Ten Effective Principles for IT and Marketing
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Business Goals Are Everything
Not all goals, however, are good goals. Follow Peter Drucker's "SMART" guidelines to come up with ones that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound. -
A Collective Vision
Global complexities put the pressure on CIOs and other leaders to communicate vision statements more effectively than ever. Once established, however, a collective vision unleashes inventive collaboration between IT and marketing. -
Data Inspires Creativity
Data by itself doesn't provide solutions. But it does depict a clearer path toward opportunity-and that's when IT can work with marketers to pursue bold ideas. -
Finding Unicorns
Unicorns are people who want to be more than tech-savvy and creative-they want to make a difference by building new revenue streams, making customers' lives easier and more. They combine a lack of ego with curiosity, passion and optimism, while remaining highly adaptable to change. -
Culture Predicts Success and Failure
Such a culture requires a flat hierarchy, encouragement of ideas/risk taking and information sharing/collaborative learning. -
Measure What Matters
There are an infinite amount of things to measure. So filter out any metrics-based activity that you can't act upon. Because measurement without action is a waste of time. -
What It's Worth
Through relative-value modeling, you assign dollar values to activities and behaviors. This helps prioritize tasks and operational practices during busy stretches. -
Never Stop Improving
No project is every finished, because even a launched initiative is merely a hypothesis of what might work. Continuously conduct testing and collect feedback to find a better way to reinvent something. -
One Size Fits No One
Customers aren't all the same. That's why a generic experience won't work in a digital world that demands personalized exchanges with an organization. Use tech to drive toward distinctions among customers to build highly customized interactions. -
Framework for Innovation
Simply stated, all innovation must be something new that takes existing situations and makes them better. Then, it needs to help achieve business goals-there's no room for innovation strictly for the sake of innovation.
As long-term strategies continue to bring tech and marketing departments together, the combined efforts often focus on visitor clicks or Twitter followings as ways to measure success. But how often do tech and marketing take a step back from a project and ask, "Does it work?" in delivering upon meaningful, business-driving goals? The recent book, Does It Work? 10 Principles for Delivering True Business Value in Digital Marketing (McGraw-Hill), examines the roles of IT and marketing professionals to identify ways in which their diverse skills can complement each other in a highly productive, integrated manner. Authors Shane Atchison and Jason Burby's 10 principles represent ideological pillars for this partnership that can keep participants focused on outcomes that really matter-including increased revenues, but also greatly enhanced and personalized customer experiences. The following 10 principles are adapted from the book. Atchison is Global CEO of POSSIBLE, a business consultancy specializing in strategic planning, e-commerce tech, analytics, social strategies, content and user experience development. Burby is president of the Americas region for POSSIBLE.