Mike Rizzo

MarketingOps.com

With very few exceptions, the majority of products in the Marketing Automation and MarTech space have completely failed to build products and features for the Marketing Operations Professional. The industry just keeps giving us more tech to integrate, manage and maintain.

I'll be taking a community-led approach to building resources that are purpose-built for MO Pros to: 

- build centers of excellence that help us demonstrate ROI and earn us a seat at the proverbial “table” of leadership
- help us easily and efficiently accomplish work that we NEVER have time for (hang on, I have another fire 🔥 to put out)
- prove that we’re getting the most out of the technology we’re managing

Community-led Founder and CEO

The number one community for Marketing Operations Professionals. 

I don’t know about you, but I have always found it really hard to find other Marketing Operations Pros to network with both locally and online.

So in January 2017, I started a Slack channel dedicated to connecting with Marketing Operations Professionals.

Today we're a growing community of wicked smart Marketing Operations Professionals who love learning and collaborating with each other.

You can join us here: https://www.themopros.com/join

Founder

Ops Cast by MO Pros is a podcast for Marketing Ops Pros by Marketing Ops Pros.
Tune in here: www.themopros.com/opscast

Co Host

Outset

Strategic Advisor

Stack Moxie

Helping Stack Moxie as they continue their community-led approach to building product(s) and features. They'll soon launch an Industry Advisory Board, and a Customer Advisory Board.

Head of Community & Advisory Programs

Mavenlink

In the span of just a few years (with a great deal of cross-department collaboration) I helped build, launch, manage and optimize Mavenlink's first-ever user community and Client Advisory Board programs.

Manager, Community and Loyalty Programs

human.marketing

Orange County full-service Inbound Marketing Agency. We take great pride in becoming a fully integrated team within your organization and promise that you'll think of us as a remote marketing team. 

As a Director of Marketing Strategy for Client Accounts, I partner with small to mid-size businesses to build and execute a KPI-focused Inbound Marketing Strategy.  My clients leverage our full-service marketing agency for content marketing, web design,  social media marketing, demand generation, email marketing and more.

Experts in HubSpot, Magento, Big Commerce, Shopify, Mailchimp, and much more.

Director of Marketing Strategy Client Accounts

InMobi

InMobi is a global mobile advertising platform that specializes in delivering the best ROI for mobile marketers. A mobile-first and mobile-only platform, InMobi has been pioneering the next generation of ad experiences, including video advertising, on the back of deep learning based optimization engines.

InMobi platforms help brands, performance marketers and app publishers engage mobile users across different stages of their lifecycle, converting each mobile moment into an opportunity to drive engagement and revenue. Recognized by Fast Company as one of The Most Innovative Companies in 2016, InMobi reaches over 1.5 billion unique mobile devices worldwide, and is redefining business models for the mobile ecosystem. For more information, visit www.inmobi.com

Sr. Manager Growth Marketing - Publisher Platform

AerServ (Acquired by InMobi)

About AerServ:
AerServ is the leading inventory and audience monetization technology for mobile publishers.  AerServ helps thousands of mobile publishers increase revenue through AerServ's ad mediation platform, and increase yield by delivering brand-based ads from the AerMarket ad exchange. AerServ's mediation layer is powered by OpenAuction technology, the industry's first true, comprehensive unified and simultaneous auction. AerServ's entire platform and infrastructure is built with a publisher-first objective and provides best in class support from account managers and software engineers. The company was founded in 2013 and has offices in Irvine, California. Visit AerServ at www.aerserv.com or follow us on Twitter at @AerServ.

My Role:
I'm in charge of designing and executing a marketing plan to achieve AerServ's growth goals.

Director of Marketing

Orange Logic

My primary Objectives / Responsibilities:

- Develop and deploy demand generation programs that align with our growth goals.
- Partner with sales leaders to manage and set pipeline definitions, metrics and goals.
- Liaise with executive leadership, product development, sales, and the marketing team to develop strategies for inbound and outbound campaigns. 
- Optimize lead management, data hygiene, lead scoring, and lead nurture models that align with industry best practices.
- Ensure optimal lead flow and follow-up on marketing generated leads.
- Manage and negotiate with vendors while managing the demand generation budget.
- Build and manage the sales + marketing alignment where neither department had previously existed
- Build a new website (www.orangelogic.com)
- Build and execute on product marketing, pricing, and brand marketing strategies
- Evaluate and provide strategic advice on market positioning across multiple verticals
- Implement and manage HubSpot CRM, Website, Blog, and Automation
- Plan and execute on content marketing strategies including social
- More to come as we see more growth!

Sr. Marketing Manager

Achievements:

- Generated over $1,000,000 in incremental opportunities with email campaigns and nurtures in less than 6 months.

- Improved conversion rates on the blog by 1000% with technology and “growth hacks”

- Generated Conference Leads and MQLs that turned to opportunities ~ 20-30% of the time.

Responsibilities

1. Design, manage and constantly improve lead management and lead flow processes and procedures through our marketing stack (HubSpot, Unbounce, and Salesforce).

2. Support marketing team & programs with underlying technology & best processes by providing training, analysis and documentation on all marketing technology operations.

3. Execute email, webinar & other demand generation campaigns to support marketing lead gen goals.

4. Own end-to-end funnel metrics and provide analysis/reporting using Excel/Salesforce/HubSpot to promote smarter data-driven decisions.

5. Provide logistic and campaign support for online and offline events.

6. Monitor, manage, and maintain quality of marketing database.

7. Research, analyze, recommend and execute conferences to help meet the marketing demand generation goals.

8. Develop a world class sales & marketing partnership that drives the company’s revenue goals via innovative process improvements, sales enablement, and accurate, intelligent funnel management.

