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As marketing becomes more centered on digital technology, decision makers across all sectors—from consumer brands to B2Bs to law firms—must focus on younger, more digitally savvy audiences.

As far back as 2014, Gartner reported that 81% of advertisers were filling chief marketing technologist (CMO) roles. Soon, CMOs are expected to spend more on technology than their CIO counterparts.

The shift is already underway: Gartner's 2015 survey found marketers had allocated one-third of their budgets to tech, and 61% expected larger budgets for 2016. Those figures represent a significant investment in marketing technology and mean that such issues as mobile device compatibility, privacy and accessibility compliance, website performance, security, and data analytics can no longer be considered "IT's problem."

Web Development Tech 101 for Digital Marketers

Driving this trend is the rapid evolution of digital marketing. From mobile-optimized Web design to a continual focus on user experience, these and other advances require marketers to roll up their sleeves and continually learn.

To excel at those new responsibilities, marketers should hone their overall understanding of the following aspects of Web-development technology.

1. Performance and UX

Website performance drives engagement, and engagement drives value and ROI for digital marketing initiatives. The idea that a website should load in fewer than 10 seconds is ancient; today, visitors will switch tasks after just a few seconds.

Because each additional second a page takes to load decreases customer satisfaction and conversion rates, websites across all sectors increasingly use tech like content delivery networks and advanced Web engineering teams to focus on website security, optimization, and improved UX.

Optimal site performance and UX make brands stand out in a crowded marketplace. For example, the new Virgin America site is the first responsive airline website. It focuses on just a few really important use cases and iterates through those to achieve best results.

Part of the refinements that Work & Co designed and engineered for the site included a fastest-in-class load time: two seconds. The new site was so user-friendly that Web-related incoming call traffic dropped more than 20%. Even better, the airline saw a 10% improvement in conversion rates. Apparently its strategy worked; Virgin America has been snapped up by Alaska Airlines to form the fifth-largest US airline.

2. Privacy

As digital marketing evolves toward personalization and automation, international privacy regulations demand careful balancing acts by digital marketers. The FBI vs. Apple iPhone-hacking case illustrates how marketers must understand the policy issues and the technologies that threaten privacy.

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Four Web Development Technologies That Marketers Need to Know Now

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Jaron Rubenstein

Jaron Rubenstein is founder and president of Rubenstein Technology Group, a leading technology partner for top creative firms

LinkedIn: Jaron Rubenstein