Managing the Digital Marketing Enterprise in a World of Marketing Automation
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Automation in Marketing
In applications powered by artificial intelligence (AI), a machine is programmed to make decisions on its own based on a set of rules and also to “learn” from the results of its decisions. In marketing, for example, ad placements through programmatic advertising and search engine marketing have increasingly lent themselves to automation. Using AI, machines make decisions about what you should be seeing to help you make decisions about products.1 Most advertising on web and mobile sites is now programmatic, using algorithms to match the ad to the prospect or customer at the right time and place to maximize investment. In addition, currently about 20 percent of content served online is powered by AI and this figure is expected to grow to about 80 percent. AI also powers personalization and the web/mobile experience.
Automation in marketing can therefore be seen as both a blessing and a curse. The curse is that many individuals are worried that their jobs will be automated and taken over by AI applications and/or robots. However, the blessings of automation are both a better customer experience and that the more routine tasks of marketing can be performed automatically, freeing up the marketer’s time. Far from eliminating jobs, many thought leaders believe there will be more need than ever for marketers who can think strategically about digital marketing. In fact, less than 2 percent of respondents to the August 2019 CMO Survey2 thought that technologies would replace marketing employees “a great deal” in the next year and less than 3 percent in the next three years.
Therefore, there will be more need than ever for those who know how to plan, implement, and measure a marketing campaign and link the marketing campaign to both the marketing strategy and goals of the organization and its broader mission and vision and strategic goals (Figure 10.1). We have discussed linking campaign goals to strategy elsewhere in this book. The rest of the chapter will focus on structuring and staffing the digital marketing organization in a world of agile marketing, AI, and an ever-expanding marketing technology stack.
Figure 10.1 The “T” shaped digital marketer
The Marketing Technology Stack
The marketing technology stack refers to the tools and software that marketers put together to manage their marketing activities. These include tools such as marketing automation, content marketing, automated advertising platforms, social listening, and analytics tools. It is estimated that there are over 7,000 (7040 to be exact as of this writing) tools to manage marketing in organizations, up from just 350 in 2012.3 I strongly recommend you look at the link below to get an idea of the current landscape. One look at the dizzying array of technology choices is enough to make a digital marketer lose their mind and their patience. Marketers wonder how to effectively manage all these software and technologies and still achieve their objectives.
Because of the strong need for marketers to know about marketing technologies and techniques, it often is suggested that the digital marketer have a “T-shaped” background, which means not only an understanding of the various aspects of digital marketing but a deep understanding of one area, such as search, social, or analytics.4 These T-shaped individuals in a digital marketing organization might have expertise in areas such as social media, content management, web/mobile design, marketing technology, digital strategy, and other topics discussed in this book as relevant to digital marketing. Indeed, there are many job opportunities for those with deep technical expertise as well as an overall knowledge of how their expertise works in the organization. Those individuals should be skilled in project management techniques such as agile marketing.
Agile marketing focuses on creating short-term goals and constantly revising them, allowing for more flexibility in responding to market conditions in the fast-paced world of digital marketing. Some marketing tasks that are suitable to agile marketing might include an A/B testing e-mail campaign, creating and testing web/mobile content, or overseeing advertising content.5 While agile marketing has the benefit of developing flexibility in marketing organizations so they can better respond to market conditions, it is not the only capability required.
In digital marketing organizations today, individuals skilled in creating marketing dashboards, visualizations, and telling stories with data are also valued. There is no shortage of skills in demand, but digital marketers today also need a broader perspective.
These individuals skilled in dashboarding and visualization must also be able to link key performance indicators (KPIs) to overall goals and demonstrate how performance is measured in a way that can be easily explained throughout the organization.
