Marketing and marketing-related technology operations are now data-driven. Marketing teams need skills that far exceed an understanding of traditional concepts. Teams are being asked to play critical roles in the development and implementation of complex business requirements. Additionally, they find that their new normal is to determine and define the systems and process that are the backbone of tailored messages and situation-based customer experiences.
- Inaccurate data makes your customers crazy.
- Missing data makes your processes inefficient.
- Incomplete data renders your marketing efforts irrelevant.
Many programs take one of two paths in the development phase. Either they get bogged down because they are being created by technical teams who may not understand the marketing vision, or more often the marketing team is responsible for execution and they have short sighted the technology requirements.
My approach is to clearly architect a program that integrates the data you have available to the fullest extent possible. Then, we clearly outline the steps the data must go through; the hand-offs required, the quality checks needed and finally the action that the systems should execute.