9. Work cross-functionally with engineering, product and sales to identify opportunities to optimize data structures or processes to improve marketing and sales productivity.

10. Identify marketplace trends, tools and technologies to drive online acquisition, improve conversions, and support the growth of the business.

Marketing Operations and Events Manager

Medata Inc.

As marketing administrator, I worked with team members in sales, development, and all other departments in an effort to garner new sales opportunities and improve upon existing client relationships.

Responsible for project management of a new corporate website, marketing events/conferences, and email campaigns.

I was responsible for the integration & maintenance of marketing automation platforms at Medata. We used Pardot and ACT-ON. I acted as the CRM administrator for SugarCRM, although we started in Salesforce. 



Additional Responsibilities:

• Managed and update social media channels

• Managed corporate website redesign project and engage key stakeholders

• Helped set standards for design in alignment with brand positioning

• Oversaw the functionality, layout and CMS for the Medata website

• Managed process for creation and updating of content

• Assessed new technologies to determine if they were fit for our needs 

• Gathered and report digital metrics and trends

• Managed the process for content owners to update online content

• Worked with marketing organization to build lead generating and nurturing programs to 
attract prospects, build relationships and retain existing clients

• Played a key role in the marketing team to design, build and coordinate a wide mix of 
marketing campaigns and activities, including: partner programs, white papers, 
webinars, PR, SEO, Google AdWords campaigns, social networks, banners, e-
newsletters, blogs, etc.

• Enhanced and managed marketing information systems to include marketing automation 
systems, integrated CRM (ACT-ON / PARDOT)

• Advised Marketing on how to optimize offline content for online use cases

• Worked with IT on issues affecting website and online presence

Marketing Administrator

When it comes to Community and Marketing Ops, I'm your huckleberry. Community-Led Founder of MarketingOps.com and MO Pros® - the community for Marketing Operations Professionals

Mike Rizzo is a career marketing operations professional passionate about using a people-first approach to building scalable and efficient solutions to the challenges faced by marketing, business operations, and client success teams. 

With his extensive background in marketing Mike helped build, launch, manage and optimize Mavenlink's first user community and Client Advisory Board programs.

In 2017 he also founded the growing community of MO Pros - a place where thousands of Marketing Operations Professionals connect, collaborate and help elevate the practice of Marketing Ops. He is also the co-host of the podcast called Ops Cast.

As the founder of MarketingOps.com, Mike is taking a community-led approach to building a platform purpose-built to elevate Marketing Operations Professionals.

As we close out one chapter and step into the next, I’ve been thinking about the people who make this community what it is.

This year wasn’t simple.

We made big decisions about the future of MOps-Apalooza.

We invested in new programs, experimented, stumbled, learned, and kept going, all with one goal: to build something that thrives long-term, not just survives the moment.

Through every pivot, challenge, and late-night scramble, one thing stayed constant…

The people who believe in this community and the vision behind it.

To the Team

The people who take my harebrained ideas and somehow turn them into reality:

Audrey Harze — stepping in as CMO and leading with intention, strategy, and heart. Your partnership means the world. I can’t express precisely how meaningful your partnership has been to me… but YOU ROCK! And THANK YOU!

Grace Miller — the voice of clarity and calm, keeping content, comms, and sanity in sync.

Veronica Drake — the quiet force behind programming and sponsorships.

Dan Mott — your fingerprints still guide so much of what we do.

Austin Weatherhead, Jeffery Lucas, Anton R., Adarsh, and Growth Natives — your work, design, development, and partnership built this foundation.

This team believed in the vision. They carried the weight quietly. They made it all possible.

To the Community

You’re the reason this exists.

You show up online, in-person, and everywhere in between.

You share what you know, help each other grow, and protect the value of what we’ve built.

And you do it without ego, without pretense, without expectation.

I’m so grateful for all of you showing up the way you do!

To the Sponsors

Thank you for believing in a community-led model when it would’ve been easier to follow something more familiar.

Your partnership helped shape one of the most unique ecosystems in our industry.

And as we look toward 2026, I’m genuinely excited about the new ways we’ll partner, healthier, more intentional, more community-centric.

Such partnerships lift the entire profession.

To Our Chapter Leaders

Thank you for your patience, leadership, and faith in what we’re creating together.

You’re the ones helping people feel connected, supported, and safe, carrying forward the spirit of this community louder than any marketing campaign ever could.

You’re the heartbeat of this community.

We made tough calls this year.

Shifted direction.

Built new programs.

Planted seeds that are just starting to grow.

2026 will be our strongest year yet because of you.

Because this community is built on something deeper than events or content.

As we said at MOps-Apalooza:

We’re not “support.” We’re architects of scale.
We don’t “sit inside” revenue teams. We enable them.
We don’t follow the future. We design it.

AI won’t change the game.
MOps will.

Thank you for trusting us.
Thank you for building this with us.
And thank you for letting us serve this community. 💛

#MarketingOps #RevOps #Community #Leadership #Thanksgiving

When it comes to Community and Marketing Ops, I'm your huckleberry. Community-led founder and CEO of MarketingOps.com and MO Pros® -- where 20K+ Marketing Operations Professionals engage and learn weekly.

Too often, Marketing Ops gets treated like a service desk.

You know the drill: someone needs a form fixed, a campaign launched, or a system patched.

Ping Ops. Ticket submitted. Done.

However, that view overlooks the actual story.

