Victoria Godfrey, Chief Marketing Officer at Avention suggests brands on how to build a strong and lasting relationship between their CMO and CIO
Today’s CMOs are tasked with driving more than just leads. With valuable data at their fingertips, modern CMOs are expected to create initiatives that supersede top-of-the-funnel results and lead directly to revenue. To meet these goals, they sometimes need help from an unlikely partner: chief information officers (CIOs).
The CMO and CIO have long worked apart, separated by functional silos, each focused on individual goals and successes. However, you can’t achieve true data-driven marketing without technology. Today’s digital economy demands a marriage (or at least a partnership) between marketing and IT. Here are five ways CMOs can help bridge the divide.
1. Identify mutual goals
As marketers, we track and measure everything. If it’s not measurable, it’s not worth doing. The IT team also has concrete goals; however, they’re often at odds with marketing initiatives that impact web performance and strain bandwidth. To ensure your project has IT support, you need to meet with your CIO to discuss overall goals. If, for example, you want to implement a new data management solution, explain how this solution can improve marketing results to help meet company customer acquisition goals. By approaching the discussion with clear objectives, marketing and IT are more likely to find common ground on which to build a mutually satisfying relationship.
2. Learn to speak geek
You’ve likely heard of the book, “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” The same can be said about CIOs and CMOs. We may work in the same company, but when it comes to our communication styles, we’re worlds apart. To bridge this gap, we need to learn to speak each other’s language. For marketers, that means learning some of the technical vocabulary used by IT professionals and how it relates to your work. When CMOs take the time to learn more about technical challenges and requirements, they can better understand what drives the IT function and how to work in concert with the IT team.
Likewise, the CIO should step outside the IT box and learn what fast-talking, gregarious marketers really mean when they say things like, “We need better personalization to boost click-to-conversion rates by 20 percent this quarter.” It may sound like jargon, but IT types tend to excel at breaking down big projects into granular components. By applying an IT lens to the marketing problem, a CIO can better understand how an integrated effort between marketing and IT can solve that particular challenge and impact broader business goals, such as the customer experience.
3. Measure progress
You can’t advocate for your teams or budget without proving their efforts are working and worth the investment. It’s critical to create a system to measure progress and results in a way that works for both teams. Any time your combined teams begin a new project, start by identifying benchmarks that show value throughout the process, not just the end result. Consider developing a measurement system that mirrors traditional IT or agile project management methods that measure every sprint and deliverable. This will help keep both teams informed and aligned toward the end goal.
4. Celebrate joint successes
Nothing fosters goodwill and collaboration like celebrating success. At the completion of a joint IT-marketing project, communicate the winning results far and wide, but don’t stop there. Make it a point to call out individuals from both departments who contributed to the overall success of the project. And don’t overlook the C-suite. The strategic impact of integrated campaigns cannot be overstated. Highlight the key results and explain how the initiative advances the company’s overall business goals. This communication will support future multi-department projects and position you and your CIO as forward-thinking leaders.
5. Maintain the relationship
Marketing may be controlling a larger portion of technology expenditures than in years past, but that doesn’t mean marketing professionals are technology experts. Marketers need IT to ensure technology initiatives are implemented correctly. Consider data-driven marketing, which is a growing business imperative. Wading through the dozens of data sources to discern actionable insights is a massive undertaking that is unrealistic without technology. IT can help marketers choose the right solution for the job and identify additional technology considerations markets may not have considered.
Beyond the parameters of a specific project, marketing and IT teams should maintain close ties to identify new opportunities to collaborate. This might involve a regular meeting or a digital community where team members share ideas. Or, consider a quarterly trivia night to foster a sense of community. Establishing ongoing communication practices and knowledge sharing will further cement the CMO-CIO relationship and encourage cross-department collaboration that will benefit the company for years to come.
