MARKETERS today encounter a mind-boggling array of technologies, and most feel an acute pressure to climb on the tech bandwagon. But they worry about the massive distraction of full-scale technology assessments—and about the risk of buying expensive tools that don’t live up to their potential.
Chief marketing officers can make better technology sourcing decisions by asking five fundamental questions.
Will the technology advance a critical marketing priority?
Marketers who ask this question make individual technology assessments in the context of the overall marketing priorities that a given tool will address.
But this common-sense discipline often falls victim to a combination of poor planning and siloed decision-making.
Will the tool add balance to the marketing technology portfolio?
It’s useful to categorize marketing technologies into three buckets.
The first helps a company deliver more personalized marketing content and experiences to customers.
The second allows marketers to use data and analytics to reach better decisions. The third improves the effectiveness and efficiency of core marketing workflows.
Over time, marketers should strive to build a technology portfolio that is balanced across the three buckets. So any individual technology assessment needs to account for how a given tool fits into the architecture of the overall portfolio.
Is the organization culturally ready to adopt the new technology?
Marketing technologies can unsettle long-held views and ways of working. It’s important to identify desired adoption behaviors, anticipate resistance and challenges and have a mitigation plan—all before acquiring a new technology.
How readily can current marketing workflows integrate the new technology?
For example, a number of new technologies can improve the analytic power of marketing test-and-learn processes. But many marketers still treat test-and-learn as an adjunct to their main creative and campaign-management workflows.
If test-and-learn remains a sideshow, the impact of these new technologies on marketing will necessarily be limited.
Do potential users have the skills they need to benefit fully from the technology?
The technology assessment needs to include a plan (and a budget) for whatever additional training and capability investments are needed.
Ultimately, a well-planned technology diligence process can significantly improve the odds that marketing’s many new technologies will deliver on their promise.
Aditya Joshi is a partner at Bain & Co.
Aditya Joshi