Success in online retailing requires a marriage of e-commerce technology with creative online marketing. Unfortunately, a survey suggests, it’s often not a happy marriage.
The survey by Rackspace, traffic provider of web-hosting and other cloud computing services, shows just 14% of marketing leaders and 17% of IT leaders believe the two teams work together well. Marketers’ main complaint is that the tech team doesn’t move quickly enough to implement marketing programs, while the techies feel marketing wants things done too quickly to be done safely and well. The survey, conducted online from May 27-June 12 by research firm Edelman Berland and released Wednesday, queried 201 U.S. IT and marketing leaders from companies that spend $5 million or more each year on digital marketing.
“The top frustration among surveyed marketing leaders (46%) is that IT does not work quickly enough, and the No. 1 frustration among surveyed IT leaders (47%) is that marketing wants IT to move too quickly, potentially compromising quality and security,” says Kyle Metcalf, general manager of Rackspace Digital. “But the rapid growth of digital marketing and e-commerce pushed these two groups together. And if these groups are at odds, it can cause the customer experience to slip.”
A key reason for the disconnect: marketing and IT personnel see the world differently. Marketing leaders see strategy as the key success driver, while IT leaders think success depends on a skilled workforce, the survey says. They see themselves in different lights too. Marketing leaders perceive themselves as optimistic and cooperative, while they describe IT workers as nerdy and data-driven. IT pros view themselves as realistic and optimistic, and give themselves higher scores for being cooperative
The groups recognize that their goals and languages differ, and that they often don’t play well together, the survey says. Such tension creates problems because customer expectations are at an all-time high in digital marketing, and consumers are accustomed to getting answers and responses in near-real-time with their smart devices, Metcalf says.
There’s hope for improvement, however: 92% of surveyed marketing leaders and 75% of surveyed IT leaders want more integration between their teams, Metcalf says. Those leaders also agree that collaboration is essential because digital will be a big part of the future of marketing, he says.
The survey also found that 65% of marketing and IT executives agree that speed shouldn’t come at the expense of accuracy.
Sign up for a free subscription to B2BecNews, a weekly newsletter that covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B e-commerce industry. B2BecNews is published by Vertical Web Media LLC, which also publishes the monthly business magazine Internet Retailer.
Favorite