It’s inevitable. The world is moving at a pace where the traditional executive management structure is going to have a hard time keeping up. In past decades, the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) and CTO or CIO (Technology or Information Officers), operated under separate verticals. Yet as technology continually reinvents, it is now the backbone of nearly all business processes.
Consumers have adopted digital technologies in every way, shape and form. Now, Marketing teams are pressed to maximize effectiveness utilizing various digital marketing tools, using the Salesforce Resource. The reality of the situation: all human interaction can and will be digitized, causing marketing professionals to wander into new territories including a world of fast growing technology and IT functions. A study by Gartner, a research and consulting firm, concluded by 2017 the Chief Marketing Officer will spend more money on technology than the Chief Information Officer.
Marketers are now facing various trends including tracking, consolidating, reporting and utilizing Big data for decision making, developing algorithms to see what’s working and what’s not in real time, and evolving cloud technology for quicker and cost effective deployments. None of which are traditional marketing functions. On the other hand, IT is now responsible for managing consumer responses and focusing on creativity and brand.
In order to bridge this gap, here are 6 reasons to add a CMT (Chief Marketing Technologist) to your firms executive leadership:
- All-inclusive Management of Marketing Technology
Splitting the responsibility down the middle between CMO’s and CIO’s simply won’t work when it comes to marketing technology. Marketing professionals may not have the knowledge base and the expertise to fully leverage what IT has to offer, and IT might not understand how to accurately translate marketing requirements into technical capabilities. A CMT would successfully bridge the gap and allow a dedicated vertical to focus on marketing technology.
- Let Marketing Functions Focus On, Well… Marketing
The presence of a CMT allows the CMO to focus on their expertise, marketing. Instead of spending countless hours and dollars attempting to facilitate an idea through technology, leave it to the CMT to enable a firms marketing strategy with the use of technology.
- Quality Assurance
Leave it to the experts. A CMT will make sure the entire marketing staff is well equipped with all the right tools, software and training.
- Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk
CMT’s will take technology requests from the Marketing team, synthesize them to adhere with IT policy, and turn them into technical requirements. CMT’s have the unique capability to see from the perspective of both the CMO and CIO.
- Evaluate Inorganic Software & Service Providers
A CMT gives a firm the ability evaluate new software or services from a technology perspective while keeping the needs of the marketing team abreast. CMT’s provide unparalleled integration knowledge and the ability to monitor marketing technology for effectiveness.
- No More Hand-Holding
CMT’s focus solely on marketing technology; they are the experts. As digital marketing continues to grow at a rapid rate, get projects done quicker by minimizing the hand-holding and back and forth between the CMO and CIO.
With 20+ years in business, the TSI team has been a front-runner in technology trends and helping organizations identify and resolve the gaps between business units.
Based on articles written by the Harvard Business Review and Razorfish