Marketing Ops are way more than that!

They are the connective tissue between business logic, GTM execution, and system intelligence.

The best Ops leaders I’ve worked with literally operate on a completely different level.

➡ They’re Translators,

People who can take a CRO’s vision for “predictable pipeline” and turn it into something measurable: lead flows, data models, and automation logic that actually make sense.

They’re fluent in two languages. 

One strategy and two systems and somehow, they make them talk to each other.

➡ They’re Stewards 

The quiet ones who protect alignment when everything’s moving too fast.

They build governance, define taxonomies, and keep data clean so the business doesn’t lose trust in itself.

Because in Ops, alignment is oxygen.

And without it, even the best campaigns collapse under their own data debt.

➡ And they’re Accelerators

Always looking for friction to remove.

They find the manual handoffs, the redundant approvals, the things everyone complains about but no one fixes.

Then they build systems that scale growth without adding complexity.

They expand what’s possible.

Though none of that works if Ops isn’t empowered.

You can’t expect someone to lead strategically if you treat them like a ticket-taker.
If you’re leading a GTM team, this might sting a little:

Your Marketing Ops leader might be the most strategic hire you’ve made, and you might not even realize it yet.

Invest in them like you would a product leader.

Because in many ways, that’s exactly what they are.

They design the infrastructure that keeps your GTM engine running, the governance that protects it, and the clarity that lets it scale.

And (for many in this profession) if you give them room to operate, they’ll do what the best systems do,

Run quietly, efficiently, and powerfully in the background, so everyone else can move faster in the foreground.

marketingopscom

stackmoxie

ops-cast

us-claim-solutions

JSESSIONID

li_at

Talks about #mopros, #opscast, #community, #marketingops, and #marketingoperations

This is the face I make when EMMIE asks to do something wild at MOpza...

💖 A huge thank-you to EMMIE Collective, the heartbeat of some of the most fun and creative activities we've seen at MOpza!

Over the last few years, EMMIE Collective hasn’t just sponsored MarketingOps(.com), the Marketing Ops Community, or MOps-Apalooza. 

They’ve helped shape it.

From bringing real tattoos (yes, real ones) to a B2B marketing operations conference…

to dreaming up the Barbie-inspired Pool Party and building “The EMMIE World” experience with our production team this year, they’ve turned the level of fun up to 10 at our community-led events... all while maintaining some of the most impressive clients on their roster.

Don't believe me? 

Check them out for yourself.

I couldn’t be prouder to have them as partners and friends in this journey.

To the EMMIE team: thank you for your creativity, collaboration, and courage to ask for all the fun!

You helped us close out a record-breaking MOpza, and you did it with style.

If you’re looking for a partner who brings professional polish and unshakable joy to every project,

 👉 Go check out EMMIE Collective.

Here’s to more memories, more community, and more magic together. 💫

#marketingops #eventmarketing #communityledgrowth #mopzapalooza #gratitude #thankyou

Marketing Ops Community

EMMIE Collective

I’ve been thinking a lot about the people who make everything possible for me.

This time it is not the community. Not the events. Not the work.

The three people at the center of it all, my wife and our kids, Wyatt and Ellie.

Building a business, a community, and a life at the same time isn’t simple. 

It comes with incredible highs and some quiet lows. Through every one of them, my family has been the constant.

My wife has trusted me from day one.

Long before MarketingOps was a thing, she believed in what we were building. 

She’s the realist who keeps me grounded and the dreamer who lets me stretch. 

Somehow, she balances the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship while raising two amazing kids with more grace than I can explain.

That trust shows up in a thousand little choices that keep our family moving forward.

Wyatt reminds me how fun it is to think differently.

He’s wildly analytical. If I say, “It’s 1:30,” he’ll correct me “It’s 1:28.”

He’s deep into books, obsessed with math, and curious about everything. 

Every question he asks makes me pause and think, this kid is going to lap me one day.

Part of me hopes he becomes a scientist.

Part of me thinks he’s already wired for Marketing Ops.

Then there’s Ellie.

Five going on fifteen.

Fierce. Creative. Loud in the best way.

If I match her energy, she’s all in, painting, taping, or crafting her next “gift” out of stickers and glitter.

She shows love through art.

She has a “good list” and a “naughty list.” I’m usually on the naughty one, sometimes for taking away dessert, sometimes just because. Both are fair.

This year, I’ve learned how much I need them and how much they need me.

Investing in my health forced me to slow down and rethink how I show up. 

Nights lying awake, asking myself how to be a better father, husband, and human.

Everyone says kids grow fast. They’re wrong. It’s faster.

Watching them become who they’re becoming makes everything else feel smaller.

Through all the work, travel, and chaos of life, my family has been my anchor.

So this Thanksgiving, I’m proud.

Proud of my son for diving deep into what he loves.
Proud of my daughter for being brave enough to speak up in class.
Proud of my wife for launching her cookie business on her terms, on her time, and for surviving (and, honestly, thriving) through days with small kids that would absolutely break me.

And when I think about what’s ahead... two amazing kids turning 8 and 6 this coming year, a healthy family, a home full of (let’s be real here folks) laughter, tears, fighting, and learning… there’s a bright future full of things to experience together, I feel incredibly thankful.

We’re stepping into a new chapter.

A fun one. A busy one. A meaningful one.

And I’m deeply grateful to be in it with them. ❤️

#Family #Gratitude #Thanksgiving #Leadership

If you’ve worked in Marketing Ops long enough, you know this rhythm by heart.

Budgets tighten. Tech stacks get audited. Everyone’s suddenly asked to “do more with less.”

