This document discusses the role of a marketing technologist and provides a framework for the skills and competencies needed to succeed in this role. It introduces the MARTECH acronym framework, which stands for Marketing, Agile, Resourcefulness, Technical, Entrepreneurial, Culture, and Hero. Each letter provides a key competency area, such as having marketing skills, an agile approach, resourcefulness, technical expertise, an entrepreneurial mindset, understanding of culture, and acting as a hero to others. The document provides examples and advice for developing skills in each area to become an effective marketing technologist.

1. The making of a
marketing technologist
A how-to using the Widen MARTECH framework

2. WELCOME
As marketing shifts from traditional to
digital and audience engagement evolves,
marketing professionals are looking for new
ways to collect, create, automate, and share
information. Enter marketing technology, or
MARTECH, a term that describes the variety
of digital marketing tools available today.

3. 2© Widen Enterprises 2016
This book focuses on the people of MARTECH – the marketing
technologist that reviews, selects, and uses systems to
manage the modern marketing process. We’ll explore the
makeup of a marketing technologist through a framework
using the MARTECH acronym as the structure: Marketing,
Agile, Resourcefulness, Technical, Entrepreneurial, Culture,
and Hero.
Along the way, we’ll connect you to resources, ideas,
and real life examples of what it takes to be a marketing
technologist.
Table of Contents
What is a marketing technologist?.............................................................3
Marketing: Key skills for the MARTECH pro.............................................10
Agile: Innovative, people-centric approach to engagement...............12
Resourcefulness: Encourage initiative in yourself and others............14
Technical: How to increase your expertise.............................................16
Entrepreneurial: Use your innovative side to create change..............18
Culture: The importance of environment...............................................20
Hero: Use your skill set to help others.....................................................22
Closing...........................................................................................................23
About this book...........................................................................................24
Resources......................................................................................................26

4. 3 The making of a marketing technologist
In today’s digital world, marketing is undeniably linked to
technology. Industry thought leader Scott Brinker1
suggests
that the MarTech landscape includes 2,000 vendors across 43
categories, all offering software to support marketing operations.
Successful evaluation, selection and implementation of these
products and services must be managed by someone with
expertise in marketing and technology, in equal measure. This
expert is a marketing technologist.
Because of the required skill set and newness of the role,
skilled marketing technologists are rare and the profession is
in a formative stage. We’ll explore the scope of this role, why
companies are increasingly eager to add technologists to their
marketing teams, and the MARTECH competency framework.
What is a
marketing
technologist?

5. 4© Widen Enterprises 2016
Scope of the marketing technologist role
There is a lot behind the changing marketing industry. Today’s
priorities are a lot different than they were ten years ago. Look at
the list below. What do they have in common?
• Gathering and leveraging customer data
• Storytelling and making emotional connections across digital
touchpoints
• Orchestrating a personal customer journey
• Considering mobile applications for all aspects of the brand
experience
• Developing an appropriately-scaled social strategy
Is it a job for marketing or IT? Because marketing might not
fully understand IT capabilities and concerns, and IT might not
understand how to best translate marketing needs into technical
specifications, it makes sense to combine these two functions into
one role: the marketing technologist.
A marketing technologist bridges the worlds of marketing and IT. As
Scott Brinker and Laura McLellan2
state it in their article, “The Rise
of the Marketing Technologist,” marketing technologists are “part
strategist, part creative director, part technology leader, and part
teacher.”
Here’s what they share – the successful
execution of each requires integrated,
agile teamwork, an environment
without silos, and technical expertise.

6. 5 The making of a marketing technologist
The role goes by a variety of titles, including marketing
technology strategist, chief information marketing
officer, global head of marketing technology, and
business information officer for global marketing.
According to Gartner3
, these positions share the same
primary responsibilities:
• Aligning marketing technology with business goals
• Serving as a liaison to IT
• Evaluating and selecting technology providers
• Prioritizing funding for marketing technologies
• Crafting technology-enabled digital business models
Typically, people come to marketing technology from
two routes:
1. Technical: IT professionals, software developers,
computer scientists, and business specialists with
an interest in marketing, analytics, and connecting
technologies.
2. Marketing: Digital marketers with a passion for
technology, data analysis, and efficiently connecting
to audiences.
Marketing technologists are passionate about data, new
tools and ideas, and working smarter. They can bring
innovation to existing processes and generate insights
to aid in decision making and marketing priorities.
Given the ongoing shift to digital communications for
companies and individuals, the role promises to have
long-term staying power.
Marketing technologists need technical
depth and adaptable learning skills
to keep up with the pace of change in
marketing technology.

