Marketing and IT often have a reputation for not getting along. One team wants speed, creativity, and customer-centric innovation. The other demands security, structure, and system stability. And somewhere in the middle? Deadlines, miscommunications, and duplicated work.

But in the VUCA world, where moving quickly and protecting yourself against digital threats are equally important, IT and marketing alignment isn’t a luxury. It’s a growth imperative.

Here’s how to make it happen…without a turf war!

Why the Divide Exists in the First Place

• Marketing evolved from storytelling and sales. Its job is to move fast, test messages, and optimize customer journeys to enable sales. (Some would say it’s to create sales, but that’s a whole different topic.)
• IT grew from engineering and systems thinking. Its job is to ensure reliability, security, and long-term sustainability.

And that’s why when marketing wants to launch a new microsite by Friday, IT says it needs a month to vet hosting, audit scripts, and deploy a new subdomain. After all, most organizations haven’t built the connective tissue between these two functions.

The Cost of Misalignment

When marketing and IT aren’t in sync, businesses lose more than time:

• Shadow IT: Marketing spins up tools and platforms IT doesn’t approve or secure.
• Broken CX: Campaigns drive to glitchy landing pages or slow websites.
• Compliance risks: Customer data is handled in ways that violate policy or regulation.
• Resource waste: Two teams solving the same problems separately, with different vendors and budgets.

In short: disconnection creates drag.

What Alignment Looks Like in 2025

Smart organizations are breaking the silos and reframing IT and marketing as two halves of one growth engine.

When aligned, you get:

• Seamless digital experiences that are fast, secure, and on brand.
• Unified data strategies that feed both performance marketing and compliance reporting.
• Faster launch cycles, from campaign ideation to execution, without compromising reliability.
• Stronger ROI attribution through shared analytics and KPIs.

Smartt’s Playbook: How We Help Clients Align IT + Marketing

At Smartt, we’ve worked with hundreds of organizations where the disconnect was real and solvable. Here’s how we help bridge the gap:

1. FlexHours: Shared Bandwidth for Cross-Functional Work

Instead of siloed vendor contracts, Smartt clients get a shared pool of FlexHours that can be used across IT, marketing, and dev.

When priorities shift, there’s no red tape, just reallocation and execution.

2. Integrated Teams, Not Handoffs

Our people don’t live in silos. Our designers understand SEO. Our developers talk to marketers. Our cybersecurity experts help monitor what the digital team does. In other words, we think like a singular growth engine, not like separate departments.

3. Shared Roadmaps, Not Competing Timelines

We help clients co-create aligned digital roadmaps so IT upgrades, infrastructure changes, and campaign pushes are planned together.

Marketing knows when a system migration might affect performance. IT knows when a new campaign will spike traffic.

4. Governance That Empowers, Not Restricts

Instead of saying “no,” we help IT teams design guardrails that allow speed and flexibility depending on their size and needs.

From sandbox environments to pre-approved integrations, we help marketing innovate without compromising security.

What You Can Do Now

Here are three things you can do today to align marketing and IT:

1. Create shared KPIs. Align on outcomes (e.g., site load speed, lead conversion, bounce rate) that matter to both sides.
2. Bring IT into campaign planning early. Involve them before final concepts or platform decisions are locked in.
3. Invest in a shared partner or platform. Choose vendors or internal teams who understand both worlds and can execute across them.

Final Thought: Your Customer Doesn’t See Departments

To your customer, there’s no “IT experience” or “marketing experience.” There’s just the experience.

If your internal teams aren’t aligned, your customer will feel the seams: through slow load times, broken links, or irrelevant messaging.

But when you align marketing and IT? You deliver clarity, velocity, and competitive edge.

Let’s make that your new norm!