In an interview with Christine Librojo, Marketing Operations at FourKites, I got mesmerized by the way she handles operational processes in finance, human resources, administration, and marketing. Her thorough understanding of her company culture and its business goals has enabled her to strategize successful plans that increased the number of qualified leads for her company by 500 percent in one year.
Passionate about helping other women achieve personal and professional growth, Christine also mentors marketing intern students to help them achieve dramatic results. In an urge to know more about her vast experience and how she created a knowledgeable position for herself, I asked her few questions, and this is what she had to say:
About Christine Librojo
Christine Librojo: With an experience of five years in marketing operations, I am an award-winning marketer based out of Chicago. I have also developed two Marketo instances in my career as of now.
Reason to love marketing operations
Christine: The digital method of marketing is filled with challenges, and every week someone new walks up to me to seek help to solve their issues related to marketing operations. Being the go-to person to solve such unique challenges, such as figuring out how to set up new programs and initiatives, is what I love about my career in marketing operations.
My enthusiasm to work around and solve anything related to digital marketing is such that if someone comes to me asking for help in email marketing, they also get an added benefit with the entire marketing workflow – email, landing page, thank you page, calendar invites, autoresponder, and more. Not just marketing, I also love working with the sales team and helping them to connect the leads and the SDR team most effectively and efficiently.
One thing people should innovate for marketing operations
Christine Librojo: Marketing operations is all about managing the complexities of digital marketing while focusing on the ultimate marketing objective. The entire process can be too time-consuming if you want to carry it out flawlessly. Also, with more time comes better and high-end ideas. Thus, if given an opportunity, I would innovate a time machine which will add more time to a marketing operator’s day.
One thing people should forget about marketing operations
Christine Librojo: Unlike what most subscribers think, we marketing operators generally do not send unwanted emails. Well, for your information, there is nothing called ‘unwanted emails.’ If you are receiving a marketing email, that’s because you probably signed up for the emails in the past. And if the email is irrelevant to you at the moment, then find the unsubscribe link and click on it. Thus, the one thing I would like people to forget about marketing operations is that we send unwanted emails.
Familiar marketing operations tools
Christine: Being a Marketo and Pardot certified marketing operator, I am most familiar with these two tools.
Thoughts on outsourcing marketing operations
Christine Librojo: Designing image templates for marketing strategies is one aspect of digital marketing, which is built keeping in mind the future aspect of it, will help you get more out of it. Image templates, if designed in the right way, can be modified and used multiple times. Therefore, if I had a budget challenge, then I would outsource a designer for image templates.
Common problems and challenges of global marketing operations teams
Christine Librojo: Building the right marketing tech stack is the most challenging task that the entire Global Marketing Operation team is dealing with. From finding the right marketing tools to implementing a newly purchased one in your MarTech stack, the whole process is complicated.
Advice to marketing operations professionals
Christine Librojo: Digital marketing is something that needs to mature with your growing business and rising number of customers. Thus, if you are building anything around marketing, make it scalable and repeatable.
Favorite MarTech tools
Christine Librojo: My three favorite MarTech tools are Marketo for building enterprise-level marketing campaigns and workflows, Salesforce for connecting the dots between sales and the other parts of the organization, and Engagio for an account-level view of the activities happening around marketing.
Favorite outfit to wear at work
Christine Librojo: I would love to wear a shift dress to work every day, irrespective of the day, the time of year, and whom I have a meeting with!
Secrets of being a successful marketing operations warrior and reducing stress
Christine Librojo: Every day in the life of a marketing operations professional can be stressful due to the numerous areas to focus on. But if you have the right skills to understand what is best for your marketing team, then you can easily overcome all the work pressure. Thus, before I start panicking, I try to breathe deeply for ten seconds and drink a glass of water. If even that doesn’t work, I take a break to clear my head before I get started.
Five words that best describe Christine
Christine Librojo: Well, the five adjectives that perfectly describe me are collaborative, analytical, organized, efficient, and logical.
Fun activities
Christine: I am a bookworm and also love to cook. Thus, to entertain myself, I browse through the bookstores to find a new book every week and cook intricate meals on the weekends.
Thank you, Christine, for this unique insight into a marketing operations professional’s life and for enlightening us with tips to improve a marketing operator’s approach to his/her profession. No matter how challenging the task is, you can streamline your job with the right skill and approach.
