guide will show you how to create a self-service marketing agency.

The problem of staff burnout and turnover in marketing operations teams is serious. One reason is the time that staff spends on the same tasks for multiple campaigns. MOps has the solution.

What is the solution?

Justin Sharaf (Vice President of Marketing Operations at Collibra) said that self-service is something that many marketing teams have missed. To be more productive, you must train others to do their work and do it better. Self-service is exactly what I mean.

Also, this will help marketers become more familiar with the basics of marketing so that they can manage it themselves. This will increase efficiency for both marketing operations and marketers. This means that marketers don’t have to wait for someone else to do what they need. It means MOps have more time to spend on strategic issues.

Deeper: Strategic marketing operations executives can be invited to the top table.

Sharaf said that self-service options can be a great way to help your marketer if you want to improve your marketing operations career and move beyond the execution into the strategy.

These are the four key areas you should focus on in order to make self-service shine for your company.

1. Documentation
2. Enablement
3. Quality QA processes
4. Management of access

1. Documentation

Although training is important, it’s not enough. Many people will not be able to do the job no matter how well they are trained. Many things will get lost or misunderstood. Some steps are not completed or done in the correct order. The result is the exact same: It doesn’t work.

You must document exactly what you want and how you want it to be done.

Sharaf said, “Confluence, Wiki, or SharePoint can be used as an encyclopedia for knowledge for your marketers.” You can train them and teach them how to use Marketo or Eloqua HubSpot. They will use your team’s support as an alternative to using it as an execution tool.

This is crucial for marketers who want to go beyond execution and move into strategy. This is something that I believe a lot of marketing professionals can take advantage of, but many aren’t.

2. Enablement

Two things are required for Sharaf enablement: support and reference.

Sharaf stated, “Enablement to my mind is the most important thing marketing operations can do for a marketing organization.” Marketing operations professionals have more time to focus on strategic projects and advance the goals of the organization if they are able to enable others.

Documentation is only one aspect of reference. Regular trainings should be recorded. He said, “You should be constantly doing trainings and recording so that new employees can access the information they require for self-service solutions.”

You should be available to answer questions but also have boundaries. You should encourage users to contact you for any reason if you don’t. This will make it difficult for them to use marketing tools on their own.

Deeper: Marketing operations talent are experiencing burnout and turnover

You can solve this problem by setting up regular office hours, similar to a professor. This allows people to come in and ask questions about the things they’ve been trained on. These could be either weekly or daily. This will depend on the size and needs of your group.

Sharaf stated, “Showing them these things through regular trainings, and then answering their queries through office hours is an excellent way to get them up and running quickly, and also to keep them up-to-date with what’s been happening in the past.”

3. The QA process

He said that marketing automation professionals often overlook the fact that self-service doesn’t have a good QA process or a great process for going live. They do all the training and then they send the marketers off. The marketers then make mistakes, and you decide, “Oh, man, I don’t want them doing it anymore, because they’re making mistakes.”

Do not do this.

Instead, you should create a solid QA process. Let marketers handle the self-service, such as building the email, landing pages, program, and so forth. Your team should then confirm that it is ready before it goes live.

Sharaf stated that a robust QA process makes marketers feel more at ease, makes it easier for you to concentrate on building, rather than worrying about what might go wrong.

4. Management of access

Access management is essential to protect both you and your users. Everyone needs to have access only to the highest level of their abilities.

He said, “You don’t want a beginner being able to edit your database.” Proper access management reduces the chance of making mistakes and allows users to move through the access process. As they improve, they gain more access and autonomy to use the marketing automation platform.

Many marketing automation software allow you to create different roles for different users. Sharaf recommends having expert, intermediate, and beginner roles. This not only limits access but also lets you see how your training is progressing.

Sharaf stated that too many people are in the beginner position means they’re not training them well enough. “If there are too many people in the expert position, it could indicate that we’re being too flexible and too generous in allowing them to reach that expert role.

Although self-service is not easy, it’s worth the effort. Marketers gain more skills, and you have more time to help your organization and yourself.

MarTech first published the post A 4-step guide for creating a self service marketing organization.