Only weeks into 2022, California-based marketing expert Krishen Iyer was quick to offer insight on anticipated marketing trends. As the founder and CEO of Mais Consulting, he has 18 years of experience in the marketing and insurance industries. Clients have come to rely on Krishen Iyer to deliver marketing best practices that drive real-world results. Even people who have not worked with him directly respect his expertise and listen when he shares his commentary.
2022 Will Bring More Formalized Training for Marketing Operations Positions
With the perks and pay that come with marketing operations jobs, it can seem surprising that companies cannot fill them. As Krishen Iyer explains, the problem comes down to the simple law of supply and demand. Not enough marketing professionals have the technical skills employers need to keep positions filled.
Business owners have historically viewed marketing operations as back-office work, but that perception is shifting. Another factor causing the shortage is that people have not had the opportunity to learn the core skills of marketing operations. Few formal education programs offer such training, and it is difficult to acquire while working in an adjacent marketing position.
Colleges have only recently added coursework about digital marketing to their curriculum. Even fewer higher learning institutions offer marketing operations training. Krishen Iyer feels that companies will start offering specialized training to otherwise qualified employees and job candidates this year. He acknowledges that many programs currently exist for marketing automation and other specific marketing platforms. However, he believes training programs specific to marketing operations will disrupt the industry in 2022. The time has come, and the demand is there.
Data Privacy Concerns Remain and Will Be a Core Competency for Marketing Operations
Data privacy has always been important to consumers, but Krishen Iyer predicts it will become the top issue in 2022. He has worked with many clients who need help with prioritizing regulatory compliance. The challenge for marketers this year will be to balance operational compliant campaigns with customers’ privacy expectations. Marketing operations professionals who have struck this balance will be in high demand from this point forward.
More Marketing Operations Roles at the Vice President and Director Levels
Krishen Iyer currently does not see many people in the role of VP of Marketing Operations in mainstream companies. Those he does see tend to work in the marketing tech industry or for a start-up business. He anticipates that 2022 will be the first year these roles become more prevalent and that the trend will continue.
A big reason for the change is an overall shift in the perception of marketing operations. Not only will businesses hire and train people for marketing ops positions, but they will also promote from within. Another factor is that more businesses realize the importance of improving their tech stack operation. Hiring and training marketing operations professionals is the most logical way to fill the existing gap.
Marketing Operations May Surpass Advertising Operations in 2022 Says Krishen Iyer
For both Krishen Iyer and his clients, advertising operations have always demanded the biggest piece of a marketing budget. That began to change over the past few years, and he feels it will no longer be true this year. What has taken its place in the B2B arena? This is what Krishen Iyer has seen:
- Account-based marketing (ABM)
- Community building
- Product-led growth
Advertising is still the quickest way to get a message or product in front of an audience quickly. Even so, Krishen Iyer knows that advertising must strategically align with other aspects of marketing to achieve the highest impact.
Responsibility for Account-Based Marketing Will Shift to Marketing Operations
ABM rose quickly in the late 2010s and then began to steadily flatten by 2021. Krishen Iyer estimates that search volume for ABM fell by at least half from its earlier peak. He attributes that to marketers realizing that the following strategies are good practices rather than any type of guarantee:
- Alignment
- Hyper-personalization
- Targeting
In the upcoming year, Krishen Iyer sees marketing teams no longer hiring ABM leaders. Instead, he feels the responsibility and emphasis will shift to marketing operations. Newly-hired marketing ops professionals will incorporate ABM as one of many strategies they can employ. The amount of data available for marketing operations means a chance to make ABM even more useful as a strategy.
About Krishen Iyer
Krishen Iyer attended college and has worked his entire career in the Greater San Diego Area. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from San Diego State University and started his career immediately upon graduation. Having always wanted to be an entrepreneur, he launched Name My Premium. He soon founded another company, Managed Benefit Services. Here he combined his professional interests in insurance and marketing to help clients generate leads.
Krishen Iyer now owns and operates his third company, MAIS Consulting. He provides the following services with help from a small team of employees:
- Company Policy Strategies: Company policies sometimes hurt a business and its employees more than they help. MAIS Consulting works with clients to identify harmful or outdated policies and ensures all policies moving forward benefit the business.
- Leadership Evaluation: Krishen Iyer is fond of saying that businesses are only as strong as their weakest link. He helps to identify weaknesses and change corporate structure from the bottom up.
- Marketing: This is the primary service of MAIS Consulting. Krishen Iyer and his team help clients establish successful marketing campaigns, analyze results, and initiate change. Digital marketing plays a big role in driving leads for clients.
Krishen Iyer looks forward to experiencing the changes 2022 brings. He is a forward-thinking business professional always looking for ways to improve.
