Recurrence?
March 1 and immediately whenever
Has Intent Data
OR
Visits RingCentral.com
• March 1, pull in new qualifying weekly.

11. Program Types & Templating
Program Type LOE or Billable Hours Service Level
Agreement – in Days
BOM Examples
Field Roadshow - Pre
Show
10 hours 5 days Attribution steps
Reg Page
Invitation
Reminder
Field Roadshow – Post
Show
5 hours 2 days Attribution steps
Thank You Emails (2)
Process Data & Route
to Sales
Single Email Blast –
Generic
5 hours 3 days 1 email
QA
List – easy
Full Nurture Journey 25 hours 15 days Up to 8 emails at
launch
3 channels
List Automation
A Program Type defines a kind of deployment and Program Template in your Process and down to your MAP. Each
Program Type gets
• Process Chart
• Assigned team experts
• Bill of Materials – what the Marketer Gets, what will be promised in a standard deployment
• Process doc, Journey doc –detailing what copy, images, etc, launch dates, etc
• SLA and Level of Effort

12. Bill of Materials – what you get
Item QTY SLA LOE Dependency Notes
Attribution Campaign Code 1 2 .5 Ticket filed with info Is there an attribution or code step? url
parameters?
Invitation Email 1 – Coding 1 5 1 Copy One email is updated with copy
Invitation Email Copy 1 5 1 Copywriter Copy to be written or updated
Landing Page with Form 1 5 2 Copy, images, journey 1 page with Form - standard
Post Form Journey
Workflow
1 5 2 Journey Doc 1 workflow after the form fill out that does
XYZ
Reminder Email 1 4 .5 Copy Reminder email set 2 days before event
QA 1 2 .5 Build ready Whatever QA steps
Approval Steps 1 NA .5
Clone & Update Template 1 2 .25 Ticket Step of cloning out the Program, doing
updates
List Pull – Invitation 1 5 2 Audience request Finding list per audience definition
**additional items will add to SLA
Rework, add ons, or changes will restart
SLA and process.
AB Testing for 1 Email 0 +2 5 Copy, design of exp Must be requested at start, adds 2 days

13. “It’s built to the
requirements”

14. Process Analysis – can you do more with
less?
• Executives will always challenge
you to do more with less; to take
steps out.
• New staff or a team will always
challenge you repeatedly.
• New leadership will only hear
complaints, not the 99.5% you did
right. Make sure you are
communicating upwards
regularly.
Document and review processes
regularly.
Reduce choice, exceptions
Show up with Data.

15. How do you make it simpler?
• Is it complex or it is tied to a
requirement?
• Ask Why 5 Times
• Map out each step and swimlanes,
fishbone diagram
• Are there multiple exceptions?
• Is this still necessary?
• Who asked for it? Do they still care?
• Could you make it simpler?
• What if….?
• Is it a priority question? Source: Wikipedia

16. How much QA & Testing is necessary?

17. Handling production errors
1.Assess the impact
2.Investigate the cause
3.Call Stakeholders
4.Stop the campaign if possible
5.Document the situation to explain it
6.Offer solutions and next steps
7.Resolve the Error
8.Rebuild or Re-release
9.Update documentation
10.Build new guardrails
11.Learn
How you
HANDLE
mistakes is
more
important than
the mistake.

18. Common causes of Errors
• Poor documentation
• New process that had unforeseen
consequences
• Upstream systems changed
• Someone edited it after QA
• Vendor system issue
• Stakeholder changed something but
it wasn’t communicated back
• Did not follow the Process

19. Team and Staffing

20. The Team
Builders
Stakeholder POC & QA
Leadership & Priorities Head of
Production
Front End
Dev
Developer Developer
Customer
Ops
MA
Specialist
MA
Specialist
Acquisition
Ops
MA
Specialist
MA
Specialist
Event Ops
Event
Specialist
Webinar
Specialist

21. Builders
Stakeholder POC &
QA
Leadership &
Priorities
Director of
Marketing
Tech
Campaign
Team
MA
Specialist
MA
Specialist
Front End
Developer
Event Ops
Event
Specialist
Webinar
Specialist
A smaller team example

22. Campaign Ops Workflow Models
Global
Standards
EMEA
APAC
LATAM
North
America
Channel
Campaign
Ops
Analyst Content
Campaign
Manager
Campaign
Manager
Creative
Marketing
Automation
Analytics
Channel
Campaign
Ops
Analyst Content
Events
Hub and Spoke
Or COE
Agile Pod Embedded
Central Service or
Process

