The Crucial Role of IT in Modern Marketing

Marketing is the lifeblood of any business. It is the lever you pull to drive sales numbers and expand your company’s branding across any platform. Gone are the days of doing a quick point of purchase survey when someone buys a toaster oven at their local appliance store. To be a good marketer in today’s world, you need the capability to collect, organize, and interpret massive amounts of data. None of that is possible without IT tools.

Think about the average supermarket “club” consumers join that offers a small percentage off each purchase. In exchange for this discount, customers give the business access to their demographic information, shopping habits, brand preferences, and much more. This data is used to make product decisions, decide how many employees should be working at a time, or even whether or not to feature M&M’s or Snickers on an end cap display during Halloween.

All of that beautiful data provides valuable insights that allow businesses to make crucial decisions about their brand and customer relations. That is the crux of marketing – the customer relationship.

How IT Changes Customer Relationships

CRM or customer relationship management software is the biggest software market in the world. In 2017, CRM reached $39.5 billion in revenue and is projected to grow between 15 and 20% annually. There are stock market brokers that would kill for that kind of ROI.

At its essence, CRM is software that allows business owners to better understand and nurture their client relationships. It stores customer information, identifies sales opportunities, records problems, and helps you manage marketing campaigns. Think of modern CRM software as an all-in-one marketing firm working in the background, carefully sifting through the mountains of data being collected to find new opportunities.

What does this mean for your business? With a properly maintained CRM, you can learn how to identify more potential leads, grow your customer relationships, so they become free “brand ambassadors” to their friends and family, and even decide when is the best time to engage in social media ads or email campaigns. The only time CRM becomes a disadvantage is when there is a potential security breach, but don’t worry, IT has your back there as well.

Where Marketing and IT Security Meet

Did you know that 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations relevant to their profile? That means if you want to have a thriving business, you need to personalize everything from their visit to your website to the promotional email they receive during the holidays. That requires capturing private information and storing it in a place where no one can steal it, in other words, IT security.

The last thing any marketing department wants to deal with is a data breach. The old idea that all news is good news is completely wrong when every website, account, and newspaper features a story about how your company cannot keep private data safe. With more than 74% of internet users in the U.S. alone being more concerned about their online privacy than ever before, it only makes sense you should increase your IT security to ensure consumers feel safe when they visit your site or purchase from your store.

People don’t want to shop from a website that doesn’t use a modern payment platform with PayPal and the top credit cards. They also won’t frequent any site that doesn’t have the security protocols to get past Google and other major search engines firewalls. If you want to make sales, you need IT security as part of your marketing campaign.

It’s About Collaboration

Probably the most crucial aspect of IT working with marketing is collaboration. Think about practically any way to get your message across to your target market, and there is a digital pathway controlled by an IT support staff member. Everything from website design to email campaigns revolves around using technological systems.

If you really want your company to succeed in the ever-changing marketplace of today, you need to blend your IT and marketing departments together. You need to build a unified vision where both departments are equally focused on improving lead generation, keeping customer relationships, and growing future sales.

Where to Get Started

Need a good place to handle your business’s digital IT and marketing goals? Talk to the expert digital marketers and designers at Interstellar Digital. They have years of experience working with modern marketing techniques like social media, email campaigns, and data analytics while also blending in the technical side of IT like SEO optimization, data collection, and web design.

Interstellar believes firmly in elevating any client’s digital presence through data-driven marketing that keeps information safe and on hand for any decision-making. They will work closely with your unique needs to discover what digital services will best provide you a pathway to increase sales and customer relationships. So give them a call today or contact them through their website to request a quote for your next project. You’ll be amazed at their ability to blend the worlds of IT and marketing together into a perfect system that improves your brand’s ability to reach more consumers.