• by Ryan Deutsch , February 5, 2009

Why is it that marketing and IT can't seem to get along?  I understand the two disciplines have traditionally been VERY different.  Creative brainstorming sessions around brand and message development stand in stark contrast to the hard-nosed coding done in the back office.  It's funny that many early email marketers (you know who you are) started in this "IT" type role, sitting at their desks at 3:30 a.m. making sure that the email campaign completed before nodding off to sleep, waking up (still at their desks) and manually launching the next wave of the campaign.

 Today, it is more essential than ever to have IT and marketing on the same page.  As data becomes the currency of relevance and customers demand real-time interaction with the brands they do business with, it is even more important for marketing and IT to join together and drive efficiency for the business and value for the customer.  Here are three important reasons why you need to ask yourself "Have I hugged my CIO today?"

The CIO Can Save You Money!

In the current economic environment, all organizations are looking to drive efficiencies.  Email marketing is no exception.  If you work in a company with a smart technology team, sit down with them and walk through the email marketing workflow.  Review how data is accessed; look at how segmentation is managed.  Consider how creative content is leveraged in email and if content exists in other areas of the business that can be leveraged for the channel.  Look closely at your deployment strategy and how you manage feedback from your campaigns.  Any or all stages of the email marketing workflow could offer opportunities for optimization; IT is there to help you understand your options and apply technology to drive costs down!

The CIO Can Get You the Data

This is a topic that has been covered multiple times in this blog, but I know that many email marketers still create datasets that are isolated from the central data repository of their business. Customers are interacting with your business daily, and an email marketer's ability to know and react to those interactions is critical.  The other day, I was discussing this topic with a client at its most basic level, frequency management.  If separate systems/teams/divisions within a company can trigger email communications to the same customers unknowingly, your business runs the risk of driving customers towards the spam button.  In a less fatalistic sense, you certainly miss out on the opportunity to consolidate content and streamline the customer experience.  Sit down with IT and discuss opportunities to integrate with the customer data sources within your business.  In most cases the data is already there; you just need access to it.

 The CIO Can Offer You Control

I have said this before, and I will say it again.  Marketing needs to control ALL OUTBOUND EMAIL STREAMS!  Regardless of the originating system, marketing needs to own the experience.  While marketing has done a great job at owning "campaign-centric" communication, they have not extended their influence into the operational messaging that exits in the call center, e-commerce or other areas of the business.  This is because these communication streams tend to fall to operations and the CIO.  If marketing and IT collaborate on the best way to enhance these operational email touch points, the business and customer stands to gain real value. 

 Your CIO Can Help You Get "Cool" Toys

I admit it: I am a gadget guy.  I love to pick up the latest and greatest technology tools.  Maybe that is one of the reasons I love this space.  There seem to be new marketing technologies released daily -- from enhanced campaign management systems to business intelligence to social media, etc., etc.  Keep in mind that your technology team can often help review these new applications and tools, determine how they could fit into your business, and in some case (dare I say) HELP PAY FOR THEM. 

Be sure to brief your IT departments on the business initiatives that you are considering in the coming quarters.  Really good technology teams can do amazing things once they understand the business goals and drivers.   So fill them in, and don't forget to include some of those really exciting technologies you have been dying to take for a test drive.

Any other reasons why we should hug the CIO?  Please share your stories by commenting below.  Also, I am curious -- how many "IT" folks do we have following Email Insider?  If you are out there, I would love to hear some of your thoughts on the topic as well.