And here we are again, 2026, another turning point.

Only this time, the systems we built are the ones deciding how fast (and how smart) we can adapt.

Here’s what’s shifting beneath the surface 

1️⃣ Campaign Ops

Campaigns today feel more like ecosystems than projects, full of triggers, dependencies, and feedback loops.

To launch one campaign, you’re coordinating segmentation, QA, enrichment, and reporting across a dozen moving parts.

The future of Campaign Ops is transforming from how fast you hit send to designing operational architecture that keeps creativity flowing without breaking the process.

2️⃣ Modular stacks are winning over monoliths

Teams are done being trapped in one vendor’s “all-in-one” pitch.

They want choice. The freedom to plug in tools that play nicely together and retire the ones that don’t.

With iPaaS and API-native integrations, composable architecture is becoming the real standard.

The edge for MOps is knowing how to make multiple systems act as one.

3️⃣ Data strategy is the new competitive moat

The strongest teams aren’t hoarding dashboards, but they’re defining what their numbers mean.

“Lead.” “Opportunity.” “Source.” These words get standardized, not argued about.

When data speaks a single language across Marketing, Sales, and CS, trust compounds.

And that trust shows up downstream in every GTM decision you make.

4️⃣ AI is moving quietly from novelty to infrastructure

We’re edging past the “prompt engineer” era.

AI is already running under the hood. We are seeing it in routing, enrichment, and anomaly detection.

The value is in cleaner logic, fewer manual fixes, and better feedback loops.
In 2026, AI will amplify the operators who understand context, process, and governance.

5️⃣ Ops convergence is no longer theory

In B2B, the walls between Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, and CS Ops are dissolving.

The most resilient teams now share systems, metrics, and accountability under one GTM Ops strategy.

The title might shift, but the mission doesn’t: simplify complexity, connect silos, and make growth measurable.

2026 won’t reward teams that move faster.

It’ll reward the ones who move together.

MOps leaders who think like architects, speak the language of systems (+ a bit of finance), and build with clarity will define the next phase of GTM maturity.

#MarketingOps #RevOps #GTM #Leadership #AI

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The definition of community is ‘’a group of people who work in the same space.’’

For me, it is different. 

A concept that goes beyond a Slack channel or a shared office.

It's purpose. 

It's respect.
 
It’s that steady momentum that comes from helping each other get a little better every day.

When people show up to learn, to stay curious, to connect for real, not just to trade favors, something shifts.

The collective brain power starts compounding.

It changes careers.

It shapes industries.

It even redefines what leadership looks like.

That’s what MarketingOps was built on.

By MO Pros, for MO Pros.

A place where operators, strategists, and problem-solvers could learn from each other, without ego, without gatekeeping, and without pretending we’ve got it all figured out.

The truth is,

In Marketing Ops, no one scales alone.

Systems evolve. Tech changes. Teams restructure.
 
But the one thing that never stops mattering is people.

The people who share knowledge at midnight.

Who answers questions they don’t have to.
 
Who push the entire profession forward just by showing up for one another.

That’s the domino effect.

When one operator joins a collective that learns faster, solves smarter, and supports deeper, the impact spreads way beyond individual roles.

Community goes beyond just connections, it’s definitely the infrastructure for progress.
 
And in Marketing Ops, it might be the most valuable system we’ll ever build.

#MarketingOps #CommunityBuilding #Leadership #ProfessionalGrowth #GTM

Everyone’s asking the same thing lately 
 
“Will AI replace Marketing Ops?”

My answer?

It won’t. Not even close.

Because Marketing Ops isn’t a checklist of tasks. 

It’s a mindset.

You can automate activity. Sure.

But accountability is something that’s still on people.

AI can execute. It can analyze.

But it can’t:

→ Bridge the gap between teams that barely speak the same operational language.
→ Decide which metrics matter when leadership priorities collide.
→ Build trust in the systems people rely on to make real business decisions.

That’s where Marketing Ops lives, in the gray space between GTM vision and messy execution.

It’s the discipline that turns chaos into clarity.

And the irony is, AI will make some of this faster... while creating a brand-new set of problems:

⚙️ Governance.
⚙️ Data integrity.
⚙️ Ethical decisions.
⚙️ Change management headaches.

They’re people issues.

If you’ve been in MOps for a while, you’ve seen this movie before, from manual HTML days to automation platforms to now, AI orchestration.

The tools change. The job doesn’t.

Because it was never about doing more.

It’s always been about thinking better.

AI can suggest actions.

But only humans can decide which ones actually matter.

Silos and misalignment are costing companies more than tech.

The 2025 State of the MO Pro Report from MarketingOps revealed something we’ve all felt but rarely said out loud:

61% of MOps pros say organizational silos are still the biggest barrier to impact.

Right behind that?

Poor data quality (56%).

Leadership misalignment (47%).

So even as we’ve invested in better automation, richer integrations, and smarter analytics, alignment still feels out of reach.

Why?

Because what breaks isn’t the tech.

It’s the trust that fuels collaboration.

We hire for collaboration... but reward firefighting.

We say “cross-functional”… yet still measure success in silos.
 
We talk about data-driven strategy… while half the org questions whose data is right.

And when there’s no shared truth, dashboards stop being instruments for decision-making.

They become debate stages.

Alignment comes from three operational habits:

→ Shared KPIs: Sales, Marketing, and Ops staring at the same scoreboard.
→ Single intake: No side-door requests or “urgent” Slack pings derailing priorities.
→ Monthly truth syncs: 60 minutes. No decks. Just blockers, fixes, and ownership.

