Tag: IT vs. Marketing

The 4th post in our 4-part series investigating the difficulties between IT and Marketing.

Changing the Way IT or Marketing Communicates

Marketing should keep a few things in mind when communicating with IT:

• Fully communicate the end-state – the goal you wish to accomplish and not just what you want to do. IT can be a strong strategic partner in helping you accomplish your goals and not a vendor to do your bidding.
• Leave specific requests as open-ended as possible. Don’t jump too quickly into dictating specific solutions. You will miss out on potential undiscovered opportunities IT can suggest and you will undermine the expertise that they can bring to the table.
• Make requests to-the-point and cut out fluff. IT-types may disdain small talk.
• Treat IT as a key partner in the trenches, not as a vendor.

IT should keep a few things in mind when communicating with Marketing:

• Try to understand the end customer, the sales process, and the strategic goals of the endeavor.
• Approach the situation with positivity and a success-orientation.
• Make an effort to communicate in layman’s terms and don’t overuse acronyms.
• Proactively ask for clarification – especially if you see a potential weak spot. Take the time to fully marinate in the problem space before you jump into solution mode.
• Don’t perform a requested task exactly-as-asked if you know it will fail just to prove Marketing lacks depth of knowledge. It may puff your ego but it isn’t kind.
• When engaging, you may need to be more warm and schmoozy than you are when interacting with exclusively other IT-types.

This was the final post in our series on IT vs. Marketing. We hope you enjoyed it and got some value from our perspective. We did take liberty and spoke in generalities, there is a wide swathe of situations and sometimes there is zero friction between these two groups.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject! Please comment on any of the posts and add your two cents!

Need a firm to help bridge communication with IT / Marketing?
We’d be happy to chat.

IT vs. Marketing Series

Part 1: Why the Friction?

Part 2: The Website Battleground

Part 3: How to Find Success

Part 4: How to Communicate

The 3rd in our 4-part series investigating the difficulties between IT and Marketing.

• Part 1: Why the Friction?
• Part 2: The Website Battleground

How to solve the friction and make the world a better place

We’ve seen four approaches that can work really well to solve the IT vs. Marketing conundrum.

1. Let One Group Lead and Take Ownership

We’ve seen this work but it can be really tricky. If Marketing takes ownership but doesn’t correctly care for the technical nuance of their endeavor  they can end up making a mess of the site. While it might look pleasing and strategic, there are often gaping holes in technology interrelation, scalability, and/or weak security, to name a few common serious issues.

If IT takes the lead, the site might be built using the safest and most stable technologies but be extremely difficult for non-technical teams to manage. If they are not careful, IT could lock the site down in a “holding pattern” for years with no meaningful strategic readjustments or fresh content.

2. Partner IT and Marketing with Aligned Incentives and Common Goals

Have the project purpose and KPIs clearly defined so that all sides know where they are aiming. If there is maturity of leadership and a desire for success, this can certainly be a successful partnership.

3. Amalgamating IT and Marketing Together

For new companies and startups, it is common to no longer see a clear delineation between IT and Marketing. We think this can be a really enlightened approach if your business model will support it.

4. Third-Party Vendor Approach

A third-party vendor can be a solid bridge between IT and Marketing. Whether their role borders on U.N. Peacekeeping or is simply to be an interpreter for competing goals – a third-party vendor can bring much needed freshness to communication that has become stalemated in mature companies. At LimeCuda, we often find ourselves being “the vendor”.

A firm like ours is a hybrid mix of both IT and Marketing which  means we are sensitive to the needs and concerns of both. Sometimes we work exclusively with Marketing-type folks and we play the role of “IT”.  Other times we work closely with IT to integrate existing systems and alleviate their procedural and security concerns.

We are biased but an optimal solution may be a neutral third party both sides view as an expert. 

Need a firm to help align IT / Marketing and coordinate your efforts on the web? We’d be happy to chat.

IT vs. Marketing Series

Part 1: Why the Friction?

Part 2: The Website Battleground

Part 3: How to Find Success

Part 4: How to Communicate [COMING SOON]

The second part in a 4-part series investigating the difficulties between IT and Marketing. Read Part 1: Why the Friction?

The Website, Troublemaker at the Center of It All

The website is a classic battleground of IT and Marketing. It’s like having a sibling who has all different interests as you EXCEPT for the same love interest. It is bound to get ugly.

Conversely, the website could be a hot potato for the two silos. Neither may want the ownership or responsibility of the website. Fighting to be relieved of the responsibility can be as ugly as fighting for control.

