What the heck is a ‘Marketing Technologist’?

A Marketing Technologist is a master alchemist who creates magic at the intersection of Marketing and Technology.

The term alchemy is derived from the Ancient Greek chemeia with the addition of the Arabic definite article al-.  The word means to separate and to join together. Compare this with one of the dictums of Alchemy in Latin: Solve et Coagula — Separate, and Join Together (or“dissolve and coagulate”).

And so a Marketing Technologist possesses unique skills which helps them understand (or separate) the silos of Marketing and Technology, and then blend them together in just the right proportions to create the Holy Grail of highly effective marketing campaigns segmented by customer types.  But this is a very simplistic view of a Marketing Technologist.  Let’s delve deeper.

A Chief Marketing Technologist acts as the technical gatekeeper who vets technology investments before the marketing staff uses them.

“Marketing has become deeply entwined with technology. This didn’t happen overnight; it’s been sneaking up on us for a while. But because technology had been so tangential to marketing management for most of our history, the organizational structure of marketing has been slow to adjust to this new technology-centric reality. But we’ve clearly reached a tipping point. To fully reap the benefits of this Golden Age, marketing must officially take ownership of its technology platforms and strategies. And the first step of such ownership is to appoint someone to lead it. Enter the Chief Marketing Technologist.” — Scott Brinker

Marketing Technologist Skills

According to Scott, a Marketing Technologist should be familiar with — and proficient or expert in at least two or three of the following areas:

• Data & Analytics — management, measurement and manipulation of the fuel of digital marketing
• Marketing Applications — configuration, operation, and integration of marketing software
• Advertising Networks — managing and optimizing the complete digital advertising ecosystem
• Social & Mobile Platforms — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and their tools and APIs
• Content Marketing — navigating the entire lifecycle of content marketing, especially SEO
• Web Mechanics — a clear and thorough understanding of the web and browser platforms
• Software Programming — how to speak, read and write the lingua franca of technology
• IT Operations — independently leveraging cloud computing and a strong liaison with IT

Marketing consultant Avi Dan believes that, while consumers have been embracing technology to search for products and services, marketing departments have been slow to adapt. In his Ad Age article “Why Brands Should Embrace Technological Change,” he argues that marketers must recognize that technology is no less a marketing tool than market research. He recommends that businesses appoint a Marketing Technologist czar to identify technology that can enhance marketing activity and brand building.

Paul Dunay listed the rise of the Marketing Technologist as one of his 11 B2B Marketing Predictions for 2011.

“Marketers for the last few years have been closet techno geeks, and it’s time for them to rise up — companies need digitally fluent marketers who can apply technologies to make marketing more measurable and scientific.”

Five forces in the marketing and technology industries have combined to create a perfect storm for Marketing Technologists:

• the migration of money from old media to new media
• cloud computing and the migration from IT to SaaS
• the measurable nature of digital to demonstrate ROI
• a greenfield of opportunity for new entrants
• the high-velocity economics of software innovation

Taken together, this reveals a huge market — growing larger every year — with relatively low barriers to entry. It has only begun to be tapped. The result, predictably, will be an explosion of marketing technology products and services over the next 5 years.

So, are you ready to take control of your marketing technological destiny?  What are your thoughts about the convergence of technology and marketing?