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Marketing Operations Resource

Marketing Automation Migration Audit & Planning Guide

A practical, ops-first framework for evaluating, planning, and executing a MAP migration.

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migration phases from discovery through early wins.

days after go-live to simplify, train, and stabilize.

12–18

months of inactivity is a strong retirement signal.

In This GuideThe Goal Migration Framework Future-State Planning Data Decisions Validation & Early Wins

The Goal

You do not need to migrate everything.

The goal is not a perfect replica. It is immediate operational wins post-go-live.

Written for the operator

Written for you: a marketing operations professional. We created this for teams considering a move away from a long-standing MAP, actively evaluating new platforms, inheriting or consolidating existing instances, or simply trying to clean up years of operational debt.

This guide exists to help you decide what actually matters.

Leave behind what no longer serves you and use a migration as a chance to improve how marketing operates, not just where it runs.

A migration is not about recreating the past.

It is an opportunity to reset how work gets done, simplify governance, and improve speed and reliability.

Migration Framework

The seven phases from audit to early wins

Focus only on active or valuable assets, then define how things should work after go-live.

Discovery & marketing audit

Focus only on active or valuable assets.

Email Programs: How many emails are sent weekly? Are there recurring sends? Which nurtures are still relevant?
Landing Pages: How many are live today? Which still receive traffic or submissions? What should be retired vs migrated?
Forms: How many form structures exist? Are they standardized or bespoke? What data is actually being captured and used?

Consent & compliance review

Before any data moves, confirm how consent is captured today, which regions or regulations apply, and what records are safe to migrate.

Understand your current state: where consent is captured, how it is stored, and which processes depend on consent status.
Define inclusion criteria and exclude opted-out contacts, invalid or bounced emails, and records with no recent engagement.
Define the future state: consent fields, source of truth, send-time evaluation, and where logic will live.

CRM field & data analysis

Audit how data is actually used between CRM and the marketing automation platform.

Document which CRM objects are actively synced and referenced in your MAP.
Document which objects or fields are synced but never used, and which are not synced today but should be.
Map only what supports current or future workflows.

Defining the future state

Document how things should work after go-live.

Lead to lifecycle flows, scoring logic, routing and notifications.
Reporting requirements and governance rules.
This future-state definition becomes your source of truth.

Data migration principles

Apply validity thresholds based on recency and engagement.

What typically moves: active prospect records, recently engaged contacts, accounts and opportunities tied to pipeline.
What usually does not: dormant leads, obsolete programs, one-off historical experiments.
You are not losing history. You are protecting velocity.

Validation & quality assurance

After migration, compare source data to destination data.

Validate critical fields.
Confirm lifecycle and scoring behavior.
Test live flows end to end.

Go-live & early wins

The first 30 days matter. Strong teams use this window to simplify core programs, retire unnecessary complexity, and train teams on a single operating model.

Fewer dependencies.
Faster changes.
More confidence in day-to-day execution.

Retirement is part of the plan

If an asset has not been used or touched in 12–18 months, it is usually a strong candidate for retirement.

Future-State Planning

Move from where you are today to where you are going

This step creates a clear map from where you are today to where you are going, and is often the best opportunity to simplify rules, remove edge cases, and reduce operational risk.

Current state

Understand your current state

This creates a clear baseline for what exists, not what you think exists.

Consent capture points
Stored fields and sources
Processes tied to consent status

Inclusion criteria

Define inclusion criteria

A smaller, cleaner database is a feature, not a loss.

Opted-out contacts
Invalid or bounced emails
No recent engagement

Future state

Define the future state

Answer the key question: How should this process work once the migration is complete?

Future consent fields
System of record
Centralized vs asset-level logic

Data Decisions

Not all data deserves to move forward

The goal is not parity. It is clarity. A cleaner data model going in means fewer workarounds, clearer segmentation, and more confidence immediately after go-live.

Flag fields that support core workflows

Fields that support core workflows: routing, compliance, personalization, reporting.

Objects and fields actively referenced in workflows, segmentation, or reporting.
Fields with clear business meaning.
Objects or fields that are not synced today but should be.

What usually does not move