Real-Life Marketing Ops Success Stories
What does success in marketing operations look like in practice? At the April 2025 European MarketingOps.com Chapter meeting, industry leaders came together to share real-world wins, messy lessons, and honest reflections from the front lines of MOPs.
Whether you’re optimizing systems, scaling teams, or navigating complex tech stacks, here’s a recap packed with insights you can use right away.
Case Study 1: Driving Data-Driven Automation in Media
Presented by: Michael Aho, Senior MOPs Advisor, Avaus
Michael shared how Bonnier News, a leading Nordic media house, transformed its marketing operations with automation, advanced segmentation, and centralized processes.
Key achievements:
- Scaled email engagement up to 40x with personalized, data-driven outreach
- Replaced cold calling with automated marketing-driven lead qualification, resulting in 4x better conversion rates
- Integrated cross-channel segmentation based on a unified ID
- Built a framework to measure marketing maturity and expand use cases across B2B and B2C
- Enabled real-time content personalization and offer automation
Success took time:
“These transformations took 4–5 years. Mapping use cases and setting a long-term roadmap was essential.”
Challenges faced:
- Misaligned visions across teams (B2B, events, ad sales)
- Siloed tech stacks and legacy processes
- Difficulties estimating ROI for complex transformation projects
- Gaining buy-in from tech leadership
Michael’s advice:
“The turning point was aligning on a shared tech vision and shifting from campaign-based to automation-first thinking.”
Case Study 2: Fixing Lead Routing with Asynchronous Processing
Presented by: Chloe Pott, Founder, pocket nibbles consulting
Chloe tackled a common lead management nightmare: leads ping-ponging between owners due to scoring and enrichment updates after CRM sync.
The fix:
- Built a step-by-step asynchronous lead processing workflow
- Each step (e.g., email verification, enrichment, scoring) completed before syncing to Salesforce
- Used alerting to flag records stuck in a step
Results:
- Faster, more reliable lead routing
- BDR frustration eliminated
- Fewer sync errors
- Field marketers regained trust in the process
“We removed the guesswork. Once a lead entered Salesforce, ownership didn’t change. Everyone was happier.”
Case Study 3: Calculating Webinar Performance in Salesforce (No Excel Required)
Presented by: Chloe Pott
The challenge: Calculating attendee rates for webinars inside Salesforce without exporting data to Excel.
The workaround:
- Used row-level formulas in campaign member reports
- Created a field assigning 1 for attended, 0 for others
- Built a summary formula dividing attendees by total members
Impact:
- Real-time, dynamic reporting
- No manual Excel work
- Marketers own their metrics
- Boosted trust in marketing data across teams
“Instead of exporting and emailing Excel files, marketing leadership could now track performance directly in Salesforce.”
Case Study 4: Building a Team Based on Personality, Not Just Skills
Presented by: Chloe Pott
What happens when you hire for mindset, not just resumes?
My strategy:
- Paired a senior technical expert with two eager, entry-level team members
- Focused on values, collaboration, and safe learning spaces
- Created mentorship moments with screen shares and open office hours
Results:
- Junior team members ramped up quickly and confidently
- Team retention improved
- Strengths-based development across content, tech, and ABM
“Tech skills can expire. Growth mindset doesn’t.”
Case Study 5: Solving a High-Volume Email Puzzle with Custom Objects
Presented by: Mihai Bejgu, Revenue Pulse
When asked to send 50 personalized emails to the same address in a single batch, Mihai said, “That’s impossible.”
Spoiler: It wasn’t.
The solution:
- Used Marketo Custom Objects and Velocity Scripting to manage 1:many personalization
- Automated data purging via API
- Streamlined what used to be a manual, Excel-heavy process
“Never say never. With some creativity, we scaled a complex use case and reduced human error.”
Photo by Guille Álvarez on Unsplash
