A challenge that I have noticed in marketing departments of late is the widening gulf between data analytics teams and marketing planning teams. While there is a healthy respect between these disciplines, there seems to be a disconnect in terms of how to effectively they work together. Data Analysts are not entirely comfortable exploring how data can be used creatively to fuel new marketing activities. Marketing Planners are not yet used to spending time considering how their initiatives can generate new actionable data. This schism is a significant issue for organizations that are shifting more marketing dollars to digital tactics enabled by data-driven tools and techniques.
To help bridge this gap, I created an IFTT (‘if this then that’) worksheet that illustrates the relationship between audience data and marketing initiatives. I recently used this in a training session with a marketing department where participants explored how data can unlock new marketing initiatives, and how marketing initiatives can in turn unlock new audience data.
In the training session, participants spent time working in groups to drill-down 5-levels deep (similar to the 5-Whys). It was an interesting way to get people in different roles within a marketing department to explore the relationship between data and marketing. Below is a completed worksheet from the session. Hopefully it can help you literally and figuratively get data and marketing on the same page.
