CMOs and CTOs are on different pages about their companies’ digital marketing goals, according to Leapfrog Marketing Institute’s “2015 CMO Digital Benchmark Study.”

According to the study, 20% of marketing executives said they believe working on data- or technology-driven programs has improved the CMO-CTO alignment, while only 4% of IT executives agree. The study also revealed that IT executives (40%) are more confident in their companies’ omnichannel consumer experience than are senior marketers (27%).

However, 63% of marketing and IT executives do agree on this: Metrics and goals are not aligned across the functions—likely the root issue of their challenge.

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One of the reasons for the disconnect appears to be a lingering problem—the lack of suitable talent. Only 54% of those surveyed—87% of whom hailed from billion-dollar-plus enterprises—felt that competent leadership was in place to support marketing technology strategies.

Exacerbating the communications breakdown in this blooming relationship is overconfidence on the part of marketers, 71% of whom felt that their teams understand marketing technology. Only 54% of CIOs agreed.

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Digest...

What's really changed is the transition to digital -- as opposed to paper-based -- marketing and advertising. That transition made digital transactions and communication with customers much more central than they were even a few years ago, when the role of computers might have been more to plan a campaign and maybe do some desktop publishing. Web and mobile interactions have come center stage, and consumer technologies have radically demystified IT.

"There's a belief that marketing knows IT really well, maybe better than IT knows marketing," Curran said. Now that business leaders have discovered that technology doesn't have to be painful, he added, the IT organization needs to shake its reputation for delivering awkward-to-use technology late and over budget.

A CIO today needs to get over himself, said David Wright, CIO at McGraw-Hill Education. "You can't possibly be the center of the universe anymore for technology. More and more, business partners are going to be coming to you with technology that you haven't heard of. You've got to be OK with that -- because it's not all about you."

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Digest...

Step 1: Find common cause.

To restart the relationship with IT, you need to look for a rallying point that both you and your CIO can whole-heartedly get behind.  Based on conversations we’ve had with CMOs at Fortune 500 companies and other global corporations, this scenario goes something like this:

Step 2: Roll up your sleeves, and map it out.

This will take some elbow grease, and a few brainstorming sessions, but chances are, between the two of you, you can draft a pretty darn good marketing technology vision and roadmap.  One that not only has a two- to three-year shelf life, if it’s done right, but can also provide your teams with the collective sense of where “we” are going (together) and which lily pads we need to jump across to get to the other side of the pond.

Step 3: Pressure test

After Step 2, you should be about 70 percent on target, so it’s time to pressure test.  Here’s where you gather input internally from your IT and Marketing lieutenants, and then do some external benchmarking to see how you stack up against industry norms on the roadmap capabilities that matter most to your business.

Step 4: Pick a catalyst project.

With confidence from step 3, look to your roadmap for a project that Marketing and IT can join forces on that delivers a quick win.  Marketing and IT should co-fund AND co-resource the project, so they both have skin in the game.   Keep the scope tight.  Pick just a few marketing-use cases for the project to deliver on, not the whole enchilada.  Remember, you’re looking for proof points in driving results and in showing the rest of the c-suite that Marketing and IT can worth great together.

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