“You are what you don’t automate,” one of ion’s engineers commented in a meeting the other day. It was in the context of a series of time consuming, manual steps that had to be done for a particular task. He attributed the adage to super-programmer Jeff Atwood, although I’ve not been able to find the reference. It struck me as a brilliant way to frame the challenge of marketing automation. See, in software engineering, most …
If you work in marketing, you might want to learn a little computer programming. Buy a book. Watch a screencast. Check out Codeacademy. No, really. Suspend your incredulity for a minute. I’ll explain… It’s not because you should have to roll up your sleeves and start writing your own marketing software. I’m the first to acknowledge that not every marketer needs to become a technologist. However, I do believe that every marketer should develop a …
Why marketers should learn how to program Continue Reading »
Gartner recently released its report on IT predictions for 2012. The subhead of their press release boldly calls out their most stunning conclusion: predictions show IT budgets are moving out of the control of IT departments. Garner predicts that by 2015, 35% of enterprise IT expenditures will be managed outside of the IT department’s budget. Let that sink in for a moment. “The continued trend toward consumerization and cloud computing highlight the movement of certain …
Earlier this year, I gave a presentation at Search Insider Summit on the topic of marketing mash-ups. It was a whirlwind tour of how marketing started from a single discipline and, over the years, fragmented into a dizzying array of specialties and subspecialties. It also offers a few ideas for how we can turn this fragmented landscape into a source of new cross-speciality creativity — and maybe, just maybe, unify marketing once again. Someone just …
A brief, hand-wavy history of marketing fragmentation Continue Reading »
I’ve shared the laws of technology for marketers. But what about laws of marketing for technologists? The single most insightful marketing book I’ve ever read was published nearly 20 years ago, before the Web was anything more than an academic experiment: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Marketers of the Internet Generation can be forgiven if they haven’t read it. After all, it doesn’t invent entirely new tactical dynamics …
The Evergreen Laws of Marketing (techs take note!) Continue Reading »
Yesterday, MarketingProfs published a podcast interview between me and Matthew Grant on the topic of Why You Need a Marketing Technologist. We started by talking about what Matt calls the “technologization” of marketing: “So much of the information that marketers have about who their audience is, what that audience is reacting to, is seen through the filter of software. For instance, you look at your analytics to determine what people are doing on your web …
MarketingProfs podcast on the marketing technologist Continue Reading »
Last week, I spoke at Adobe’s Enterprise Partner Community Day in NYC on the Rise of the Marketing Technologist (and What It Means for Agencies). Adobe has now posted the video of that session — click the image below to open a full window and see the video and slides synchronized: The event was a mix of presentations by Adobe representatives on their particular technologies and partner programs and a few presentations by “external” speakers, …
The Book of Marketing Technology on Broadway Continue Reading »
Today I’m presenting at Adobe’s Partner Community Day in New York City on the topic of the rise of marketing technologist. This is an updated and extended version of talks I gave last year at Search Insider Summit and Pivot. Since a large number of agencies will be in the audience, I’ll also discuss what this marketing technologist revolution means for them. Here are the slides: Rise of the Marketing Technologist (And What It Means …
Agencies and the marketing technologist revolution Continue Reading »
“Marketing must control its own technological destiny.” Not too long ago, that was a radical proposition. (In some IT quarters, it might still be.) But today, the esteemed enterprise analysts at Forrester released two new reports that take that proposition mainstream: Investing In Marketing’s Technology Future and Three Approaches To The Marketing Technology Office. $499 each, but worth it for executive-level discussions. To give you a flavor of the first report, and why it has …
Forrester recommends a Marketing Technology Office Continue Reading »
Sometimes it feels like the future takes a long time to arrive. While most of you reading this blog have likely been focused on digital marketing as the “hot spot” in marketing for a while, it’s always been surprising to me how long it’s taken legacy marketing institutions — the classic big agencies of Madison Avenue — to truly embrace that opportunity. I know, change is hard. Disruptive innovation works this way. But still, in …
The popularity contest between digital and TV Continue Reading »
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