Remember, clarity compounds and is attained through alignment.

And alignment is a culture.

And culture changes when teams start trusting each other enough to stop competing for credit.

Question for you:

If you could remove one KPI across teams to force clarity, which would it be?

P.S : You can download the full report from the Marketingops website.

#MarketingOps #RevOps #Leadership #GTM #DataAlignment #StateOfTheMOPro2025

Have you ever been in a situation where lead routing feels like a black box?

You launch a campaign, the form fills roll in…

and then, silence.

Leads disappear somewhere between enrichment delays, ownership conflicts, and misfired workflows.

Within the mess, your prospect goes cold.

The teams fight and scrutinize the outcome (or lack there of in this case).

Automation made routing faster, but it didn’t make it clearer.

Most teams can’t see why a lead went to a certain rep or where it stalled in the process.

That’s a real gap that can be solved, today.

See, we automated the workflow, but lost visibility into the logic.

And the other teams aren’t taking the time to work out the problem.

Instead, I’m hearing this in the community:

🗣️ “I just want to know why a lead went where it did.”
🗣️ “We need routing logs, not just routing speed.”
When routing is built in a transparent system and aligned with the team(s) involved:

→ Sales stops chasing ghosts.
→ Marketing stops over-enriching.
→ Ops stops firefighting.

It turns accountability from a guessing game into a system design principle.

That’s why I’ve been so impressed by what teams are building with Default.

They’ve created routing visibility that lives inside the orchestration layer:

✅ Real-time audit logs for every routed lead.
✅ Error notifications the moment workflows break.
✅ Multi-object visibility across Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo.

It’s a reliable routing that everyone can see and trust.

As a MOps or GTM ops leader, speed gets you attention.

But transparency earns you trust.
 
And the future of routing (and a strong career) depends on both.

#MarketingOps #RevOps #GTM #LeadRouting #DefaultPartner #Automation #Community

Default

Been working with Ahmed Datoo and Alysha 🌟 Khan at allGood on something I actually wanted for myself: an AI QA testing tool for marketing emails.

The tool checks your emails before you send them:
✓ Tests every link
✓ Validates UTM tracking
✓ Fresh copy/ grammar review
✓ Basic compliance in place

Free tool. In beta now. Actually very useful.

Reg link in the comments if you wanna check it out.

Organizational change doesn’t fail because of strategy.

It fails because the systems, data, and processes underneath it aren’t ready.

That’s why Marketing Ops ends up at the center of every transformation — even when we’re not brought in early enough.

This week’s newsletter breaks down:
>> Why MOps has a front-row seat to organizational change
>> How tech debt becomes the silent killer of transformation
>> The gap between expectations and authority for MOps teams
>> What leaders must do differently to make change stick
>> How MOps pros can push upstream and influence the roadmap

If your company is going through a rebrand, restructuring, new tech rollout, or any major shift… this one will hit home.

🔗 Read the latest edition here 👇

And if you want posts like this delivered weekly, you can subscribe directly from the newsletter page.

Organizational change doesn’t succeed without aligned systems, clean data, and scalable processes. That’s exactly where Marketing Operations shines. W

The Role of MOps in Organizational Change Management

The 2025 State of the MO Pro Report tells:

52% of organizations offer no formal training for their Marketing Ops teams.

33% see no defined career path for Ops professionals.

And yet... 92% believe AI will completely reshape how Ops gets done.

Let that sink in for a second.

We’re betting the future of GTM on AI but not investing in the people who’ll actually run it.

We’ll spend six figures on tools, then skip the five-grand budget that could teach someone how to use them strategically.

That’s how you end up with automation without adoption.

AI without accountability.

And dashboards that look impressive but don’t move the business an inch forward.

I believe somewhere along the way, we started treating “enablement” as a nice-to-have, instead of the engine that makes innovation sustainable.

We built tool stacks faster than we built talent stacks.

And in the process, we’ve created Ops teams that are over-burdened (with tech) and under-developed.

If we want real maturity, we need to shift how we invest:

→ Budget for Brains: Training isn’t an expense; it’s compounding ROI. Make it a line item, not an afterthought.
→ Shadow the Strategy Room: Let Ops sit in on OKR, budget, and GTM planning. Exposure creates fluency.
→ Narrative > Noise: Stop measuring activity and start storytelling. Translate data into decisions that matter.

Because the companies that win won’t be the ones with the most tech, they’ll be the ones with the most capable operators behind it.

A Question for you all…

If you could fund one team-wide course this year, would you pick AI automation or data storytelling?

Your answer probably says a lot about what kind of organization you’re building.

PS: You can download the full report from MarketingOps website

#MarketingOps #RevOps #Leadership #AI #ProfessionalDevelopment #StateOfTheMOPro2025

If your ops team is always putting out fires, it’s not a resourcing problem—it’s a systems problem.

This week’s newsletter dives into one of the biggest blind spots in go-to-market operations: integrating learnings across data, tech, and people.

MOps isn’t just the admin team anymore. It’s the connective tissue that should align marketing, sales, RevOps, IT, and product around a shared operational strategy.

But the research says most companies still haven’t cracked it:
>> 56% of MOps pros say they don’t get adequate training.
>> 81% rank integration capabilities as their top martech selection criteria—because we’re still buying tools for integration we haven’t achieved.

Integration isn’t just about APIs.

It’s about shared definitions, reporting frameworks, and enabling people to think cross-functionally.

This week’s piece breaks down four years of State of the MO Pro data to show where alignment breaks—and how to fix it.

