
Every business or company has to make use of information technology for it to have an easy time. However, there is always confusion about what falls under the information technology umbrella. One of the main confusion involves digital marketing. Well, understanding these two terms and how they are related will certainly help you a lot.
Most of the time, the word digital usually confuses business owners into thinking that digital marketing can be included in the IT department. So is digital marketing related to information technology? Read on to have a better understanding.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing simply refers to any kind of marketing that takes place online. The term digital arises because it uses electronic devices and the internet. Digital marketing also encompasses.
- Websites
- SEO Marketing
- Social media marketing
- Email newsletters
- Mobile and internet advertising
- Podcasts, blogs, and any other content marketing.
What is Information Technology?
The basic definition for information technology is that it makes use of technology when solving problems. Owing to this, many people tend to confuse it with digital marketing. IT professionals within your company are not supposed to handle things like drip campaigns. The main purpose of information technology is:
- Governance which involves developing processes and policies that makes IT more efficient for your company.
- Operations involve providing the recommended tech support, security, and maintaining the network, among others
- Infrastructure includes setting up and maintaining all the physical tools and hardware within the firm.
All these are practical day-to-day activities that help support your company’s operations. IT professionals are therefore meticulous, have a better understanding of information technology, and are good at math. Consequently, they don’t have the expertise and skills to be marketers or help you in advertising your products or services.
How Digital Marketing and Information Technology Interact
The main role of IT in digital marketing is to ensure infrastructure and networking work. Even with a perfectly designed website, you can never achieve anything if the hosted server isn’t working properly.
Digital marketing, on the other hand, makes use of martech, which is a shorter term of marketing technology. It refers to the specific technologies that are applied in digital marketing. This includes:
- Social media networks
- Websites and the related technology
- Client management database
- Email marketing automation
- Interactive technology, including Slack and chatbots
- The technological approach used in measuring how effective digital marketing is
Information technology, therefore, plays an important role in selecting these options. Ideally, these two need to work hand in hand. However, the problem is the fact that most IT experts don’t understand marketing, and most of the marketing people are not properly versed with IT.
IT, therefore, plays an important role in marketing, including:
- SEO, technical SEO involves designing the website with SEO in mind. The design includes compressing images for higher loading speeds, ensuring reliability and a smooth running of the website and social media.
- Marketing automation like scheduling posts, tracking, reporting, and sending newsletters.
- Optimizing digital assets for mobile and other devices.
Finally
Therefore, the coordination between IT and digital marketing is becoming more and more vital, especially with the advancement in technology and marketing. It’s therefore essential to ensure digital marketers are able to work with IT for better support and smooth martech integration with your company.