The Math Matters

Why today’s marketing leaders need to know the value of data, and be analytically oriented.

- Adele Sweetwood

WHAT KINDS OF LEADERS does the marketing organization need? What type of leader do you have to be? How does analytics affect your interaction with your company’s C-suite? …Depending on the industry, marketing leaders may have come from the brand, creative, or more traditional ranks in marketing. While that is still the case for some leadership positions, marketing leaders also emerge from more technical or analytical backgrounds. It’s simply not enough to do things the way we used to. Today’s marketing leaders need to be technically savvy, know the value of data, and be analytically oriented. I’m not saying that the visual or brand components aren’t valuable as well. That’s still a big part of the job. But just having those skills is no longer enough. To lead today’s modern analytical marketing organization, you need to understand how to assemble the multiple skills and disciplines inside your organization and, by playing together, create beautiful music in the form of superior engagement with your customers.

Because you now have the data and the analytics to bolster what you’re pitching, it’s easier to back up the stories you are telling your team and peers in other departments. Everything we are doing in marketing now is more measurable than ever, which means we can truly analyze the effectiveness of our methods. Our level of accountability is also much higher. The data, numbers, and results allow us to set, track, and hold people to objectives in a discrete and deliberate way. The insight and prediction that marketing now provides influence change and strategy.