A Website is Equal Parts Technology and Marketing

By “website” I’m talking about the primary public website a potential customer visits in order to learn or buy from a company. Absolutely this could be an oversimplification. We have clients for whom we manage 12 websites.

Websites run on some sort of technology stack. They have technical components like a domain name, hosting, update caretaking, and a CMS. There is uptime, site speed, security, and a whole host of technically-oriented concerns.

But a website also needs to be highly strategic. It is usually a customer’s first impression. It has to be on-brand, positioned well, and tell the company’s story. It may leverage content marketing, analytics, Social Media, and SEO. All items that usually fall within the purview of Marketing!

Who’s to blame for the friction?

It is easy to chuckle while imagining the stereotypes for IT and for Marketing and assume this is where the trouble stems. The IT people are nerds, gruff, arrogant, and anti-social. The Marketers are jocks, gregarious, loud, and just drink all day like characters in Mad Men. Occasionally these may be somewhat true but really the diversity in both fields is increasing. We don’t think these personality penchants are really at the root of the issue…

This friction isn’t entirely the fault of IT or Marketing but they’re both rather unfortunate victims of a poorly constructed system of incentives. Our analysis is this friction usually stems from misunderstanding each other and misalignment of incentives. Next post coming up, how to find Success!

IT vs. Marketing Series

Part 1: Why the Friction?

Part 2: The Website Battleground

Part 3: How to Find Success

Part 4: How to Communicate [COMING SOON]

A 4-part series investigating the difficulties between IT and Marketing

If you’ve been in the corporate world, you know that IT (Information Technology) and Marketing often don’t get along or at least seem to be talking past each other. Why is that?

We’ve been building websites for 7 years and have seen both the good and the bad of this classic clash. There have been really ugly situations as well as wonderful partnerships. We’re sharing our observations to get to the core of the issue.

Looking at the State of IT and Marketing

We know we’re speaking in broad generalities here, a healthy IT or Marketing group may be a very different mix.

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Incentives of IT

IT usually has these aspects at their forefront:

• Stability: preventing fires, heavy problem solving
• Maintaining status quo
• Managing risk / fear of the unknown
• System integrity, Security, Scalability
• Obsession with doing things correctly
• Slow and steady / long term outlook

All of these things are threatened by change – more on that in a minute.

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Incentives of Marketing

Marketing usually has these aspects at their forefront:

• Improving metrics: traffic, leads, sales
• Experimenting with new methods
• A “get it done” attitude that dislikes trivialities and minute details
• Embracing the unknown
• Fast, iterative with possibly a more near-term outlook

These things lead to an approach that only improves with constant change.

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Both Sectors are Morphing

IT has gotten more complicated in some ways. They navigate the use of third party tools, Managed Services, or building resources in-house. More is expected of them, security is hard, and they handle a broad array of interrelated pieces of technology.

In the last two decades, Marketers also have seen increased pressure to acquire fairly technical skills in addition to the creative skill set that has always been expected of them. The spend on marketing software and SaaS solutions has increased dramatically.

Cost Center or Profit Center?

IT is usually considered a “cost center” within a company, even though its functions can be integral to the business running at optimal efficiency. This means that IT sometimes has to fight aggressively for budget and can be understaffed.

Marketing is usually considered a “profit center”. Its actions can more easily be traced and tied directly to new business. This means budget can be more easily rationalized. If you can determine a real positive ROI then it is a no-brainer to spend that money!

What do they each DO?

Before I get tarred and feathered, let me say that these are caricatures of each. What IT does and what Marketing does vary a ton between companies.

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IT is tasked with aspects like:

• Computer setup and maintenance
• Office network and WiFi
• Phone systems
• Corporate software and Intranets
• The Website

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Marketing is tasked with aspects like:

• Customer acquisition
• Promotional materials / Ad campaigns
• Branding and design
• Tradeshows and conferences
• The Website

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Notice the common bullet point? This is where the friction can really heat up…
The Website!

New Technology Stirs the Pot

The introduction of new technology (especially website-related) can threaten the fiefdom, control, and budget of IT. This can explain (not excuse) why new technology endeavors are met with suspicion or outright hostility.

One of IT’s greatest fears is Marketing “going rogue”. Non-technical people may break a system and IT is expected to step in and fix. Sometimes access is jealously guarded. Once given, it is hard to take back…

Marketing is increasing technologically-based. This means they are often the ones pushing for new endeavors.

Conversely (and ironically), sometimes IT introduces new technology and Marketing is leery and fights adoption.

IT vs. Marketing Series

Part 1: Why the Friction?

Part 2: The Website Battleground

Part 3: How to Find Success

Part 4: How to Communicate [COMING SOON]