With the rapid adoption of digital marketing, the lines of responsibility of the marketing team and the IT team have blurred. There is need for marketing folks to gain more technical training, or at least understand how certain areas of programming works – and for IT to be more hands-on with code implementation, testing and security of web properties.
There is still a divide – it varies from business to business. Many digital tools are becoming easier to manage/implement by non-technical marketing people, but it’s clear that there is a gap between technical and marketing.
The Emergence of the Chief Marketing Technology Officer
There is a great blog that I read that stresses the importance of a CMTO
Also, here is a great infographic on the topic
Having a CMTO may be out of reach for some companies, and possibly the current relationship between marketing and IT is very strained. It may take some time to repair the relationship. In many cases, marketing is focused on the immediate need whereas IT may be more cautious about adopting new technologies and tools.
What Marketing Can Do
- If you are a marketing leader or influencer, arrange for your digital staff (or bring in a consultant) to speak about digital to the rest of your team and to the people in the IT department that you work with. It’s important to have an open discussion that addresses the business needs of the organization – lead generation, brand awareness (to name a few), coupled with how these business needs can be implemented, captured and measured through online and offline channels.
- Encourage people to transfer knowledge, encourage marketing staff to take a programming course. There are tons of resources online. (LinkedIn Learning, Codecademy, etc.) The more the marketing department knows, the easier it will be to work with IT.
- Keep in touch with IT – don’t be a stranger, ask them questions and respect their expertise. They can do many wonderful things, and understanding what they do, plus understanding the effort it takes to do it, helps to bridge the gap.