Wrangling marketing processes

Summary

• The marketing team grappled with incoherent data and variable project structures, resulting in inefficient workflows and challenging work experiences.
• Standardized marketing processes, defining work categories, establishing clear roles, and implementing project plan templates in the WMS.
• Facilitated a 46% increase in team capacity, with a 40% simpler working environment and a 52% reduction in input hours per output unit.
• Enabled efficient handling of a 68% expansion in the product portfolio, leading to a 103% increase in revenue and a substantial rise in active customers.

Problem

The online direct-to-consumer (DTC) retailer was navigating a complex business landscape characterized by rapid revenue growth and shifting market dynamics. Despite recording a staggering 100% year-over-year (YoY) increase in revenue, largely fueled by the surge in homebound pandemic shoppers, the business faced challenges in sustaining this growth trajectory. The shrinking "virgin" Total Addressable Market (TAM) was leading to a deceleration in the growth of active customers, and intensifying channel competition was driving Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) higher. Concerns were emerging that the current focus on acquisition-oriented marketing, coupled with slow product innovation, could jeopardize long-term success.

In response, the business set goals to increase active customers through more efficient marketing strategies and product improvements. This shift required reexamining the acquisition-first approach, innovating product offerings, restructuring the marketing department around revenue efficiency, forming a new cross-functional tactical team, and reallocating advertising expenditures. Additionally, a significant expansion of the product portfolio was planned, demanding a doubling of the team's capacity.

However, operational conditions within the marketing department presented substantial challenges to these strategic changes. There was a lack of common language for tasks and steps, leading to inconsistencies in self-reported efforts and making it difficult to compare similar projects. Project managers varied in their methods of measuring effort and duration, and the absence of clear policies or guidelines on roles and responsibilities resulted in unreliable interactions with the Work Management System (WMS). The lack of work categories led to treating each project as unique, despite the scheduled nature of most work. Communication inconsistencies, lack of reliable project histories, absence of success metrics, and incomplete data collection due to user unfamiliarity with the WMS and external contractor constraints further compounded the problem. These issues rendered data collection highly unreliable and impeded the team's ability to adjust effectively to the new marketing and product priorities, creating a critical need for operational improvements and standardization.

Solution

The necessity to standardize marketing processes for a large team managing a significant volume of projects and workflows presented a complex challenge. This standardization was imperative to increase capacity and improve the coherence of project data across various teams and workflow types.

Requirements:

The business faced the task of standardizing an overwhelming variety of unique marketing projects, each custom-built by project managers. This variability in project structures was creating incoherent data, affecting both the work record in the system and the project teams' experience.

Challenges:

The team was handling 16 workflow categories for business-critical functions, supporting 4 brands and 4 verticals, with over 3,700 unique projects annually. Collaboration complexities were compounded by the involvement of 24 teams, 18 project managers, and a large number of functional assets published across numerous channels.

Process:

1. Defining Work Categories and Workflow Types: The solution began with defining work categories containing specific workflow types, which helped organize the vast array of marketing activities into manageable segments.
2. Developing Flowcharts and Documents: Partner-facing flowcharts for each workflow type were created, clearly outlining steps and requirements. Additionally, client-facing process documents were developed, providing detailed descriptions of processes and setting clear expectations.
3. Standardizing Roles, Responsibilities, and Agreements: Roles and responsibilities were clearly defined, along with the establishment of service level agreements to foster a reliable and transparent working environment.
4. Creating Project Plan Templates in WMS: Standardized project plan templates corresponding to each workflow type were implemented in the WMS. These templates, aligned with the flowcharts, ensured consistency across all projects.
5. Formulating Policies and Guidelines: Comprehensive policies and guidelines were formulated to serve as a reference for the team, ensuring adherence to standardized procedures.
6. Developing a Comprehensive Vocabulary and Taxonomies: An “archetypal” process representing the majority of the structures was developed, along with variations for deviations. Taxonomies for workflow types, projects, naming, and tasks were established, along with a categorical system for outputs.
7. Adjusting WMS and Validating Standardizations: The WMS data structure was adjusted to accommodate the new taxonomies. The standardizations were validated with users and working teams to ensure effectiveness and user-friendliness.

Impact:

The successful standardization of marketing processes led to several key outcomes:

• Enhanced clarity and efficiency in communication and expectations, thanks to the detailed flowcharts and process documents.
• Improved team accountability and efficient task allocation through well-defined roles and responsibilities.
• Better client relationships and a more transparent working environment, fostered by comprehensive service level agreements and process documents.
• Increased productivity and coherence in project management, resulting from the implementation of standardized project plan templates in the WMS.
• A more cohesive working environment, with policies and guidelines providing a clear reference point for best practices.

Overall, this initiative greatly streamlined marketing processes, leading to a significant improvement in operational efficiency and setting a strong foundation for future growth and adaptability in the team's marketing endeavors.

Results

Increased Workload and Complexity Management: Following the project's implementation, the team experienced a surge in workload due to the expansion of the product portfolio and new marketing initiatives. This increase also contributed to a more complex system environment. However, the difference between the workforce and the increased workload demands created a capacity target, which the team successfully met.

Improvements in Key Performance Indicators:

1. Capacity Increase: The team achieved a 46% increase in capacity without a corresponding rise in workforce turnover rates. This improvement was a direct result of the operational changes, which made the system more efficient and productive.
2. Complexity Reduction: Thanks to the standardization efforts, the overall system complexity was 45% simpler compared to a scenario with no changes. This simplification meant that each team member had to deal with 25% fewer system nodes in every project.
3. Efficiency Gains: The efficiency per unit of input improved by 30% compared to the previous year. The active time spent on projects was reduced from 54.5 hours to 38.61 hours, and the average man-hour per deliverable decreased from 1.4 hours to 0.99 hours per asset.
4. Productivity Surge: The team's productivity saw a remarkable increase, with the production of nearly 519,000 deliverables in the year following the project implementation. This output indicated that each team member managed 690 more units than in the previous year.

Strategic Business Outcome: The successful standardization of marketing processes played a vital role in the business's growth. The expansion of the product portfolio by 68% and significant efforts in acquisition, reactivation, and retention, coupled with increased upper funnel marketing resources, led to a phenomenal 103% increase in revenue, rising from $3.75 billion to $7.6 billion. This growth was underpinned by a 140% year-over-year increase in active customers, from 3 million to 7.22 million. These achievements not only demonstrated the efficacy of the operational improvements but also positioned the business as a market leader capable of adapting to changing trends and market demands.