When it comes to marketing, if you can’t utilize technology properly, you’re going to fall behind. Technology today plays a huge role in the marketing world. It helps us market on all different kinds of platforms and reach people all over the world. While it’s certainly a challenge for some companies to get a handle on, being able to tie together technology and marketing will take your business further than it ever could go.
But, trying to link up your technology team and your marketing team isn’t always as easy as it sounds. (Neither is doing the same for your sales and marketing teams.) So, we’ve got some strategies to get you started.
1. Weave In IT Positions in Marketing and Vice Versa
One way to tie in technology and marketing is by weaving in IT roles for marketing teams and vice versa. If your business can set up these kinds of positions from the get go, it will make work run more smoothly in the future. After all, if an IT professional needs to report to a CMO and a marketing professional needs to report to a CIO, then you might be surprised at what it will do.
2. Keep Communication Clear and Consistent
If people aren’t seeing eye to eye, it usually goes back to communication. Actually, any two people who may often experience conflict could just be a result of bad communication. As a leader in your company, you’re responsible for providing a system that allows everyone to communicate freely.
Don’t let the marketing team be the last to find out about something they need to do with their digital marketing strategy, that they just don’t know how to do. Everyone needs to be on the same page and help each other get goals accomplished.
Which brings us to our next point…
3. Remember To Outline Specific Goals and Roles
Every business should have clear marketing goals. These goals should be observable and measurable, and most of all, SMART. When a company creates a new goal for itself, everyone needs to take part in reaching this goal. Even if their part means that they will step aside on this one and wait for the next. When outlining specific goals, it’s imperative that every person involved knows A. What their job is and B. Who they will be directly communicating with. When you must tie together technology and marketing, this is key.
4. Help Nurture Strong Partnerships Between Executives
If your marketing team and IT team aren’t as aligned as you would like them to be, then at least the executives of those teams should be. Make sure these leaders aren’t sitting at opposite sides of the office, if you know what we mean. Marketers spend a lot of their budget on technology. Likewise, IT teams provide resources for marketing teams to get things done.
Therefore, something like granting spending power to the CMO while dictating that the budget cannot be allocated without the CIO’s approval, might help foster a stronger partnership between these executives in the long run. (Stronger may not always mean “friendlier.”) This would mean that both parties have equal roles. And, thus, a certain sense of responsibility in looking out for the best interest of the company.
5. Educate
Marketing teams may not be experts on the latest technology or how to do a variety of things they need to do on the company’s website. Likewise, technology teams may not outright comprehend what the marketing team is trying to utilize the website for in the first place. Cross-educating both teams about the basics of each other’s roles will help create a mutual understanding of each team’s importance.