7. While the demand for marketing
technologists grows, the position is still
in a formative stage. With the help of
Widen CEO Matthew Gonnering, we’ve
developed a framework to define the
competencies required of a MARTECH
professional. Use it to guide hiring
processes or serve as a roadmap for
pursuing this career.
Here’s how each letter of the MARTECH
acronym relates to the competencies
and skills required by a marketing
technologist.

8. 7 The making of a marketing technologist
The MARTECH competency framework
by
M A RMARKETING
Obvious, right? Knowledge of day-to-day marketing processes and the
ability to effectively communicate marketing value to stakeholders are
must-haves for a marketing technologist.
AGILE
Most often applied to software development, agile methods in market-
ing mean a people-centric approach to operations and, as a result,
improved communications.
RESOURCEFULNESS
Solving problems and finding answers are essential for the marketing
technologist – for their own work and the people around them.

9. 8© Widen Enterprises 2016
T E C HTECHNICAL
Technology expertise is half of the marketing technologist role, and it can be
learned through training and curiosity.
ENTREPRENEURIAL
The drive to experiment, improve, and take risks are characteristics marketing
technologists can borrow from entrepreneurs.
CULTURE
In terms to teamwork, culture refers to an organization’s values, management
styles, and physical environment. By adopting traits of a healthy workplace a
marketing technologist can create a great space for collaboration and quality
work.
HERO
As a MARTECH hero, it’s your job to provide other people with data and
technologies to support them and improve their work. You’re turning other
people into heroes.

10. The marriage of technology and marketing is
going to be a long and prosperous one. This
is exciting for all marketing professionals,
especially those interested in pursuing the
marketing technologist role. Demand is only
increasing. Of course, not every marketer needs
to become a marketing technologist, just as
every marketer does not need to be a designer.
But having one on the team helps ensure that
technology is helping the entire team work
smarter in creating an effective and valuable
customer experience.
Let’s get to it, shall we?

11. 10© Widen Enterprises 2016
arketing: Key skills for the MARTECH pro
The marketing competency is framed two ways:
1. A firm grasp of daily marketing functions,
2. The ability to effectively communicate marketing value to
stakeholders.
Many marketing technologists measure their success in terms of
more effective and efficient marketing.
More effective marketing
• Improved customer value, loyalty, and retention
• Higher online marketing ROI
• Higher campaign ROI
• Increased response rates
More efficient marketing
• More campaigns with the same resources
• Reduced cycle times for marketing efforts
• Reduced marketing costs
• Lower customer acquisition costs
1. Understanding basic marketing functions
Excellent day-to-day performance of marketing operations is fueled
by a curious and open attitude. More specifically, an insatiable
appetite for new tools, methods or processes, paired with a desire
for experimentation.
This kind of attitude allows for an innovative working environment
where new ideas are constantly being adopted and refined in the
quest to create and communicate value. Central to the success of
this is a strong and meaningful social network that is developed
through connecting with industry leaders and event participation.
M

12. 11 The making of a marketing technologist
2. Communicating with stakeholders
The second aspect of the marketing competency focuses on
sharing with stakeholders like HR, software development, and
customer service. Communicating marketing goals, strategies,
and initiatives to departments across the organization allows
colleagues to understand and appreciate what marketing is doing
and why.
More importantly, getting your colleagues
up-to-speed and excited about marketing
activities can create ambassadors to share
your messages and generate a feedback loop
on ideas and projects.
An effective company-wide communication strategy is not unlike
an effective brand campaign: it provides the right information to
the right stakeholder at the right moment.
Consistent messages should be delivered through a variety of
channels, including the intranet, live presentations, department
open houses, shadowing opportunities, or whatever other channel
makes sense for the audience.

13. 12© Widen Enterprises 2016
gile: Innovative, people-centric approach
to engagement
Agile methodology was originally designed for software develop-
ment as an iterative approach that puts the audience at the center
of all product decisions. Marketing has adopted the idea because of
the potential for improvements in revenue, speed-to-market, and
quality and risk management.
The values in the Agile Marketing Manifesto4
give a good overview of
what agile marketing means:
• Validated learning over opinions and conventions
• Customer focused collaboration over silos and hierarchy
• Adaptive and iterative campaigns over Big-Bang campaigns
• The process of customer discovery over static prediction
• Flexible vs. rigid planning
• Responding to change over following a plan
• Many small experiments over a few large bets
Agile software development is more advanced than agile marketing
and can provide examples of how projects are structured. Release
planning, a staple of software development, creates hard time lines.
Within each release are “sprints” where developers spend focused
time on a specific element of the software. Decisions are made with
the customer in mind and they are often interviewed, consulted, or
asked to test new features.
Wondering how to advance agile skills? If you are working in a
traditional marketing atmosphere, there are ways you can grow
your agile competency without disrupting the processes already in
place.
A