Structuring the Digital Marketing Organization
The question then remains with such specialized skills: Should there be a separate digital “team” in the organization, or should digital skills be integrated into the organization? The general consensus appears to be that we still need to have marketers with specific digital marketing skills in the marketing organization. Many marketers today are still the lone digital specialists in their company, responsible for covering all the trends and tools we have discussed this book. Clearly, more support is needed for these individuals. Digital strategist Dave Chaffey believes that we still need digital teams within organizations, particularly in industries where the vast majority of the business is online.6 He believes the best structure is a centralized digital team that provides support and training to digital specialists throughout the marketing organization. This type of structure avoids the pitfall of having a centralized digital team with others in the organization taking a “hands-off” approach.7
Within the digital marketing organization, there are numerous roles to be staffed. Chaffey suggests some key roles are a chief digital officer or digital transformation manager to help integrate digital throughout the organization, as well as a digital marketing manager and a marketing technology manager to oversee day-to-day functions. Other essential roles would be managers for the topic areas we have discussed in this book, such as one expert each for organic and paid search, a content manager across platforms, an analytics expert, someone to test and manage and improve digital experiences (CX), a conversion rate optimization specialist, a CRM and e-mail marketing manager, and social media marketing executives. This organization structure in terms of scope and responsibilities is visualized in Figure 10.2, with some suggestions based on this text. For example, CX and CRM have been grouped together and marketing technology is a specific role coordinated by the digital marketing manager. Specific roles and responsibilities would be dependent upon the industry, the company structure, and the resources the company has to fill these roles. Some companies outsource specific roles to supplement internal expertise in digital marketing. In terms of the CX, Walmart combined its online and offline product-buying teams to try to facilitate more consistent pricing and a better customer experience. Expect more organizational decisions to be made with the customer experience in mind.8
Figure 10.2 Digital marketing organization scope and responsibilities
I tend to agree with Chaffey that a digital marketing “expert” group is needed in organizations because of the technical expertise involved in so many aspects of digital marketing. It is also my opinion that spending time on structuring the digital marketing organization and constantly updating that structure based on changing market conditions can reap substantial benefits for firms. Often organizational structures are developed haphazardly and not while keeping a focus on reaching the customer better and improving their experience. In the case of both digital marketing strategy and organizational structure for digital marketing, a little planning goes a long way.
What to Do Next after Chapter 10
- Make a list of three technologies in the marketing technology stack that are most important for a particular business. Who in the organization knows those technologies best and can help train others?
- Based on the campaigns and actions you said you might like to develop for Chapters 4 through 7, which type of organization structure would most easily support these campaigns? Make a matrix of the organizational structure, KPIs, campaign objectives and analyze the deficiencies the company may have. What types of organizational changes does the company need to make to further support these campaigns?
- What would you hope to learn from applying agile marketing to manage these campaigns and actions?
Discussion Questions
Discussion 10.1: Is automation and artificial intelligence in marketing more of a blessing or a curse?
Discussion 10.2: Has the marketing technology stack become unwieldy in terms of the many choices that abound? What are some solutions to streamlining the stack?
Discussion 10.3: Is there a need for a separate digital marketing organization within companies in this day and age?
Glossary
Agile marketing: Managing the marketing function by focusing short-term goals and constantly revising them.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Where a machine is programmed to make decisions on its own based on a set of rules and also to “learn” from the results of its decisions.
KPIs: Key performance indicators for managing the organization.
Marketing technology stack: The tools and software that marketers put together to manage their marketing activities.
Programmatic advertising: Using algorithms to match the ad to the prospect or customer at the right time and place to maximize investment.
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1Karlson. 2017. “8 Ways Intelligent Marketers Use Artificial Intelligence.” https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/08/marketers-use-artificial-intelligence/, (accessed January 16, 2020).
2M. Christine. CMO Survey 2019.
3Brinker. 2019. “Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2019): Martech 5000 (actually 7,040).” https://chiefmartec.com/2019/04/marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-2019/, (accessed January 15, 2020).
4De Baere. 2016. “The CMO’s Guide to Digital Marketing Organization Structures.” http://www.b2bmarketingexperiences.com/2016/04/cmos-guide-digital-marketing-organization-structures/, (accessed January 16, 2020).
5Rooney. 2014. “Applying Agile Methodology to Marketing Can Pay Dividends: Survey.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferrooney/2014/04/15/applying-agile-methodology-to-marketing-can-pay-dividends-survey/#e37ac3b6acd0, (accessed January 16, 2020).
6Chaffey. 2019. “10 reasons you still need a digital team.” https://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/resourcing-digital-marketing/10-reasons-you-need-digital-team/, (accessed January 16, 2020).
7Hanlon. 2018. “Digital marketing team structure examples.” https://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/managing-digital-transformation/maximising-digital-performance-effective-digital-transformation/, (accessed January 16, 2020).
8Nassauer (2020). “Walmart to Combine Online and Store Product-Buying Teams”, https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-to-combine-online-and-store-product-buying-teams-11582643932 (accessed March 2, 2020).