#MarketingOps #RevOps #GTM #DataQuality #Leadership

If you want your ops team to stop putting out fires and start driving strategy, you have to connect the dots across functions: data, technology, and p

Integrating Learnings Across Functions: 
Data, Tech, and People

Innovation in Marketing Ops doesn’t start with a tool. It starts with your team.

Too many orgs treat innovation like a checkbox or a side project. However, the reality is that you can’t innovate your way out of burnout or tech debt.

Over four years of State of the MO Pro data show the same pattern: teams want to innovate, but they’re running on fumes.

To change that, we need to focus on the system, not just the software.

Here’s what the best teams are doing differently 👇

 💡 Fix capacity before you chase creativity. You can’t expect innovation from burned-out teams buried in reactive work.

 💡 Reward exploration. Curiosity drives growth—give your team time to experiment and learn on the job, not after hours.

 💡 Align innovation with strategy. It’s not about adding more tech. It’s about improving how work gets done.

 💡 Document and iterate. Treat your process docs like products—update, refine, and share them.

 💡 Bring MOps into the room. Only 37% of MOps pros say they have a seat at the table. Innovation dies in isolation.

Innovation isn’t a “nice-to-have.” It’s how you scale sustainably—reducing burnout, cleaning up inefficiencies, and driving more impact with less chaos.

If this resonates, check out the full post in this week’s newsletter and dive into the 2024 State of the MO Pro report for the data behind these findings.

P.S. Does the hanging word on this graphic bother you? I really struggled with whether or not to change it and then thought... "I wonder if anyone else is bothered? I'll just ask!"

Innovation in Marketing Ops is not about chasing the latest shiny tool. It starts with how your team thinks, learns, and works together. If you want i

Building a Culture of Innovation in MOps Teams

I’ve learned a lot from the MagicMirror team, and this session will NOT disappoint.

Join Daphna Wegner and Melissa McCready, you won’t be disappointed!

GenAI adoption in marketing is growing fast…but visibility, consistency, and control? Not so much. 😬

If you’re in Marketing Ops and being told to “make AI happen,” our upcoming session with MagicMirror is for you.

🗓️ Join us on Dec 4 at 11am PT/2pm ET for a very real convo on how to scale GenAI without losing your grip on data, brand, or compliance.

We’ll be covering:

🧩 The GenAI Divide → Why most teams stay stuck in experimentation and how to shift toward operational impact.
🚨 Industry Risks → Key considerations to keep in mind when adopting new AI tools.
🛡️ AI Governance → What problems are Marketing Ops leaders faced with today and how does MagicMirror help solve them.

👥 Featuring Daphna Wegner (MagicMirror) + Melissa McCready (HLX)

👉 Save your seat: https://lnkd.in/g4JqzuEe

#marketingops

Open article: Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: AI in Ops—How to Scale Adoption Without Losing Control. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. by us02web.zoom.us

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: AI in Ops—How to Scale Adoption Without Losing Control. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Everyone in GTM loves to talk about funnels.

But if you’ve been watching how real buyers move in 2025, you know there’s no funnel anymore, there’s a feedback loop.

Buyers don’t follow a linear path from awareness to decision.

They move back and forth between research, validation, peer reviews, and product comparisons.

It’s the messy middle, and it’s exactly where Marketing Ops earns its stripes.

Because while most teams are chasing attribution models that don’t hold up, MOps leaders are building systems that can actually read the signals:

→ Stitching together first-party data (page views, email clicks, CRM updates)
→ Enriching it with third-party intent, review-site activity, and social signals
→ Feeding that context into workflows that trigger smarter handoffs

This is what modern orchestration looks like.

The next wave of MOps leaders will think in system architecture.

They’ll be the ones mapping logic trees, aligning schemas, and connecting enrichment, routing, and attribution in one living system.

When those pieces work in sync, GTM becomes adaptive.

That’s when “messy middle” turns from a problem you manage into an advantage you design for.

P.S. That day, I was teaching Wyatt how flag football works, how you run, catch, and pull the flag. 

The park near our home is usually where he plays soccer, but that day we joined an adult flag football league just for fun. 

I only lasted 2 games before remembering I’m definitely not twenty-something anymore.

Most Marketing Ops wins never make the slide deck, but you’ll always find them in the numbers.

Across every State of the MO Pro report from 2021 to 2024, pipeline has been the #1 KPI for MOps teams. When pipeline is the metric, impact becomes measurable — cleaner data, stronger alignment, smarter processes, faster execution.

That’s exactly what this week’s newsletter digs into.

I break down four fictional (but very common) scenarios that mirror patterns in the research:
 • Cutting manual lead routing from 24 hours to 30 minutes
 • Saving a budget cycle through tech stack consolidation
 • Restoring trust in attribution across sales and marketing
 • Reducing campaign cycle times with real documentation

Each example shows what the data has told us for four years: when MOps owns process, governance, and system design, performance moves — fast.

If you’re following the 52-week series, the next article is live now.

Give it a read and let me know what resonates.

👉 Read it here:

View newsletter: Mastering Marketing Ops'2025

Marketing operations wins are often quiet, but they consistently show up in the numbers. Across every State of the MO Pro report, pipeline is the top 

Open article: Celebrating Wins: Stories of MOps Driving Business Success by Mike Rizzo • 4 min read

Celebrating Wins: Stories of MOps Driving Business Success

Your year-end MOps review shouldn’t be a list of tasks — it should be a proof point of business impact.

Too many MOps reviews focus on what got done. The real story is what the work enabled.