14. 13 The making of a marketing technologist
1. Understand the foundation: The Agile Marketing Manifesto is a
great place to start learning about agile methods. I recommend you
go to the source and learn about how the movement started. Check
out the website for the Agile Alliance at [www.agilealliance.org]. If
you sub in “marketing” for “development” and “information” for
“software,” you can see how the basics apply to marketing.
2. Be inquisitive: Go beyond the foundation by observing how agile
teams work, reading more about how marketers use agile, discussing
with interested co-workers, and talking with your team about how
to move into agile. Don’t limit your exploration to agile marketing,
because you can get a lot out of seeing agile software development
in action.
3. Seek leadership endorsement: Educate and inform leaders in
your workplace. Be transparent about the new idea and get creative
with how you share it. Draw it out on a whiteboard, share examples of
agile success, or outline what it could look like with your team. With
an emphasis on innovation and response to customer needs, agile
methodologies can pay off.
4. Experiment: How about attempting an agile approach for one new
project? Start small and test a more disciplined agile process. Don’t
feel obligated to stick to a certain agile methodology path, you can
combine elements to create a system that works for you.
Tips & resources
from Widen
CEO Matthew
Gonnering to
develop your
agile skills:

15. 14© Widen Enterprises 2016
esourcefulness: Encourage initiative in
yourself and others
To be resourceful means having the ability and initiative to solve
problems and find answers. It’s a must-have skill for you, and if you
can encourage it in your colleagues, the benefit will be enormous.
People who seek answers and discover (or create) solutions are an
asset to any organization. How do you grow your resourcefulness?
Start with knowing your strengths and weakness and believing in
the value of your work. Trust your instinct. Don’t be afraid to fail
because if you never try anything, you’ll miss opportunities for
growth and innovation.
Here are some ways you can encourage resourcefulness in the
people around you:
• Framing problems in a way that allows people to respond with
their unique skills
• Allowing people to explore solutions with room for successes
and failures (the unsuccessful avenues still result in valuable
knowledge and can make the work more enjoyable)
• Extending their professional network to colleagues in support
of learning and knowledge sharing
• Being responsive to requests and needs in an effort to keep
processes moving quickly
• Mentoring by asking good questions (instead of lecturing)
• Recognizing your colleagues’ impact and effort
Frame problems as challenges to your skill
set, explore solutions, connect with new
professional networks, find a mentor, and
recognize your own impact on the company.
R

16. 15 The making of a marketing technologist
If you weren’t born with resourcefulness, good
news! It can be learned.
Expand your resourcefulness:
Here are a few ways to increase your resourcefulness skills to solve
problems and complete projects.
• Be confident in your skills. You’ve got this. You were hired for
a reason, probably because you have a skill or expertise that
your employer wants. Keep that in mind as you express new
ideas and ways of doing things.
• Keep an open mind. Questions, suggestions, and feedback
can be challenging to accept when you know how you want to
do something. Make sure to listen to diverse viewpoints – your
colleagues have a wealth of knowledge, and taking the time to
consider new and different options can be very rewarding.
• Be creative. Find new ways to use things you already have
(like content, technology, even physical space) in new, exciting
ways. Do something different you’ve been thinking about or go
out on a limb to suggest a change.
• Communicate well. You’ll need communication skills that
go both ways – listening and presenting. To be resourceful,
you need listening skills to understand the issues and
presenting skills to explain your work or point of view. Use
your communication skills to collaborate with others, because
nothing says resourceful like putting together a top-notch
team.
• Get what you need to do your job. Beg, steal, or borrow. Ok,
kidding about the steal part, but the truth is you will need the
right resources to get your work done. Chat with your boss
about resources like time, technology, and money. Asking can
be difficult at first but having the right tools to work makes
things easier.