23. A bit about SLAs
A Service Level Agreement is between one or more teams to say that if certain conditions
are met, one team will deliver a product within a specified timeframe.
• Program Type
• First Send Date or Handoff
Defined
Deliverable
• Requestor must deliver Requirements on Time
• Builder must follow up, ask questions, deliver, explain risks
• Agreed prioritization framework
Roles &
Responsibilities
• SLA of 10 business days – if full requirements provided
• May do some work in parallel
Timeframes
• QA fail will delay
• Missing requirements or no approvals will delay
• Workload and Priority
• Better LATE than WRONG
Caveats

24. SLAs and the whiplash effect
Source: Wikimedia

25. SLAs and the whiplash effect
Campaign
Manager
Creative Copywriting
Campaign
Production
Change in Delivery at each step, or Volume has impact
downstream in their SLA adherence at the same capacity.
To hit all
deadlines, MA
Team has to work
overtime OR delay
some work.
Mgr gets exec
request for ONE
more campaign

26. Use a framework to handle reality
Reality will always get in the way of a good plan or process. Have a framework to deal
with it professionally.
• ROI Calculation for each Request
• Expected Revenue, Ratios, etc
• Waterfall to handle non ROI asks (Execs, Legal, Must Dos)
• Everyone uses the same framework, including Execs
• It’s not the LOE – it’s the Capacity + Priority
Prioritization
• Mistakes – Major Production Errors should be defined
• Operate a No Blame Culture
• Own them, expose them, understand root causes
• Work with stakeholders to correct.
• Update docs, process to not do the same one twice.
No Blame
Culture
• Stakeholders may go on vacation, go dark, refuse to use the agreed
process.
• Be clear that their inability to work the process means their program is
DELAYED.
• Enforce the rules or you will be overwhelmed.
Stakeholders

27. Understanding capacity and throughput
A measure, in hours or minutes, of how
long a task takes.
This is NOT the same as an SLA.
Level of Effort
If you have 5 people who can work on 1
Program a day, you can launch 5 Programs
per day.
That assumes each Program is the same
and has all of the components ready.
Real throughput has to take into account
the upstream and downstream processes
along with delays, changes, priorities, and
meetings.
Throughput
Promise, in days (usually) to complete a
task.
In Campaign Ops, it is usually a First Send
Date promise.
Assumes other teams do their part and you
have full details at start of SLA.
Service Level Agreement

28. Understanding capacity
Time Hours Requests Hours/Req (LOE) Hours Needed Shortfall
Hours/Week 40 10 5 50 -10
Hours/Qtr 480 120 5 600 -120
Hours/Year 1920 480 5 2400 -480
FTE 5
Hours/Week 200 27 5 135 65
Hours/Qtr 2400 324 5 1620 780
Hours/Year 9600 1296 5 6480 3120
Individual
Team
Need .25
FTE for
the year
Reassign
or take on
more!

29. Production KPIs to consider
KPI Definition Does it matter? Calculation
SLA
Attainment
How many Programs hit their
First Send Date?
Yes.
Keeps trains on time.
Number of Programs that Hit
First Send Date / Total Program
Requested in Quarter.
Utilization /
Capacity
How many hours or slots are
used vs capacity?
Yes.
Your team and management
need to understand limits and
when it is time to ask for more
resources.
Number of Hours Used / Hours
Available
Error Rate How many major errors went
out at launch?
Major error can be defined as
things that affect experience
for customer or intention.
Only if you learn from mistakes. Number of Mistakes / Number of
Total Programs Launched in
Quarter.
Budget Dollars Spent vs Dollars
Expected
Overall yes. Many firms want
departments to land within 1%
variance.
Actual Spend / Budget
ROI Cost / Benefit Yes Total Cost of Project / Pipe or
Profit

30. In House, Agency, or Outhouse?
In House Campaign Ops Agency
Pros Cons
Dedicated staff you can train Shows up as Labor Costs
Loyal staff with career paths
will always work harder and
better for you
Slower to hire and fire
Lower cost than agency Short termers will spend
more time training than
doing.
Can reallocate to projects or
other programs easily as
work changes.
Slow to train on systems so
your capacity may lag
behind demand
They know your systems
and how to GSD in your
company.
Pros Cons
Easier to hire and fire Pay their overhead - 3x what
they pay their people.
Shows up as Professional
Services or other spend
Hard to get dedicated team
to always do it your way
Great for projects Will never care about your
brand or methods as much
as you do
Great for skills gaps Looking for billable hours
Great for temporary gaps Long term is too expensive
People tag out too often

