by Ginger Conlon

Technology has long been integral to many aspects of marketing. But today, technology can enhance virtually every element of marketing. Consequently, choosing the most appropriate marketing technology is essential. But finding the right providers is no easy feat—especially as the market continues to evolve and diversify.

“It’s a digital world that marketing is operating in, and software is the conduit through which we engage and understand our customers today,” says Scott Brinker, cofounder and CTO of Ion Interactive Inc. “It’s important for marketers to have a good sense of what technology-powered capabilities are available to them.”

Brinker, author of the Chief Marketing Technologist blog, today released his “Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2014).” The graphic lays out the marketing-tech landscape in exhaustive detail, covering everything from marketing experiences (e.g., email, mobile, display, and social media marketing) to marketing operations (e.g., marketing resource and digital asset management, and marketing, mobile, and web analytics), as well as middleware, platforms like CRM and marketing automation, and infrastructure like databases and mobile app development. 

Click here to enlarge the image.

“These tools can support and enable all kinds of innovative marketing strategies, but they aren’t strategies-in-a-box,” Brinker says. “It’s important for marketing leaders to have their strategy drive their tool selection rather than the other way around.”

It’s also important for marketing to collaborate with their technology colleagues to maximize their marketing-tech investments. “A mutual commitment to collaboration is the best start,” Brinker says. “The destinies of marketing and IT are now deeply intertwined. One of the best ways to operationalize that collaboration is to have “marketing technologist” roles’ people who are fluent with both sides and can help marketing be a more sophisticated consumer and advocate of the right technologies for their mission.”

Ginger Conlon is editor-in-chief of Direct Marketing News.

This post is brought to you through a special eTail Blog partnership. Copyright 2013 Direct Marketing News, reprinted with permission.