Alignment. Acceleration. Accountability. That’s what leadership actually cares about.

This week’s newsletter breaks down the metrics that matter most at year-end — the ones that elevate MOps from “support” to “strategic operator.”

Here’s a preview:

✔ Pipeline influence: 
The top KPI in every State of the MO Pro report since 2021 up until 2025. If you’re not showing how scoring, routing, attribution, and enrichment moved pipeline, you’re missing the headline.

✔ Operational efficiency:
 Lead routing from 2 days to 10 minutes.
 Campaign cycle times reduced.
 Manual work eliminated.
 This is the story behind how the business moved faster.

✔ Data health:
 Bounce rate reduction.
 Duplicate cleanup.
 Field audits.
 A defined data quality score.
 With 88% of MOps pros investing in data initiatives (2024 report), this is the multiplier that deserves to be front and center.

✔ Attribution accuracy:
 If sales trusts your reporting more today than last year, that’s strategic impact. Say it plainly.

✔ Stack performance:
 Usage rates, redundant tools removed, integrations maintained, time to deploy.
 This is the real definition of “owning the stack.”

✔ Training, documentation, and enablement:
 SOPs created.
 Team members trained.
 Self-service adoption.
 
This is performance — even if it doesn’t show up on a dashboard.

And yes, we cover which metrics to retire once and for all (looking at you, email opens).

If you’re following the 52-week series, the newest article is live now.

Would love to hear how you’re preparing your own year-end MOps review.

Your MOps performance review isn't just about what got done. It's about proving the value of how it got done and what it enabled. Reporting on perform

Open article: Key Metrics for a Year-End MOps Performance Review by Mike Rizzo • 4 min read

Key Metrics for a Year-End MOps Performance Review

Anyone looking to get into a HubSpot portal or account? Drop me a note - I have a few partners offering incentives to get you started in HubSpot or get your upgrade locked down and humming!

Clay is giving MO Pros a new kind of spotlight…and we’re here for it 🔦
They just launched Clay World Records, a challenge to celebrate the most creative, one-of-a-kind Clay tables being built by the community 💡
And yes, it’s becoming a real book 📚

✅ The first 100 submissions will be featured in the 2026 Clay World Records book
✅ Anyone can submit — as long as your table is original, useful, and a little outside the box

Some records already claimed:
🛥️ First Clay table built on a jet ski
🎭 First Clay table built as Ghostface
💘 First Clay table to help find a significant other
🏔️ First Clay table built at 14,000 feet

Try something new in Clay and get your work featured.
🔗 clay.com/world-records
#marketingops

Nexford University

Head of Marketing

Head of Growth Marketing, Operations

Strategy with Soul

GTM Advisory services, B2B Marketing Consultancy, B2C Brand Development, Strategy, Web Design, Graphic Design, Branding Services.

Freelance & Fractional | Head of Marketing/Demand Gen/CMO/RevOps

SoundThinking (formerly ShotSpotter)

Let go due to company-wide restructure and elimination of remote roles.

In just one quarter, I led a demand gen transformation that delivered:
🔺 300% QoQ inbound pipeline growth
🔺 484% total pipeline growth across inbound, paid media, outbound alignment, and partner channels

I didn’t just strategize — I built. From blank slides to scalable systems, I orchestrated campaigns that actually converted by:

Standing up multi-channel programs across paid social, paid search, outbound SDR, partner, and lifecycle

Aligning sales & marketing through shared pipeline reviews and integrated GTM motions

Cleaning and optimizing HubSpot & Salesforce data flows to enable attribution that actually works

Implementing full-funnel attribution models (first, last, conversion) tied to revenue outcomes

Partnering cross-functionally to influence product marketing, events, and ABM

Whether it was analyzing lead velocity, optimizing for in-feed consumption, or building out a pipeline war room—I was in it. CMO thinking, VP-level ownership, roll-up-your-sleeves execution.

I believe efficient growth starts with strategy, scales through operations, and succeeds with soul.

Senior Director, Demand Generation, Marketing Ops

As a fractional VP of Marketing, I led strategic marketing initiatives focused on accelerating demand, strengthening brand positioning, and building scalable digital media ecosystems. Partnering with leadership teams, I developed and executed go-to-market strategies that drove measurable business impact for my client.

Defined and refined brand messaging to differentiate the company in competitive markets, ensuring consistency across digital and offline channels.
Launched thought leadership initiatives, content strategies, and executive visibility programs to establish credibility and market authority.

Built scalable digital media infrastructure, implementing paid social, SEM, programmatic, and ABM strategies tailored to ICP engagement.
Developed a hybrid attribution approach, combining first-party data with predictive analytics to optimize ad spend and audience targeting.
Experimented with emerging channels and conversion tactics to increase marketing efficiency and accelerate growth.

Designed and executed high-velocity growth experiments to test new audience segments, messaging, and channels.
Leveraged A/B testing and rapid iteration cycles to improve conversion rates and pipeline velocity.
Applied AI-driven insights and automation tools to enhance marketing efficiency and personalization at scale.

Throughout my engagement, I helped companies bridge the gap between brand-building and demand capture, ensuring marketing operated as a revenue-generating function.

Fractional | VP of Marketing

Refine Labs

Transform your marketing to create breakthroughs in growth with Refine Labs - the account-based marketing and demand generation firm for B2B companies using Salesforce or HubSpot. Trusted by more than 200+ high-growth companies, Refine Labs experts bring your company narrative to life and rapidly drive it into market with all your best-fit customers using industry-leading demand creation strategies.

