If some marketing operations professionals are hesitant about moving up the ranks into management and ultimately the CMO role, one person who is convinced a career path is available is Debbie Qaqish, Principal and Chief Strategy Officer with the Pedowitz Group. At the recent MO Pros Summer Camp, she had told me: “I do think you’re going to see these multifaceted, multi-talented leaders of marketing ops step up to that CMO role. I absolutely do see that.”

Her new book, “From Backroom to Boardroom” presents a research-based account of what strategic marketing operations leaders look like and how valuable they are to businesses. The strategic market operations leader, she writes “acts as a business leader, not a button pusher.” They are not siloed, they are cross-functional. They build teams, they engineer processes and they present themselves to the business as digital visionaries.

Qaqish is enthusiastic about the possibility of strategic marketing operations leaders making the step to the C-level. “Because the use of technology to reinvent business is so much more of an imperative now than it’s ever been, I think that what we will see is these leaders of marketing ops step up into that CMO role.”

Why we care. Marketing operations may not be at a crossroads quite yet, but the day is fast approaching when the best professionals will need to decide whether they are more comfortable as hands-on technicians or whether they’re ready to step up as strategic business leaders — and ultimately to the C-suite.

If the future of marketing lies in strategic deployment of marketing technology, as we believe, then it makes a lot of sense to have the people who best understand the technology leading strategic discussions and making strategic decisions.

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Join this hour-long event curated for marketers on July 29 at 12 p.m. ET. Learn how to simplify the personalization process and use resources more efficiently and effectively from special guest Randy Warner of Forrester and also experts from Sleep Number and Dow Jones.

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User-generated content can elevate brands and give them an authentic voice — and it’s not as expensive as content produced inhouse or by agencies. But you must let UGC go, and trust the user to do the right thing, much like letting water find its own level. Impose control, and you risk losing the message that would make your brand look good. But guide UGC just a little bit, and it should work well.

An imperfect picture can be perfect, according to the Tao of UGC — that is, the right path to wisdom . “You should not be prescriptive. Let the customer be creative making the content,” said Gary Garafalo, CEO and co-founder of LoudCrowd, whose software enables brands to measure the effectiveness of UGC campaigns across platforms. Curation is necessary to make sure product placement is correct, like making sure a beach brand is being used by people in the ocean, he said, offering an example. 

If you want to drive awareness, allow UGC to flow freely through social media. “Let the customer be more creative and diverse than you in the influencer/photographer relationship,” Garofalo said.  If you want to drive conversions, curate the UGC to pick the images that work best on your web site, he added.

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Failing to build authentic customer experiences can lead to low engagement, growth, and loyalty. Join experts from ActionIQ and Merkle who will share case studies of companies across industries building technology stacks that succeed in winning customers, even in complex and regulated operating environments like banking, wealth management, insurance and beyond.

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This week’s Marketoon takes us through the various stages of data intrusion at the hands of unsavvy data management.

Fishburne’s take: Marketers are starting to go on a data diet, changing from an emphasis on big data (collecting as much data as possible) to lean data (collecting only what delivers immediate value).  But they’re also re-evaluating their data sources, shifting from third party data brokers to the data consumers willingly share about themselves directly to a brand. Forrester coined the term “zero party data” for this volunteered data: “Zero party data is that which a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand.  It can include preference center data, purchase intentions, personal context, and how the individual wants the brand to recognize her.”

Why we care: Marketers should absolutely focus their efforts on collecting data that delivers value for their business. To avoid alienating potential and existing customers in the scenarios depicted above, keep the customer’s needs front and center. Are your personalized communications delivering immediate value to the customer?

Join thousands of senior marketers online — September 14-15 — at MarTech! This two-day training experience will equip you with actionable tactics and proven strategies for meeting the challenges and opportunities data presents.

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“No implementation of technology is going to magically bring sales and marketing together.” Jeffrey L. Cohen, Sr Principal Analyst, Gartner