31. What systems help manage a
production process?

32. Tools of the trade - a few of my favorites
Project & Process Design QA
Asana
Wrike
Trello
JIRA
Every team must use the
same platform – no
platform jumping or
dropped tasks will
happen.
The tool is less important
than making sure it works
for YOUR process and
grows with you.
Lucidchart
Visio
Adobe CS
Google Docs
MS Office
Make sure you
standardize across the
org to avoid compatibility
issues and
ENSURE cloud
collaboration – no
attachments!
EmailOnAcid
Litmus
Browserstack
StackMoxie
And more…
Build QA into your
checklists, process, and
integrations.
A lot of testing tools exist for
every scenario.
Always have a process and requirements before going out to purchase tools.

33. Career Paths

34. Platform Operations Campaign Operations
Marketing Intelligence
Operations
Development
Marketing Operations
Job Duties:
● Campaign Production
● Campaign Measurement
● Project Management
● SLA Tracking
Characteristics:
● Attention to Detail
● Responsiveness
● Service-minded
Job Titles:
● Campaign Operations Manager
● Campaign Specialist
● Marketing Operations Specialist
Job Duties:
● Administration
● Architecture
● Governance
Characteristics:
● Systems-Thinkers
● Coding Exposure
● Creative Problem Solvers
● Attention to Detail
Job Titles:
● Marketing Operations Manager
● Marketing Operations Architect
● Marketing Automation Manager
● Systems Analyst
● Business Analyst
Job Duties:
● Reporting
● Prescriptive Analytics
● Controlled Tests
Characteristics:
● Data Nerds
● Visualization geeks
● “We should test that!”
Job Titles:
● Marketing Analyst
● Marketing Data Scientist
● Marketing Intelligence (MI)
Analyst
● Marketing Intelligence (MI) Data
Scientist
Job Duties:
● Pre-sales Tool Dev
● Custom Integrations
● Web Design/Dev
● Email Design/Dev
Characteristics:
● Inventor
● Creative Problem Solver
● Clean Code Obsession
Job Titles:
● Email Designer
● Web Designer
● Full Stack Developer
● Front End Developer
● Marketing Engineer
● Marketing Developer
● Marketing Operations
Developer
The Four Pillars – Roles & Skills

35. Q&A

36. Individual vs People Manager
People
Manager
Individual Contributor
• Coach team members in their career, project
• Manage Upwards, Manage the Why
• Create narrative about the projects and teams
• Set tone for the team
• Give People Permission to Do …XYZ
• Map business needs back to actions, systems, etc
• Remove roadblocks
• Establish partnerships across org
• Define strategy
• Keep team skilled
• Stay skilled and up to date
• Deliver work
• Ensure work matches requirements
• Explain roadblocks
• Offer solutions

37. Glossary
Term Definition
SLA Attainment How many Program hit their First Send Date?
Utilization / Capacity How many hours or slots are used vs
capacity?
Error Rate How many major errors went out at launch?
Major error can be defined as things that affect
experience for customer or intention.
First Send Date The launch date or the first day the first email
will go out.
The Process The overall campaign process

38. Key terms to use
Issue/Term Defined as How to Handle
Approval Written approval that the step owner agrees
this is what they wanted. After approval, the
next step begins.
If approvals do not happen on time, then final deliverable is
delayed. Project Manager or Builder will follow up and
remind Requestor of the consequences.
The Process Your overall process. Use the process. Failure to use the process means blame
will be assigned if something goes wrong.
Change Order Requestor makes a change in the middle of
the process
Requestor acknowledges that the team will start over and
their project is delayed.
Re-work Caused by a Change Order in the middle of
work; or QA or Error; work must be scrapped
and redone to meet new requirement
Avoid re-work by receiving Written Approval before this
work begins. Ensure requirements are agreed on before
any work starts.
Scrum 15 min call with small group to bring up
progress and blockers
People confuse Scrum with Agile. This is only a starting pt
and a good meeting to have daily.
Requirement What the Campaign Manager asked for; what
the production team will work toward.
Ensure requirements are clear with a Campaign or Journey
Doc
Production Error When a live program has a customer facing
Error; A large scale data mistake
QA Steps can reduce errors.
Document everything. Enforce checklists
Own mistakes immediately and surface with Managers and
Stakeholders to work out resolution.
COVER UPS are WORSE THAN THE MISTAKE.