17. 16© Widen Enterprises 2016
echnical: How to increase your expertise
If you are approaching the MARTECH role from an information
technology or analyst role, it’s likely you have the technical side
of things down. If you are coming at it from a classic marketing
background, you probably have a lot of exposure to new
technologies. Here’s how you can build your skills.
1. Talk to the pros: Reach out to technology professionals at
industry events or within your own company. A lot of tech
knowledge can be gained by asking the right questions, such
as, “What is your technology strategy?” Or, “What technologies
do you see as essential for our company’s future?” Invite people
to coffee, attend social events and meetups, and engage over
social media.
T

18. 17 The making of a marketing technologist
Remember, these sessions are not about you. Use the time
to listen, ask questions, and discover the depth of someone’s
knowledge.
2. Start playing: Many marketing technologies offer free versions
or trials (examples: automated email service Mail Chimp,
survey software Survey Monkey, social media publishing
platform Hootsuite). Get in and play around with them.
Participate in demos of software that interest you.
3. Get additional training and certifications: For the programs
you are using, take certification courses if they are available
or prep of the future by learning to manage upcoming
technologies.
Discover a better way by Matthew Gonnering
While you are in the trenches performing marketing functions, you
might catch yourself saying, “there has to be a better way!” I am
pleased to report that there is most certainly a better way.
In my own experience as a young, inefficient, phonebook-trolling,
cold-calling machine, I used contact tracking and activity logs in a
system designed for financial reporting. It was a painful process of
entering, managing, customizing, and reporting.
Although it took awhile to realize there was a better way, once I
started looking, it was like I discovered a whole new world.
I found systems that gave me control while also having design
appeal, and it was easy to roll those systems out to other people to
use. If only I had taken action a few years prior!

19. 18© Widen Enterprises 2016
ntrepreneurial: Use your innovative side to
create change
An entrepreneurial spirit is central to the marketing technologist
role.
You don’t have to own your own business or quit
your job to adopt the entrepreneurial mindset.
It’s a way of thinking.
As we see it, entrepreneurs and marketing technologists share the
following seven defining traits:
1. A desire to make a difference in the customer
experience
2. A willingness to own a range of responsibilities from
data entry to strategic board presentations in the
interest of optimizing business success
3. A talent for seeking and obtaining funding for new
ideas
4. The capacity to acquire enough data to inform both
business decisions and effective risk management
5. A commitment to measuring and sharing results
and value
6. A commitment to attracting other talented
professionals to the team
7. A level of comfort taking risks
To inspire an entrepreneurial mindset, think of your project as a
start-up inside of the company or organization you work for. You
can leverage all the traits in the list above within the comfort of your
current position.
E

20. 19 The making of a marketing technologist
Where do you find room for improvement in the customer
experience? Develop an idea, own the project, and make the ask.
While you aren’t asking for money like a traditional entrepreneur,
you are asking for time – time at work you could be spending on
something else.
Let’s say you make a case and the idea is approved. Build a team
and set benchmarks and goals for success. Evaluate yourself
against your goals.
Finally, whether the project was a success or not, follow up with
your boss or colleagues to let them know. Transparency is key.
Build your entrepreneurial skills
Entrepreneurs, or people who organize and manage businesses,
come from all types of backgrounds. Though the word brings up
images of wholesome young adults in suits pitching ideas in front
of a panel of sharks, the taco stand down the street and the one-
woman accounting service are both the work of entrepreneurs.
In the diverse world of entrepreneurs, there are some shared
elements: determination and work ethic.
Here are a few other elements common in
successful entrepreneurs:
• Focus
• Self-reflection
• Resiliency
• Communication skills
• Sales skills
• Independence
• Patience

21. 20© Widen Enterprises 2016
ulture: The importance of environment
It’s not always talked about, but workplace culture is crucial. Think
of your company or organization. What are their characteristics? Is
it friendly, accepting, and encouraging? Studies show5
that creating
a place where people feel comfortable and valued has huge
implications for productivity, and as a result, profits.
The heart of having a good culture is putting
people first.
Sometimes that means perks like standing desks, free coffee, or
bonuses. Creating a great culture doesn’t always mean spending
money or buying things. Recognizing accomplishments, setting
clear goals, and communicating clearly are all ways to respect your
colleagues.
Ensuring a healthy culture by Matthew Gonnering
We don’t play when it comes to creating the best environment
for our people. As a marketing technology software company, we
know that our staff is the most valuable thing we have. To meet
the culture competency, Widen turns to WorldBlu’s 10 Principles of
Organizational Democracy6
.
C

22. 21 The making of a marketing technologist
You can use their principles to build your own cultural
competency:
• Purpose and vision: Establish and share a
MarTech strategy that supports the company
mission and encourages customer loyalty.
• Transparency: Be open with employees about
the company’s financial health, strategy, and
agenda.
• Dialogue + Listening: Employ a range of tools
and processes to gather data for informed
decisions.
• Fairness + Dignity: Develop emotional
intelligence and the drive to support others.
• Accountability: Own the result of your actions in
shaping the customer experience.
• Individual + Collective: Focus on individual and
team goals.
• Choice: Arrive at decisions after consulting the
team, peer groups, mentors, and other experts.
• Integrity: Act in the best interest of stakeholders
and do the right thing.
• Decentralization: Enable or expand power so
everyone can work effectively and efficiently.
• Reflection + Evaluation: Seek continuous
feedback to help shape the marketing
technologist role within the organization.

