How to Get Your IT and Marketing Departments on the Same Page

Marketing professionals tend to be cut from a different cloth than those who go into IT, which used to be fine back in the day when marketers did their own thing and techies did theirs. But as Kimberly A. Whitler at Forbespoints out, today’s marketers depend highly on IT professionals because of how important technology has become in reaching customers and audiences. She spoke with Andrew Barr Brunger, Citibank’s Head of Global Consumer Strategy, about building the bridge between the two worlds. Predictably, it starts at the top:

“All marketing leaders, including CMOs, should have a strong-to-sophisticated understanding of the technology under the hood if they are to execute successfully on digital initiatives and accomplish their mandate.”

Basically, your IT department shouldn’t be expected to lead a hopeless marketing team by the hand if the latter has no understanding of the mechanics beneath digital media and outreach. If the head of marketing can’t even string together basic HTML code, you’re looking at a situation doomed to fail. Your marketers need to be proficient in communicating through the tech vernacular as they need to be architects designing what IT builds. The last thing you want is an IT department that feels like its being ordered around by a bunch of ignoramuses. 

At the same time, it’s important for IT to be open-minded to the idea that tech experts are increasingly be hired at least somewhat so they can assist with marketing. Brunger predicts that one day the line between Marketing and IT could disappear completely. It’s best to start getting along now rather than waiting until then.

For more, keep reading at Forbes

Photo credit: Khakimullin Aleksandr / Shutterstock