You're looking to break into marketing operations as a freelancer. What skills do you need to succeed?

Breaking into marketing operations as a freelancer is like entering a dynamic puzzle, and you need the right pieces to make it work. First off, a solid understanding of the marketing landscape is crucial. Know the trends, the tools, and the language—without drowning in buzzwords, of course. Next up, organizational skills are your best friend. You're the conductor of this orchestra, so being able to keep all the moving parts in harmony is key. Think project management, but with a creative twist. Tech-savviness is a non-negotiable. Familiarize yourself with the tools of the trade—CRM systems, automation platforms, and analytics tools. It's not about drowning in data; it's about swimming with purpose.

A strong understanding of marketing campaigns and strategies is required to ensure that campaigns reach target goals and marketing technology skill is required to manage the entire marketing technology ecosystem, including advertising, public relations, sales promotion, customer service, and other areas.

Social Media technology can also be a great calling card. There are so many platforms that allow businesses to manage and analyze social, that having a depth of understanding in this one area, could distinguish you enough to open doors. Adding a certification in any of the platforms is an advanced step, once you have a level of comfort in Marketing Operations. Most of all, take your “patience pill” daily because no one around you will likely understand the tools nor their capabilities so you’ll constantly have to “redirect” adults!

Besides affinity for technology, you need to be creative in using the martech. Understanding what each tool can achieve and solve is one thing, but within marketing operations it comes often down to finding creative solutions with martech for the issues you solve. Out-of-the-box thinking is crucial.

Marketing operations are build on a foundation of martech knowledge. You not only need to be proficient in various range of tools such as - CRMs, marketing automation software’s, lead generation and management systems, CDPs, Analytical tools, ABM tools, etc. but also understand how to build a complete system by integrating all these tools together so that the business needs are addressed. This requires a fundamental understanding of engineering, marketing and data analysis.

To excel as a freelance marketing operations professional, a versatile skill set is key. Beyond technical aspects, master marketing fundamentals like segmentation, targeting, branding, and copywriting. Acquire proficiency in diverse channels—email, social media, web, SEO. Platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning offer courses to hone these skills. This comprehensive approach ensures you not only navigate the technicalities but also contribute creatively and strategically. Success in freelancing demands continuous learning, and these platforms serve as valuable resources for refining and expanding your skill set.

What you're aiming at as a Freelancer is either to be a generalist so that you know what the entire playing field is about and therefore are able to advise in a wide range of challenges and strategies. Within the generalist skill you'll also need to be able to have a more business minded outlook to be able to advise in long term achievements and challenges. Next to generalist another skill set is that of the T-shaped marketer, where you have in depth knowledge about 1-3 aspects of marketing and a broader knowledge of others. Therefore you'll be great at marketing execution, but you're also able to grasps the bigger picture and therefore able to see what your execution efforts will result in.

Mindset is huge to break into any role. If you want to break into Marketing Operations, you need to think like a Marketer and make their processes better. Be curious -- understand the why behind things and get ready to explain "why" behind everything that you propose too. Seeking feedback is huge in Ops -- the Marketing team is basically your end user - so solve for the customer :)

One of the most important skills needed as a MOPs freelancer is missing from this article - people skills! How are you going to land clients if you can't explain what you bring to the table, walk through potential solutions with the client, or project manage the process as it goes along? Unless you are contracted out from another agency or freelancer, client communication skills are just as, if not more important than, any core marketing operations technical skills that are required in order to succeed.

You have to remember you're now MOPs pro, sales person, marketing person, finance person ... it's not an easy jump but you've got to be pretty entrepreneurial unless you're interested only in contracting (freelancing) for a higher salary and one gig at a time. The reality is as a freelancer you've got to bring a wealth of industry, product and use case experiences to the table. If I were considering it, I would get agency experience first where I am allowed to be innovative and learn how to be a brilliant consultant.

Curiosity! Always being curious by asking good questions to best understand a client's business, goals, tech stack, processes, and better audit so that you can design better solutions that are tailored for that client.