In 2012, Gartner had made a prediction that a company’s marketing officer would be spending a greater amount of time on technology than its Chief Information Officer in the coming years.

This prediction seems to be becoming true as marketing is heavily dependent on technology these days. The growth of digital marketing and e-commerce have resulted in the need for gaining expertise in this field. As a result, a new role seems to be emerging which will lead this transformation – the Chief Marketing Technologist, who will take over the key responsibility of aligning marketing technology with the business goals of the company.

So, let’s try to understand how exactly a Chief Marketing Technologist will play a major role in the company and provide a competitive edge to every business.

The growing importance of Chief Marketing Technologist – What makes it so unique?

The Chief Marketing Technologist essentially helps in bridging the gap between IT and marketing areas and acts as a change agent to create a technology vision for marketing. She plays a major role in any organization and has a scope for more experimentation leading to more effective management of the capabilities within the function. There are some key factors that have led to the growth of the role of Chief Marketing Technologist in an organization:

Software has become the primary means for connecting with the consumers

The choice of software by the marketing teams along with the way in which they configure and apply those technologies has a major influence in the way the organization builds its brand perception and engages its target audience. In the same way, it also influences the perception and preference of the customers towards a specific brand.

Growth of digital marketing and e-commerce

Digital marketing is among the most vital investments that organizations can make today and this field is growing rapidly. At the same time, both digital marketing and e-commerce are slowly replacing the traditional methods of marketing and selling, which has created a new challenge of managing and acquiring these new skills.

Increase in digital spending by companies

A survey by Gartner shows that nearly 67% of the marketing departments have plans to increase their spending on technology related activities in the next 2-3 years.

Along with this, 61% have also increased their capital expenses on technology and about 65% are also increasing their budget spending on service providers who are offering technology-based services. This shows that a growing portion of the company’s budget is being increasingly allocated to the technology sector.

Efficient management of numerous technologies

As per statistics, there are over 1000 marketing software services providers around the world that offer services ranging from CRM, marketing automation to other customized solutions in the field of content marketing, social media management among others. Building relationships with companies and service providers now require using technical interface for exchange and combining data and code.

There are bespoke software projects which are booming in the marketing field for providing unique customer experiences that come with their own inherent advantages.

How marketing and technology will grow together in the future?

As per the future predictions made by IDC – In the coming years, marketing will be increasingly focusing on the use of technology for building brand awareness, acquiring clients and gathering market information. This, in turn, will help companies to improve their operational efficiency and generate greater revenue for their business.

• In 2017, the spending by CMO will increase on content marketing assets than compared to product marketing assets.
• As we approach 2020, 50% of the companies will rely on cognitive computing methods for automating sales and marketing related interaction with their customers.
• In 2017, 20% of the large organizations will move towards consolidation of their marketing related technology infrastructure.
• During 2018, predictive analysis will be the key tool adopted by marketers. Also, 50% of the CMO’s will be making enormous structural changes to their operations and smart organizations.

Defining the role of Chief Marketing Technologist in the digital age

In this competitive environment, it’s essential that both the CIO and the CMO must work together in harmony. It’s not enough to have cooperation at the executive level, but creating a supportive organizational framework is equally important to get the best results. It’s no more possible to split marketing and technology and assign these roles individually as this may leave knowledge gaps when putting into actual practice.

Instead, a holistic approach is required to manage marketing-based technology to assist marketing leader recognize new technologies that can open up new business opportunities. The role of the Chief Marketing Technologist assumes greater significance due to the fact that marketing is responsible for driving revenue for the organizations. The marketing information systems are also responsible for the current and future growth of businesses. By merging the two roles of the CIO and the CMO together, the CEOs can get a crystal-clear picture of the insights that they need to take quick action for maintaining the top position in the industry.

Essentially, the Chief Marketing Technologist should be able to take on the responsibility of managing the technological capabilities of the core marketing team-staff, processes, and platforms. At the same time, the Chief Marketing Technologist needs to coordinate with the IT function to ensure that the company adheres to the right IT governance policies.

Thus, this role will shape the future of the marketing function by imparting a tech culture to help them deliver better customer experience in the digital world.

Clearly, it’s not possible for companies to isolate marketing and IT function anymore if they want to get greater visibility in this competitive environment and improve their business bottom line. Although there are many CMO’s who are trying to get the hang of the technical side of their business, the natural progression for a CIO would be to boost their marketing skills to fit into the role of a Chief Marketing Technologist.