High Tech Companies Depending More on Marketing Operations

During the dot-com bubble from 1995 to 2001, Internet companies and firms in related fields experienced tremendous growth. At that time, these companies concentrated their marketing efforts mainly on product marketing, events marketing, marketing communications, promotions, and the like.

At that time, most high-tech companies abandoned traditional marketing models to focus on increasing market share. There was little or no attention paid to ROI metrics. After all, why count your beans when they're falling freely from the sky? It was all about getting as many beans as possible, and never mind what you spent to get them. This eventually and inevitably took its toll on their bottom line.

Today, more and more high-tech companies are depending and investing heavily on marketing operations. There is greater accountability in organizations and more emphasis on measuring activities vis-a-vis results. Creativity in marketing is still of the utmost importance, but now, there is greater attention paid to the science of marketing and how to improve systems and processes to achieve campaign results.

Many high-tech companies are instituting robust core marketing processes and practices, and putting in place the systems to automate them. At the same time, companies are reviewing and changing marketing practices to make sure that their systems and processes are utilized in a manner that is collaborative, effective and productive. The goal is to create a culture of constant optimization where the marketing workforce's skill set is continuously developed and where an emphasis on best practices is key.

How is marketing operations conducted in your company? Perhaps it's time to heed the lessons of those dot-com companies and pay more attention to marketing operations.