Objectives first, strategy second ... then marketing technology

The title for this post, and inspiration behind it comes from an article that our friend Gord Hotchkiss (President of Enquiro) recently wrote for Marketing Newz. 

Features, features and more features

In the article Gord reminds us as marketers that technology is just a tool, and that before we use a tool we have to know why we’re using it.

I think we marketers are focused on exactly the wrong thing. We keep looking at technology and asking for features without really understanding how we’ll use those features. There is no integrated strategic flow for us to follow, so there is no way for developers to build elegance into their interface. They have to give us access to every lever and button, bloating the user experience hopelessly, because we want everything but we’re not exactly sure what we want to do with it.

We fall into this trap because we’re focused on technology, not on end goals.

You wouldn’t buy a power drill and start randomly creating holes all over your house, would you? Before you buy the drill, you think about why you need it, and how you will use it. You define your objective (How will the drill help you solve a problem), and create a strategy (What steps will you take in which order to solve your problem using the drill?).

This is the same way we need to think about the tech solutions we build and use. At ion we must always remember to help our customers think this way. It’s not about the tool, it’s about what you make happen with it. Instead of just creating and talking about all of the amazing features our products/services offer, we have to help our customers envision usage in an easy-to-understand kind of way. 

As Gord so eloquently puts it, “Stuff that doesn’t get used eventually doesn’t get renewed. It becomes fat that gets trimmed from the operational budget.”

The CMT (no, not Country Music Television!)

So who can help guide this initiative? Who understands both user behaviors, and product features in very advanced ways? The Marketing Technologist, a role championed by our President 7 CTO, Scott Brinker.

“This is someone who can bridge the gap between marketing objectives, at a very high level, and the technology needed to execute against those objectives in a more integrated way. They own the entire process, beginning to end, and understand the end goals. They stitch together the distributed pieces of the campaign with the right features and the right tools, determined not by isolated wish lists but rather real marketing objectives and a deep understanding of prospect behavior,” says Gord.

You can read more about the role of the Chief Marketing Technologist from these resources:

Rise of the Marketing Technologist on CMO.com

The Chief Marketing Technoligist on Maritek.com

Who is the Chief Marketing Technologist on Scott’s Website

Rise of the Marketing Technologist presentation by Scott on Slidshare

What do you think? Is the CMT the solution for bridging the gap between marketing strategy and technology? We would love to hear your thoughts!