23. 22© Widen Enterprises 2016
ero: Use your skill set to help others
As much as we know you are looking forward to picking out a
superhero cape, talented marketing technologists are “servant
leaders” – making sure that other people’s needs are met so they
can perform to the best of their ability7
. They enable others to
be heroes (and yes, make themselves heros in the process – in a
background sort of way).
As a marketing technologist, it’s your responsibility
to guide, advise, enable, and inform the content,
campaigns, and products that other people
develop.
We have several suggestions for living this competency.
1. Focus on the team. Your role is to help people and because of
that, team success should be at the top of your list.
2. Manage up. If you are working in a traditional company with
a “top-down” style of leadership, you’ll have to adapt your
communication style to work with your boss. Use your expertise
to advise and coach your boss through technologies or topics
they might not be familiar with.
3. Develop self-awareness. Know yourself, your communication
style, and the effect you have on others. Are you empathetic?
Do you offer helpful, constructive criticism? If you find that
people misinterpret you a lot, it’s probably time to review your
communication style and make adjustments to help your
colleagues.
4. Share your expertise with your community. Start with your work
team and expand to local marketing and technology groups. If
possible, consider hosting interns or mentoring students.
In essence, this competency is about support – for your team, your
work, your customer, and your community.
H

24. Conclusion
Marketing has taken a permanent turn
towards digital and the need for marketing
technologists will only grow 2
. Luckily, the
skills that define marketing technologist
– marketing knowledge, agile approach,
resourcefulness, technical expertise,
entrepreneurial spirit, healthy culture, and
heroic help – will benefit you regardless of
whether you decide to morph into a new role.
As a MARTECH pro, you can provide the
following support to an organization:
• Help your organization meet business
goals by evaluating and selecting
appropriate technology for marketing
functions
• Foster communication between
marketing and IT
• Gather, analyze, and share customer data
• Create a compelling customer journey
across digital touchpoints
• Develop content and social strategies
to boost audience engagement and
conversion
Are you ready to become a
marketing technologist?

25. 24© Widen Enterprises 2016
About this book
“The Making of a Marketing Technologist” is based on a series of
articles on the MARTECH competencies written by Widen CEO
Matthew Gonnering and published on LinkedIn throughout 2015.
For an overview of the series, visit the blog post
“MARTECH is more about butterflies than unicorns”
at go.widen.com/martech-butterflies.
Special thanks to the Widen marketing team for their work creating
content, editing, and designing the book.
As a marketing technology company, Widen is invested in creating
software solutions that help people create, distribute, and evaluate
intelligent content. Organizations of all sizes use Widen’s digital
asset management (DAM) solution, the Media Collective, to
streamline their marketing and creative workflows and make their
content work harder. We’re excited to have new products in the
works focused on creative collaboration, content planning, and
workflows.
To learn more about Widen, visit widen.com.

26. 25 The making of a marketing technologist

27. 26© Widen Enterprises 2016
Resources
1. Brinker, S. (2015). Chiefmartec.com Marketing Technology
Supergraphic. http://chiefmartec.com/2015/01/marketing-
technology-landscape-supergraphic-2015/
2. Brinker, S., McLellan, L. (July-August 2015). Harvard Business
Review. The Rise of the Marketing Technologist. https://hbr.
org/2014/07/the-rise-of-the-chief-marketing-technologist
3. McLellan, L. (January 2014). Gartner. How the Presence of
a Chief Marketing Technologist Impacts Marketing. https://
www.gartner.com/doc/2652017/presence-chief-marketing-
technologist-impacts.
4. Agile Marketing Manifesto. General format. Retrieved from
http://agilemarketingmanifesto.org/
5. WorldBlu (2016). 10 principles of organizational democracy.
General format. Retrieved from https://www.worldblu.com/
democratic-design/
6. Cameron, K., Seppala, E. (01 December 2015). Harvard Business
Review. Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive.
https://hbr.org/2015/12/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-
more-productive
7. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (2016). What is servant
leadership? General format. Retrieved from https://www.
greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/