Director, Demand Generation

MO Pros

Ambassador

Axonius

Director of Marketing Operations & Analytics

Varonis

Senior Marketing Operations Manager plays a crucial role as the liaison between the marketing and operations departments managing the technical aspects of our key marketing systems. Responsible for building scalable systems of acquisition while leaning heavily on quantitative and qualitative data to glean insights and report on ROI and acquisition functions of the marketing team. 

Also responsible for managing our operations, analytics, logistics, and procurement of quality product for marketing collateral, merchandise, and swag to ensure we are properly stocked for events, and sales swag stores.  
 
 

Primary Objectives 
 

Manage the technical aspects of our key marketing systems to  enable marketing efforts across the Varonis Marketing organization 

Reporting outcomes of our campaigns, events, and acquisition strategy while finding ways to improve performance 

Cross functional liaison between key stakeholders in all departments 

Logistics + Fulfillment management and oversight 

Vendor Management 

Maintain, optimize, and integrate a set of marketing tech stacks. 

People Building 

Maintenance of target segmentation, data cleanliness, and touch cadences 

Instill the departmental vision in all departmental levels and establish a culture of continuous improvement.

Senior Manager, Marketing Operations

- Leadership: Oversee Ops team
- Agile Methodology 
- Strategic Budget Planning & Operations
- Project & Process Planning (Continuous Improvement) 
- Global Merchandise/Swag Procurement 
- MarTech SaaS Procurement & Implementation 
- Campaign Operations 
- Marketing Contracts & Legal Operations 
- Logistics Management
- Integrations & Automation Operations

Manager, Marketing Operations 

Samsara

Responsible for scaling up an entire Procurement Marketing Merchandising program full life-cycle from Marketing NPI to Fulfillment and Logistics Operations. Gives creative direction taken from stakeholders and curates a vision to relay on to design and vendors. Manages vendor relations and marketing budget.

Operations Project Manager, Marketing Procurement

Fulfillment Operations

Payscape

Corporate Relationship Manager

Marketing Queen 👑 | Human-First Growth & Bold GTM Strategies | Builder of Demand & Brands | SOUL Framework™

Ragen is a strategic practitioner in Demand Generation, RevOps, and Marketing Ops at Refine Labs, drawing from extensive experience in these fields. With a commitment to results, she merges expertise in RevOps, Marketing Ops, and Demand Generation. As a proficient marketing leader and dedicated DEI advocate, Ragen ensures seamless integration and optimal performance in the GTM realm. With over 10 years of experience, she specializes in scaling hypergrowth SaaS start-ups, including the establishment of Demand/RevOps/Marketing Ops programs from inception.


Marketing Attribution  	
Program Management
Marketo/Bizible	
Adobe Creative Suite
Global Order Operations + Analysis	
Marketing Strategy &	
Implementation	
Project Management	
PaaS/Celigo/Mulesoft
Zapier/Workato Integrations	
In-Depth Forecasting	
Creative Problem Solving	
NPI (New Product Introduction)	
Global Supply Chain	
SaaS Product Knowledge
Brand Merchandising
Customer Marketing 	
Salesforce/HubSpot
Marketing data & analytics 
Advanced Excel
Global Vendor Relationship Management
Budget Management/Allocadia
PowerBi/Tableau/Looker
Salesloft
MailChimp
B2B Marketing
Asana/Airtable/Trello/Monday
Confluence/Jira
Business Process Optimization
Oracle NetSuite
3PL Warehouse Management 
Brand Management
Marketing Data Analysis & RevOps

Ragen D.

Friday’s Trigger Words:

 MORE LEADS.
LETS CIRCLE BACK.
 LESS CAC.
 LESS BUDGET.
 LESS HEADCOUNT.
 MORE AI.
 MAKE IT VIRAL.
 WHAT’S THE ROI?
 CAN WE AUTOMATE THAT?
 DO MORE WITH LESS.
 ADD IT TO THE DASHBOARD.
 JUST ONE MORE REVISION.
 ALIGN WITH SALES.
 WHERE’S THE PIPELINE?
 ARE THESE MQLs QUALIFIED QUALIFIED?
 RUN ANOTHER WEBINAR.
 NEED A CASE STUDY ASAP.
 REACTIVATE OLD LEADS.
 THAT’S NOT IN THE CRM.
 IS THIS ATTRIBUTED?
 WHAT’S OUR INFLUENCE RATE?
 NEED EXEC BUY-IN.
 IT’S STUCK IN LEGAL.
 REVOPS WILL FIX IT.
 WE NEED A LEAD SCORING MODEL.
 CHECK WITH FINANCE FIRST.
 THE CEO WANTS A NEW NARRATIVE.
 NEW POSITIONING—AGAIN.
 DO WE HAVE A DECK FOR THAT?
 LET’S PUT IT IN ASANA.
 CAN WE “QUICKLY” SPIN SOMETHING UP?
 GTM ALIGNMENT WORKSHOP.
 QUARTERLY BUSINESS REVIEW.
 PIPELINE VELOCITY.
 CONVERSION SLIPPAGE.
 WHY ARE LEADS DOWN?
 WHY IS PIPELINE DOWN?


 WHY IS MORALE DOWN? Hmmmm. Wonder why?

Anymore I missed?

If these words don’t make your blood pressure spike, you’re not in marketing.
Or sales. Or ops. Or... anywhere near a GTM team.

taplio

The Battle

Mike Rizzo

Ragen D.

Followers

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Performance ScoreMike Rizzo's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Mike Rizzo

Ragen D.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mike Rizzo's LinkedIn Performance

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