Technology may be the enabler for digital marketing, but it's the process changes, data and collaborations internally that need the most focus
Marketing’s emerging role as business change agent has been the headline subject of this year’s Adobe Summit. But while there are examples of marketing teams transforming how their organisations go to market, it’s equally clear that digitally-driven marketing is still in its early stages for many in the fraternity.
In a press briefing session discussing just how significant the transformation needs to be, Adobe CMO, Ann Lewnes, pointed out it’s the process changes required, rather than the technology, that are proving the biggest hurdle.
“The number one thing people want to understand is what implications are there beyond technology implementation, but that is just step one,” she said. “We talk to a lot of customers about the process changes required once you do put in place a digital marketing platform. You need completely different processes, as well as people who know how to use the technology and get the most value of it, can stress test it, and so on.
“People is one of the biggest obstacles we have. We need more practitioners, and more people who understand not just the technology but what to do with it, as well as the impact of that technology.”
Another core ingredient in getting digital marketing transformation underway is providing quantitative evidence of marketing’s impact on the bottom line, Lewnes said.
“That was the click for our company to make a big investment. Once you can do that – you can take baby steps. You can start with analytics, then put a CMS in place – there is a logical progression to this. We’d like people to buy everything in our platform, but we understand that in some cases, you need to get into this slowly. People, process and technology together is the formula.”
Of course, none of this will work without the must-have foundation of data, Lewnes said. For that, alignment with other business units such as IT is essential.
“The data synthesis and integration is not trivial,” she commented. “The alignment required by marketing, which used to be a siloed function, with IT, finance, general managers of business, and the sales organisation is huge.
“I would never have believed that getting that alignment was possible a few years ago. But there’s no way you can do this [digital transformation] without that alignment of data happening. Getting the data integrated is a huge undertaking but you can’t do this unless that happens.
“These things are so incredibly valuable that while it may take a lot of effort, it’s necessary. We are on the other side of this now and it’s mindboggling what the results have been.”
More from Adobe Summit 2015
Nadia Cameron travelled to Adobe Summit 2015 as a guest of Adobe.
CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+: google.com/+CmoAu
In our fifth and final episode, we delve into the relationship between retailer and supplier and how it drives and influences launch marketing strategies and success. To do that, we’re joined by Campbell Davies, group general manager of Associated Retailers Limited, and Kristin Viccars, marketing director A/NZ, Apex Tool Group. Also featured are Five by Five Global managing director, Matt Lawton, and CMO’s Nadia Cameron.
With continued advances in marketing technology, data privacy continues to play catchup in terms of regulation, safety and use. The laws that do exist are open to interpretation and potential misuse and that has led to consumer mistrust and increasing calls for a stronger regulatory framework to protect personal information.
Environmental, Social and (Corporate) Governance is a hot topic for brands right now. But before you start thinking about doing good, Craig Flanders says you best sort out the basics.
Through the ages, from the fields to the factories to the office towers and now to our kitchen tables, collaboration has played a pivotal role in how we live and work. Together. We find partners, live as families, socialise in groups and work as teams. Ultimately, we rely on these collaborative structures to survive and thrive.
The best part: optimizing your site for SEO enables you to generate high traffic, and hence free B2B lead generation. This is done throug...
Sergiu Alexei
The top 6 content challenges facing B2B firms
Nowadays, when everything is being done online, it is good to know that someone is trying to make an improvement. As a company, you are o...
Marcus
10 lessons Telstra has learnt through its T22 transformation
Check out tiny twig for comfy and soft organic baby clothes.
Morgan mendoza
Binge and The Iconic launch Inactivewear clothing line
NetSuite started out as a cloud-based provider of Enterprise Resource Planning software or as NetSuite solution provider, which companies...
talalyousaf
NetSuite to acquire Bronto's digital marketing platform for US$200m
Thanks for sharing this post, its really good information I get through this blog.CDPO Online Exam Training
Infosectrain01
3 ways Booking.com is improving its B2B marketing game