100: Sara McNamara: Pathfinding via attribution, AI tool evaluation, and mastery in communication and boundary setting

Summary: Sara offers practical advice for martech pros: emphasizing data literacy for informed marketing decisions, advocating simple attribution models in B2B contexts, and highlighting the balanced integration of engineering expertise in martech strategies. She underscores the significance of AI in automating tasks while stressing the importance of human-centric skills like communication in an AI-enhanced marketing world.

What’s up everyone, on today’s celebratory 100th episode of the podcast, we’re incredibly pumped to chat with the legendary Sara McNamara, Senior Manager, Marketing Operations at Salesforce.

About Sara

• Sara got her start at Cloud on Tap as a Salesforce Pardot Marketing Automation Consultant where she completed 30+ Pardot implementations in under 2 years
• She took her Ops talents to Cheshire Impact, a Select Pardot and Salesforce Partner before moving to an in-house Automation Manager role administrating 3 instances of Pardot
• Her journey led her to a pivotal role at Cloudera, an open-source data platform for enterprise where she was quickly promoted to Senior Marketing Operations Manager after leading 2 enterprise MAP migrations in 6 months
• She’s advised marketing leaders at companies like Google and PayPal on how to find and attract the best MOPs talent
• She’s also a Member of 3 key communities; RevGenius, Women in Revenue and Pavilion
• She holds over 30+ licenses and certifications across popular martech and her work has been recognized by Pardot, Salesforce, Drift, and others
• When Cloudera was on the exit ramp, Sara made a mega-move to Slack. As Senior Manager of Marketing Transformation & Innovation, she had a big job shaping things up at a massive scale 
• But after a year of making waves, Salesforce swept in and bought Slack. That meant Sara's SFDC/Pardot hot takes and spicy industry insights came to an end 
• But let's be clear: Sara's brilliance hasn't dimmed one bit. If you're navigating the murky waters of MOPs or crafting your own career path, she's your north star. She's not just a source of marketing knowledge—she's arguably the finest guidepost out there for career insights

Sara thanks so much for making our 100th episode extra special and taking the time to chat with us 🙏🙏🙏

The Importance of Acquiring Practical Data Skills for Marketers
Data literacy is essential for modern marketing. Sara discusses how marketers can improve these skills and foster a data-informed culture. She emphasized the importance of understanding data beyond the hype of AI, suggesting that while AI may eventually play a significant role in analytics, marketers must first clearly define their objectives and strategies.

Sara's perspective is that marketing should be run like a business, with a focus on practical data skills tailored to the specific tools and needs of the business. She advises against getting bogged down in learning specific languages or tools unless they are directly relevant to one’s business environment. For example, learning Tableau is beneficial, but only if it aligns with the tools used in one's specific business context.

The key, according to Sara, is for marketers to be sufficiently skilled in data to not rely entirely on analytics teams for basic questions like campaign effectiveness or budget allocations. This approach doesn't mean replacing data scientists but rather complementing their work by being able to independently handle high-level data interpretations. This self-sufficiency in data handling can significantly streamline processes and reduce dependency on centralized analytics teams.

Sara also touched on the ability to scrutinize and trust the outputs of AI-driven analytics. In an era where AI is increasingly creating dashboards and reports, the ability to critically assess these outputs is crucial. Marketers need to develop the skill to not just accept these data presentations at face value but to evaluate their accuracy and relevance.

Key takeaway: For marketers in the martech era, developing data literacy is less about mastering specific tools and more about understanding and applying data in the context of their specific business environment. This involves a balance of acquiring practical data skills, fostering a data-informed culture within teams, and being critical of AI-generated analytics to ensure accuracy and relevance.

Why Attribution Should be Used as a Directional Guide
Marketing attribution, particularly in the context of B2B enterprises, presents a unique set of challenges. Sara, drawing from her experience in enterprise-level marketing and consulting for smaller teams, shared her insights on this topic. She believes that attribution should be seen as directional rather than a definitive science. Despite the allure of discovering a 'golden path' to customer conversion, Sara's experience reveals that such a path is elusive.

In her journey, she observed teams of data scientists dedicating substantial resources to unravel the mysteries of the perfect marketing attribution model. The revelation, however, was quite different from what was expected. Instead of a single path, a few key channels emerged as significant, with webinars being a standout. The realization that customers who converted often attended a webinar before making a purchase was a critical insight, guiding strategic investment in effective channels.

Sara's philosophy revolves around the question, "Is the juice worth the squeeze?" In her view, excessive focus on perfecting attribution is not just futile but also comes with an opportunity cost. She advocates for prioritizing experiments in new channels and enhancing campaigns in known, directionally effective channels over obsessing about perfect attribution.

Sara cautions against using attribution as a tool for justifying marketing's existence within an organization. She perceives this as a cultural or relational issue rather than one that can be resolved through data. When attribution turns into a tool for internal blame games, it fails to contribute constructively to organizational goals. She emphasizes the importance of addressing trust and relational dynamics first before relying on data to prove a point.

Key Takeaway: Marketers should view attribution as a directional guide rather than an exact science. Focusing on proven channels and experimenting with new ones can be more fruitful than striving for perfect attribution. Additionally, it's vital to recognize that attribution is not a panacea for underlying cultural or trust issues within an organization.

How to Pick a Marketing Attribution Model
So practically speaking, how do you actually go about attribution? Is it first touch, last touch, influence on pipeline, incremental reporting and experiments, multi touch, marketing mix modeling, self reporting… or something else? Sara’s take on this question is a breath of fresh air.

Attribution, as Sara notes, is not an exact science but a directional tool. Her experience reveals that while specific marketing channels, like webinars, can be influential in the customer journey, there is no single path that guarantees conversion. This insight is crucial for marketers who might otherwise invest excessive resources in seeking a definitive attribution model.

Her practical philosophy, summarized as "is the juice worth the squeeze?", suggests that the effort put into perfecting attribution should be proportional to the benefits it yields. Rather than obsessing over perfecting it, she advises focusing on areas with a clear, positive impact, such as experimenting with new channels or strengthening the ones that show directional success. This approach aligns w...