3 Marketing Operations Trends Every Leader Should Be Planning For

The only constant in marketing operations these days seems to be change. Just a decade ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find dedicated MOPS teams in most companies. Now, bulking up marketing ops muscle is one of the most important things a marketing leader can do.

Marketing operations trends move quickly and can leave the unprepared in the dust. That’s why we’ve compiled three key trends, based on the results of our 2022 State of Marketing Operations Talent report, a project we undertook with Highway Education, that every marketing leader should have on their radar.

1. Rising Demand for New Talent

You’re not the only one on the hunt for new members of your MOPs team. In just the last two years, the average marketing operations team grew by two-thirds, from 7-11 people, with teams in companies of 10,000 people or fewer seeing their MOPs headcount double.

As expectations mount on marketing organizations to drive revenue, we can expect this demand to continue to grow. “It’s very competitive,” says Crissy Saunders, CEO and co-founder of marketing operations consultancy CS2. “It feels like we’re all swimming in a very small pool going after the same talent.”

2. A Widening Talent Gap

As marketing operations teams have expanded, a problem has emerged: There simply aren’t enough junior-level marketing operations professionals entering the market to keep up with the number of open positions.

One of the biggest culprits behind the dearth of talent is the fact that there is no obvious pipeline producing qualified job-seekers. “Marketing ops isn’t taught in schools; it’s not something that people even know about until they’re in a marketing entry-level job,” says Saunders.

Without a steady stream of new MOPs pros, it can take several months—and a substantial number of resources—to successfully recruit and hire a new team member.

3. Higher Salary Expectations

As with anything in high demand and low supply, a dollar won’t go as far as it used to when it comes to securing a new MOPs hire. The price of talent has risen steadily over the last several years, jumping by an average of more than $10,000 since 2020 according to an ongoing survey of marketing ops professionals.

In 2020, the average salary of someone working in marketing operations was $108k. Today, that number has risen above the $120k mark.

“The best marketing ops people have their pick of jobs,” explains Amazon marketing operations leader Darrell Alfonso. “They can switch every year for increases in salary. It’s a candidate’s market right now when it comes to marketing ops.”

Takeaways: Staying Ahead of the Trends

As long as the amount of new marketing ops talent continues to lag behind demand, marketing leaders will be up against a challenging labor market—all while expectations around marketing operations success continue to grow.

To stay effective in the face of these constraints, leaders should consider:

• Sourcing new talent from non-traditional educational programs that prepare students to hit the ground running as entry-level members of marketing operations teams.
• Defending against burnout and turnover by ensuring higher-level strategic team members are adequately supported.
• Building training into team culture to develop in-house talent and stay agile.

This post is part of the State of MOPs Talent study jointly sponsored by Highway. Demandbase, smarter GTM for B2B brands, helps marketing and sales teams spot the juiciest opportunities earlier and progress them faster. Highway helps MOPs leaders overcome the industry talent crisis by providing job-ready junior MOPs talent for leaders to hire.