The Increasingly Important Role of Technology in Marketing Departments

Marketers around the world have undergone a digital transformation. Where once being digital pigeonholed you into a very specific role, there now isn’t an area of marketing that technology doesn’t touch. 

For employers, digital literacy is an expectation, not just to execute online marketing but also in managing the way we work.  

The growing role of technology in marketing departments, as well as across the entire workforce has grown for multiple reasons. The first is that marketing is increasingly being driven by return on investment. Managers are expected to get more bang for their buck and in doing so the required output of employees has increased.  To cope with this demanding workload, technologies have been developed to increase efficiency.

In building and proving ROI, being able to monitor where resources are being spent and where there is waste is vital.

Marketing Resource Management (MRM) software has been commonly used to assist with allocating resources.  MRM software is a fantastic aid in proving ROI and increasing efficiency, however it is only one of the many tools that modern marketers need.  Marketing Operations Software has emerged as a new technology which brings the MarTech stack together into one platform. Not only does it provide teams with resource planning capabilities but also includes Digital Asset Management, task and project management, brand management, workflows and approvals.

Bringing these previously isolated solutions together into one fully integrated platform makes it possible to manage the entire lifecycle of creative content and marketing output, from conception to distribution.

The second reason technology has become so vital is the need for an audit trail of all creative assets.  As marketing has evolved, so to have the rules and requirements surrounding it. In large companies and in regulated industries Marketing Operations Software is crucial in ensuring that creative meets industry standards and regulatory requirements. 

By completing all activities using just one platform; building workflows and the appropriate approvals into the process, compliance needs can be met. For example, a television ad for a bank can be briefed in using online forms, which then triggers an alert for designers; creatives are uploaded directly to the platform and sent off for legal approval before publishing. 

Not only does this workflow ensure that important steps like legal sign off aren’t missed, it also creates an audit trail and decreases delays.

Unlike other marketing technologies, Marketing Operations Software breaks down traditional silos.  It encourages cross departmental collaboration and provides a single channel for communication between teams. Prior to this, marketing communication with legal, compliance or product was often via email, which made tracking and prioritizing difficult. 

Using Marketing Operations Software for approvals, feedback and collaboration gives transparency into the status of all current work which can be viewed by anyone with access.  It brings these previously isolated teams together, giving them a structured way of collaborating with marketing.

The same applies to teams and individuals within the marketing departments.  By briefing in projects and tasks using online forms, work can be easily viewed on calendars or kanban boards and the details looked up within seconds.

Because of this, teams can be more agile and if an individual is sick or overloaded, someone else can easily take over. 

Although there is an expectation within most companies that having an understanding of digital is second nature, many large organizations are moving slowly and are only just beginning to leverage the benefits of new technology.  For marketing teams to excel they need to leap into the digital age.

Employees are working at capacity and the next step to increasing output while ensuring quality is implementing software to increase efficiencies and meet the ever growing list of compliance requirements.