Marketing is becoming more tech-savvy than the IT department.
According to CIO Magazine CMOs are going to spend more than CIOs on technology, software and services. This means your battles for new leads, sales and business opportunities are going to be won with technology and tech-savvy agency partners. Is your business or marketing department armed to win those battles? A marketing technologist can help. Here's why:
1 - They are hybrid marketers - The marketing technologist is 60 percent marketer and 40 percent engineer. The marketer in them can be used to help formulate the marketing strategy of the business with you. Then, the technical side of them can be used to evaluate the thousands of marketing software products (eg; marketing automation software, CRM, social media management tools, website CMS', digital marketing media buys, tools etc;) and service providers (marketing agencies) to find out which ones suit your needs the best. They'll also be responsible for the implementation and proper use of those products and partners to make sure that the plan gets implemented and proper metrics tracked. They love to turn data into information.
2 - Digital marketing experts are underqualified - You may work with a digital marketing specialist or have one on your team, but those people aren't as tech savvy as you need. It's a painful truth, but 'digital marketing expert' is what people call themselves when they can't call themselves anything else. You don't need a degree, certification or any sort of credential to call yourself a 'digital marketing expert.' That means there are lots of them. They are all on LinkedIn in case you're having a hard time finding them. You can spot unemployed digital marketing experts on LinkedIn too. They call themselves entrepreneurs, business coaches or consultants....sometimes all 3 (again, all distinctions that don't need quantification of any kind). Unlike most of their digital marketing contemporaries the marketing technologists have the degrees, technical software certifications and proven ability to get the job done. No, certifications and degrees aren't prerequisites for marketing success, but they are still the best way to weed out the growing pool of underqualified people in this space. Marketing technologists are the future of digital marketing.
3 - They will make everyone accountable - The marketing technologist isn't a developer, SEO guru or your typical digital marketing person. They understand your strategy and are responsible for its implementation. They'll setup a loosely-structured partnership with a marketing agency that will provide them the hands-on support they need to build the digital marketing end of the business. This gives them (and you) access to on-demand developers, designers, SEO/PPC gurus and writers at their fingertips instead of hiring a bunch of people in-house. It should also cost less than a full-time employee. They'll also make sure that whatever various marketing tech you invest in gets utilized by them and the agency.
For example, say you've decided on HubSpot or Marketo as your marketing automation software of choice. The marketing technologist will leverage agency resources to create landing pages, banners and pick keywords. The technologist makes sure that the content and whatever the agency produces is in line with the marketing strategy and tests all content and collateral for performance. They will use the software's workflows and reporting tools to track progress and relay it back to you and senior management in business terms without buzzwords. In this case they have expertise with marketing automation software and have successfully implemented them from the ground up for other businesses. They've also been in your industry and understand it extremely well.
Ready to take the next step here is a job description for a chief marketing technologist as well as the contract you can use to arm the marketing technologist with the right marketing agency.