Information technology assets are part of every organization but are often under-utilized. These assets include critical information about your customers, their preferences, and – what’s most important – their purchasing habits. Understanding your customer profile and using it to market to those customers who fit it can have a lasting impact on your marketing efforts and add value to information you already own.
There are many reasons for the disconnect between an organization’s information technology and marketing teams. In many cases the marketing and IT functions are managed under completely separate chains of command. Also, marketers aren’t always familiar enough with the capabilities of their firms’ information technology assets, and information technology teams don’t often have a clear understanding of what information the marketing team finds valuable.
Does this sound like your organization? You’re not alone! A survey by the CMO Council indicates that only 6% of marketers partner with their internal information technology resources to aggregate data across their organization. As the pace of marketing toward digital continues to increase, connecting with information technology functions is critical, especially now that many departments are being asked to do more with less.
Plugging in your information technology resources can generate increased lead development, optimize the delivery of your other marketing material, and help develop a comprehensive profile of your customer. More data and better data just make your marketing efforts that much stronger and will bring in a better return.
So how to begin? Communication is always good at the outset but is hard to facilitate when you and the other party speak two different languages. Get the conversation started by talking about challenges each of you are experiencing. You may just find you have answers for each other that lead to a solution. If you’re strapped for resources but your solution makes sense for the company, bring in an outside expert who can help.
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