When consumers browse their cellphones or surf the web on their tablet after work, they don’t consciously consider they’re engaging in specific channels, on specific devices, during specific times. Brands realize this and are actively working to unify the experience they offer across all marketing channels in order to play a more active role in the purchase decision-making process. Programmatic technology is a powerful tool for brands to deliver that omni-channel experience, yet putting programmatic into practice doesn’t happen overnight.
Brand marketers need internal buy-in from a number of key stakeholders across the organization to implement programmatic technology. Sure, the digital marketers are already convinced of its value but what about the CFO, the CIO, and the “traditional” marketing teams that play crucial roles in executing brand strategy?
More Money, Less Problems, and a Happy CFO
Programmatic technology has demonstrated itself to be cost effective for digital advertisers. In a 2013, global marketing survey, IBM’s Center for Applied Insights, found that companies who used “forward-thinking” engagement platforms such as programmatic had revenue growth rates that were 40% higher than other companies and profit growth rates that were double those of their peers. Similarly, Gartner estimates that companies “can increase revenue by as much as 20% by taking a programmatic approach to marketing to existing customers.” The marketers of today are expected to drive revenue forward and supply the metrics to back it up. Programmatic technology enables marketers to do that by arming them with insights on campaign performance and customer behavior – both crucial to optimize against in order to drive business results.
Marketing and Information Technology: Together as One
Last week at the Marketo Marketing Nation Summit, Beth Comstock, CMO, GE mentioned a developing role within many large brands: the MIT, or marketing information technologist. At MediaMath, we like to call this new breed of marketer the Marketing Engineer. The responsibilities of the marketer and technologist are becoming increasingly blurred as brands are activating data for marketing insights. Marketing operations now rely heavily on various technologies, yet there still exists a disconnect between IT and marketing departments. According to recent Forrester research “only 45% of marketers and 62% of IT respondents believe that dedicated leadership is in place to support marketing technology investments.” However, many large brands are making the effort to align these departments for agile tech-driven marketing initiatives. The same Forrester survey revealed that “CIOs and CMOs are beginning to see alignment on marketing technology projects, with 70% of IT and more than half (51%) of marketing agreeing that “marketing and IT have shared ownership/responsibility for marketing technology projects.” It’s clear that both the CIO and the CMO need to play an equally important role in the decision making process of onboarding new technology.
Internal Marketing Alignment
Just like the CMO and the CIO need to align on needs, it’s imperative that each marketing team within the organization collaborates to ensure offer alignment across the breadth of marketing channels. If the traditional marketing teams aren’t working in conjunction with the digital team, how can the brand truly deliver a seamless experience to the customer? By unifying marketing teams to pursue the same goal, the brand doesn’t risk missing any opportunities with customers. Programmatic technology gives control of the relationship back to the brand through increased responsiveness to diverse customer interactions. The technology ensures the ability to framework the customer experience by offer, channel, and frequency so that brands only engage customers in a highly customized way.
Smart brands realize the need to deliver a consistent experience that engages customer touch points. However, if key internal stakeholders and marketing teams aren’t on the same page, the hard work dedicated to building a strong marketing practice falls apart. Poorly planned and executed media is a terrible experience for the customer and ultimately negatively impacts growth for the advertiser. Through a clear understanding of the value programmatic technology can deliver, combined with alignment of departments and teams, brands can set themselves up to execute data-driven marketing campaigns that put the consumer first.
This post is the second in a series for marketers with an understanding of programmatic technology who are looking to step it up.
Keep up with this series to further educate yourself on how programmatic technology fits into the bigger marketing picture by following the Step It Up Series on the blog.
Do you have what it takes to integrate programmatic technology more deeply into your business strategy? Take our quiz to identify your level of programmatic sophistication and get to the next level.