Ops Cast

Mustafa Saeed, co-founder and CEO of Luella, shares insights on the evolving landscape of email marketing shaped by AI. He highlights the dangers of reckless automation, where valuable communications get caught in spam filters. Saeed urges a collaborative approach, mixing human intuition with AI's analytical prowess for genuine outreach. He also delves into strategies for email reputation management and the importance of maintaining human connection in a tech-driven world, ensuring successful and ethical marketing practices.

Nicole Alvarez, a Solutions Architect at ClearPivot with a background in psychology and cognitive science, dives into the often-overlooked "ugly work" in marketing operations. She shares insights on the importance of field audits and data cleanup, revealing how these foundational tasks lead to successful marketing initiatives. Nicole discusses using flawed data reports to persuade executives about the need for investing in operational quality. With her unique blend of skills, she emphasizes creativity in overcoming data challenges and enhancing CRM systems for better decision-making.

In this discussion, Garrath Robinson, co-founder and head of marketing for RevXL, and Sebastian Hidalgo, co-founder and head of sales at RevXcel, dive into the evolving landscape of go-to-market strategies. They emphasize the necessity for speed and trust in today’s market. The duo advocates for breaking down silos between sales and marketing and introduces frameworks like STRIKE and SWAT for effective collaboration. Their insights challenge traditional methods, stressing that better execution can dramatically reshape how teams engage with buyers.

Tarun Arora, a marketing tech veteran and founder of RevCrew, dives into the transformative power of AI in streamlining operations. He explains how 'agentic AI' can function as virtual team members, tackling tasks that require judgment. Tarun shares compelling examples, from inbox management to campaign optimization, highlighting AI's capacity to eliminate busy work. He offers pragmatic advice on starting small, emphasizing the importance of addressing significant needs and exploring real use cases for effective automation.

Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show!When your marketing team needs to produce thousands of content pieces each month, the operational challenges can become overwhelming. In this eye-opening conversation with Satej Sirur, founder and CEO of Rocketium, we explore the emerging field of Creative Operations and how it's transforming how enterprise brands manage their content production.Satej shares how his "pet project" evolved into a platform that now helps performance marketers and creative teams work more efficiently together. We unpack the fundamental tension between creative expression and performance optimization - a struggle familiar to anyone who's tried balancing brand guidelines with marketing results.The most fascinating insights come when we discuss what makes creative content perform well. While marketers claim to be data-driven, few have systematically analyzed which creative elements drive results. Should your logo be larger in awareness campaigns? Does showing a product outside its packaging perform better than inside? Most decisions rely on gut feelings rather than data. Rocketium changes this by extracting creative attributes and correlating them with performance metrics to identify winning patterns.For organizations producing high volumes of content (2,000+ pieces monthly) with substantial teams (10+ members) and significant ad spend ($5-10M minimum), Creative Ops solutions offer a way to eliminate repetitive tasks and focus on strategic decisions. Satej emphasizes that technology alone isn't enough - implementing these solutions requires a cultural shift toward data-informed decision-making while still respecting creative expertise.Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations ProfessionalsSupport the show

AJ Driscoll shares how understanding product marketing transformed his career from a system administrator to a marketing leader. He stresses the importance of data-driven insights in refining Ideal Customer Profiles and emphasizes collaboration within teams. Unique methodologies for evaluating customer demographics and win rates are discussed, along with the role of AI tools in enhancing data analysis. AJ advocates for a service-oriented mindset in marketing operations, fostering relationships that drive business success.

Eric Westerkamp, CEO of CaliberMind and a veteran in marketing analytics, delves into the chaos of marketing data. He highlights the 'data dumpster fire' many marketers face and offers practical ways to build trust in data storytelling. Emphasizing starting with specific reports, he shares insights on normalizing data across systems and combating unique job title variations. The conversation also touches on the revolutionary role of AI in marketing operations, improving customer journey mapping and enhancing overall efficiency.

Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show!What happens when all your digital breadcrumbs—personal emails, professional accounts, device IDs, and physical addresses—get connected into a single identity? Jeremy Katz, SVP of Product Solutions, Identity and Data at Merkle, takes us deep into the fascinating world of identity resolution and first-party data.Starting with his unconventional path from English major to data analytics leader, Jeremy shares the pivotal moments that shaped his understanding of how organizations can build comprehensive customer views. He breaks down complex concepts like identity graphs, customer data platforms, and the technical challenges of defining seemingly simple terms like "customer." Through real-world examples from his experience implementing enterprise-wide customer data hubs, Jeremy illustrates how companies struggle with and ultimately solve the puzzle of connecting fragmented customer information.Looking toward the future, Jeremy identifies emerging trends that will reshape how organizations manage and leverage identity—from AI-driven audiences and synthetic data to retail media networks and data collaboration through clean rooms. Whether you're a marketing operations professional trying to implement a CDP or a business leader trying to understand the strategic value of your first-party data, this episode offers crucial insights into one of marketing's most foundational yet complex challenges.Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations ProfessionalsSupport the show

Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show!The modern job hunt is broken—but Ryan Murphy, Managing Partner at UpfrontOps, has cracked the code. After being forced to resign from his position during a cross-country move, Ryan found himself frantically applying to hundreds of jobs with zero responses. Through experimentation and insight from HR professionals, he developed a revolutionary approach that transformed his results from 0% to a 50% interview rate.He reveals why most job seekers fail before they begin. Your resume likely scores terribly with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), the digital gatekeepers rejecting your applications before human eyes ever see them. The solution isn't just tweaking your resume—it's understanding the psychology of hiring managers and the hidden mechanics of job platforms like LinkedIn. Ryan shares the exact strategy for optimizing your resume for ATS using JobScan.co, how to craft personalized connection messages that bypass premium LinkedIn requirements, and the precise phrase to use in interviews to discover a position's true salary range before revealing your expectations.Ready to transform your job search? Whether you're currently looking or preparing for future opportunities in marketing operations, these battle-tested techniques will give you a significant advantage in a competitive market. Connect with Ryan at UpfrontOps.com to learn more and access templates that have helped professionals secure immediate salary increases and land roles they love.Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations ProfessionalsSupport the show

Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show!Ever feel like your marketing data is giving you half-truths? You're not alone. In this eye-opening conversation with Dan McGaw, founder and CEO of UTM.io, we dive deep into the critical but often overlooked foundation of all marketing attribution: UTM parameters and proper data governance.We explore the real challenges marketing ops professionals face in implementing consistent UTM parameters across global organizations. Dan shares practical insights on how to transform your approach from the ubiquitous "UTM spreadsheet" to more robust systems that enforce taxonomies and ensure data quality. His advice comes with empathy for the marketing ops professionals caught between demanding VPs and busy campaign managers who "just want to get their job done."Whether you're struggling with attribution models, considering a CDP, or simply trying to bring order to chaotic UTM parameters, this episode offers practical wisdom from someone who's seen it all. Dan's parting advice? Start with a spreadsheet to solve 85% of the problem, then iterate until you're ready for specialized tools. It's a refreshing reminder that sometimes the simplest solutions lay the groundwork for sophisticated attribution strategies.Ready to bring order to your marketing attribution? Listen now and discover the power of proper data governance.Episode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations ProfessionalsSupport the show