Forget Sales-Marketing Alignment, it’s a thing of the past. Marketing automation solved that problem long back with lead scoring and lead nurturing automation. Modern marketers are now struggling to implement MarTech projects, largely due to alignment issues with the in-house IT teams.
At Esanosys, we work with startups and enterprises alike and realized that large enterprises with multiple departments and hierarchy structures are more prone to MarTech project failures than startups which have small teams and easy implementation processes. I felt, it is important to list down our learnings for the benefit of fellow marketers who are keen to ensure MarTech success for their companies.
MarTech is the new kid on the block which is gaining momentum in the world of marketing day by day. As marketers are increasing their budgets to provide a much-needed technological boost to their departments, they also have to make sure that their marketing technology implementations are successful. Marketers who have a strong working relationship with their IT department are more successful while implementing MarTech solutions.
In order for marketing technology to work seamlessly, you have to make sure that your marketing and IT departments are aligned. Both these departments have their separate areas of responsibility but towards a common goal. For example, your marketing department will want to get more leads, as a result, more customers and growing profits. On the other hand, the IT department is more focused on implementing the right technology by keeping expenses under check.
In order to achieve success, you have to make sure that these two departments with varying objectives keep working towards the same goal. You will have to define the roles and responsibilities of every member of both the departments who will be part of your MarTech implementation project.
How to Define the Roles and Responsibilities of different members of the Team?
It is extremely important that the roles and responsibilities of a project team are identified in order to set the expectations of people who are involved in it. By implementing the RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) model you get to assign responsibilities to each person which translates into what is expected from them. RACI helps to eradicate situations where members of the team do not take ownership or responsibility for tasks.
The marketing department’s role should be to identify the problem and defining it according. They should also devise the vision for the process of business. The IT department should provide the marketing department their knowledge of technology and guide them as needed. Implementation of technology to help marketing’s need and provide support when the process is ongoing should be the role of the IT department.
How to Implement MarTech and align Marketing & IT?
Step 1: Define the Problem
The marketing department needs to identify the problem and define it first. You have to communicate with the IT department stating your current challenges and what you intend to solve. Decide on whether to go for in-house development or outsource it to MarTech implementation specialists.
Step 2: Define the Outcome
If you need to solve a problem with MarTech, you need to create a proposal that will explain the problem at hand. This will let your internal teams know what is going on and if they can provide a solution.
Step 3: Define the Requirements
To achieve success by implementing MarTech, you need to state down what you require. Depending on the requirements, either marketing or IT will be responsible. You need to align marketing goals with the IT department so that you can achieve what is required with the help of technology. Some MarTech applications are cloud-based, some are locally hosted. IT needs to be in the loop to ensure compliance and technical feasibility and uptimes round the clock.
If you have blamed your MarTech vendor for a faulty implementation, only to realize that the application was being blocked by internal firewalls, you will know what I mean.
Step 4: Acquiring the Tech
If you are acquiring MarTech solutions, you will have to look for the technology that will solve your problem. Now, this is a task where you need to team up with IT so that they can provide you guidance. But IT alone cannot finish this task because, at the end of the day, marketing will be implementing and using the tech.
Step 5: Integration
After acquiring the solution, the IT department will be the one who will integrate it into the existing technology. Marketing will have to hand off the process to IT, who will now start to take care of the problem. For example, you may want to implement a marketing automation system that will be integrated with your CRM. The CRM may be owned by the Sales team and you will have to align marketing, sales, and IT teams. Phew! That’s not an easy task.
Step 6: Project Management
If you want your project to be successful, you need an efficient project manager. The IT team is responsible here because they lead the process of implementation but the Marketing teams own the project and are responsible for the proper configuration and implementation. You wouldn’t want your IT team to decide the best workflow for your leads. Would you?
Step 7: Testing
After completion of primary implementation, it is time for initial testing. This is the joint responsibility of the Marketing user team and the IT department.
Step 8: Launch
Here the marketing department has to highlight the benefits of using the new tech and train users. Not only that the success of the entire project depends on how many users adopt it. Invest in training programs, if you want to be truly successful.
Step 9: Maintenance
This is extremely important and your IT team has to provide support to any tech issues that the marketing team might face. The IT team has to make sure that they have the resources to support marketing, preferably round the clock.
Lack of clarity around roles often causes hiccups while trying to align goals. You should only proceed with your MarTech project after making sure that marketing and IT are aligned. Always make sure that the project that you are undertaking is what your organization needs.
If you are struggling with MarTech projects in your company, then get in touch with us today.