markITing CONNECTION

This is the future, right? Marketing and IT, hand-in-glove, hammering out a better digital experience, all driven by analytics and the simple goal of more revenue. It’s so obvious, it must be happening all over, right?

Hah!

“Hah” is the very scientific conclusion I draw from a fascinating new study by Accenture and the CMO Council, an organization representing about 6,000 top marketing executives. By surveying and interviewing both chief marketing officers and CIOs, the report throws a lightning bolt of reality at any CIOs who think they have a hunky-dory relationship with their CMO. (Get the full report, “The CMO-CIO Alignment Imperative,” here.)

The authors point out lots of reasons why the CMO and the CIO should get cozy with each other. Digital touchpoints, whether on a smartphone, Web site, or kiosk, are becoming increasingly important to the customer experience. Marketing efforts are under pressure to be more measurable, reach customers through more channels, and personalize messages more. It has been a slow-burning trend over the past decade that smartphones, wireless tablets, social networking, and high-powered analytics will put a rocket on in the next two years.

The marketing-IT relationship isn’t blossoming, though. IT and marketing are estranged in many companies, despite the potential to drive more revenue by working together. Here are a few reasons that I took from the report…

via Global CIO: IT & Marketing: Can’t They Ever Get Along? – Global-cio – Workplace trends – Informationweek.

This report offers more support for what this blog is all about: that Marketing and IT need to—no, must—work together to successfully engage and serve today’s customer, client, and constituent. Connecting with them starts with connecting Marketing and IT.

Marketing and IT Don’t Talk

Marketing is now a tech-driven discipline, but the historical gulf between IT and marketing departments remains at many companies. This gulf exists partly because marketing pros just don’t believe IT understands digital marketing, but it’s also about speed. Nearly two-thirds of respondents to a survey of chief marketing officers and CIOs last year said they had problems implementing marketing technology systems. The main reason cited? IT gives it a low priority.

via 8 Signs Your IT Team Is Too Slow – Global-cio – Executive insights/interviews – Informationweek.

Aha, looks like others see the connection between Marketing and IT—the theme of this blog. There’s just no way these days to be successful in any venture, project, or initiative with a disconnect between the two. Think websites, social media, and even video which is generally delivered online, and via a website, and viewed on a mobile device. Nuff said…well, they’ll actually be much more on all that, like now: Read my post on the survey referenced above, then, from there, review the results.