9 ways Marketing teams can take control of their website

By Andrea Stuart on 11 Oct, 2023

In our digital age, your website is often the first point of contact between your brand and its potential customers. It serves as a virtual storefront, a marketing hub, and a platform for engagement.

The ability to shape and evolve your website is crucial if you want to stay competitive and relevant.

Traditionally, website development and maintenance have heavily relied on IT departments, causing delays, bottlenecks, and frustration for marketing teams. However, with advancements in technology and the rise of user-friendly web development tools, there’s a growing trend towards empowering marketing teams to take control of their website's vision and evolution with minimal support from IT.

This shift not only accelerates website updates but also fosters innovation, agility, and a more collaborative work environment.

Here’s 9 ways in which you can start to take control of your website.

1. Get a user-friendly content management system

One of the primary enablers of marketing teams taking the reins of website management is the adoption of a user-friendly content management systems (CMS), such as Acquia (Drupal), Wordpress, or Joomla.

These platforms provide intuitive interfaces that allow non-technical users to create, edit, and publish content without needing extensive coding knowledge.

Marketing teams can easily add new pages, update existing content, and optimise web pages for SEO, reducing their reliance on IT for routine tasks.

2. Integrate marketing automation tools

Marketing automation tools such as HubSpot, Marketo, and Mailchimp have become indispensable to modern marketing teams.

They not only streamline marketing activities but also offer website integration features.

With a marketing automation tool, marketing teams can set up personalised landing pages, track user behaviour, and automate email campaigns without IT support, enabling them to respond quickly to market trends and customer needs.

3. Embrace agile development and continuous integration

To further empower marketing teams, some organisations have adopted agile development methodologies and continuous integration practices.

These approaches encourage cross-functional collaboration between marketing and IT teams, breaking down silos and fostering communication.

Marketing teams can provide direct input on website features and improvements and create an optimisation roadmap that aligns with their marketing strategy.

4. Invest in training and skill development

Empowering marketing teams to manage websites independently requires investing in training and skill development.

Once you have your new CMS and marketing automation tools, you need to provide your marketing professionals with courses to train them on usage and management.

This investment not only enhances the capabilities of the marketing team but also instils a sense of ownership and responsibility for your website's success.

5. Ensure access control and governance

When granting autonomy to marketing teams to manage your website, t’s essential to establish access controls and governance policies.

Such measures mean marketing teams can make necessary updates without compromising your website's integrity or security.

Be sure to set up user roles, access permissions, and review processes to strike a balance between autonomy and control.

6. Move to data-driven decision making

Having control over the website also means moving to data-driven decision making.

By providing access to analytics tools and data sources, you can allow your marketing team to monitor website performance, track user behaviour, and make informed adjustments in real time.

Data-driven decision making helps marketing teams respond swiftly to changing market dynamics and user preferences.

7. Champion user-centric design

A key advantage of marketing teams taking control of the website is their ability to focus on user-centric design.

Marketing professionals are intimately familiar with the needs and preferences of your target audience.

By putting marketing teams in charge of your website evolution, you can ensure your website aligns with your brand's messaging and delivers a seamless user experience.

8. Focus on cost efficiency

Reducing dependence on IT for website management can lead to cost savings.

IT resources can be re-directed to more complex technical tasks, while marketing teams handle routine updates.

This cost efficiency allows you to allocate resources more strategically to support your growth and innovation.

9. Collaborate and Innovate

By giving your marketing team the power to direct the vision and evolution of your website, marketing and IT teams can work together closely to explore new features, experiment with design elements, and implement creative solutions.

This collaboration often leads to innovative website enhancements that drive better user engagement and conversions.

How DCX can help

In today's fast-paced market, empowering your marketing team to take control of your website's vision and evolution with minimal support from IT is not just a trend but a strategic imperative.

The wide availability of user-friendly tools, agile methodologies, and a data-driven approach to decision making, means it’s possible for marketing professionals to shape their online presence effectively. And by doing so, your organisation can accelerate website updates, enhance the customer experience, and respond swiftly to market changes - ultimately driving business growth and competitiveness.

Whether you need a new CMS for your website, want to integrate marketing automation tools, adopt agile methodology, or skill up your teams, DCX can help.