Master Marketing with AI: Leverage Data and Insights for Customer Success
Sep 10, 2024 • 3 Minute Read • Tod Szewczyk, VP, Marketing Services
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10 Questions Every CMO Must Ask Their CTO
Apr 30, 2025 • 2 Minute Read • Elizabeth Spranzani, Chief Technology Officer
The pressure to go to market quickly is on. From personalization engines and customer data platforms to your content marketing system (CMS) and automation tools, your team relies on technology to launch campaigns, optimize experiences, and scale efficiently. But instead of moving quickly, marketing gets stuck waiting on developer resources, juggling disconnected out-of-date platforms, or struggling to activate data.
These pain points can be alleviated when marketing and technology are in sync. A strong CMO-CTO partnership breaks down silos, enabling faster go-to-market execution, better access to data, informed decisions, and fewer roadblocks that limit agility or impact.
As a CMO, your marketing team should be empowered to operate independently, while developers can focus on the complex, high-value work they enjoy. With the right partnership, both teams move faster, smarter, and with greater impact.
In the article The Modern CMO’s Guide to AI, Brand Strategy & Performance Marketing, we cover several important aspects of how technology can empower marketing teams. However, if you're a CMO, to take the next step and partner with the technology team, there are several questions you should propose to your technology leader, or CTO.
10 Questions to Help Bridge the Gap Between Marketing and Tech Leaders
1. Do our platforms enable composability?
This question will help you understand whether your CMS and other platforms are modular and future-proof through an API-first design. Best-of-breed tools will change over time, so your architecture should make it easy to plug in and swap out technologies without major rework.
If you're curious about headless CMS platforms, specifically, it's features, and it's tradeoffs, listen to The Agile Brand podcast episode where Greg Kilhstrom and I talk about going headless.
2. Do any of our platforms require manual upgrades?
If manual upgrades are still in play, you’re likely not fully SaaS. That means more technical debt, slower time-to-market, and heavier reliance on developer resources.
3. How do you determine if a platform is enterprise-grade?
An enterprise-grade platform goes beyond infrastructure. It should offer scalability, security, and robust tooling that empowers marketers to move efficiently and independently.
4. Should we consider a digital asset management (DAM), content marketing platform (CMP), or content data platform (CDP)?
As you shed technical debt, your marketing budget frees up and can be redirected toward platforms that drive impact. DAM, CMP, and CDP solutions are critical for streamlining marketing operations, maintaining brand consistency, and understanding your customers through insights.
5. What data do we have—and where does it live?
Data underpins all of this, from understanding your customer, to insights on ROI, to training an AI agent. You need to know where and what data exists and how accessible it is for marketing.
6. Where are we using AI—and how are we protecting our data?
There should be some kind of answer here indicating that it's being used and that the proper security is in place to protect data. Organizations that don't take advantage of AI will start to fall behind their competitors.
7. Do all of our platforms have an AI roadmap—and does it align with our brand and goals?
The answer should be yes on both fronts. Your platforms should advance their AI capabilities while supporting your brand voice, governance standards, and marketing strategy.
8. What are our most valuable AI Agent use cases?
Kick off the conversation about AI Agents with a focus on high-impact, low-effort wins. Think operational efficiencies, content creation, personalization, customer segmentation, or customer service.
9. What's the best way to stay informed on these technology changes?
Everything changes so quickly, even daily. Ask how your tech team stays up to speed and what that could look like for marketing.
10. How will our approach to designing, developing, and supporting digital platforms evolve?
The ecosystem will continue changing, and marketing and technology departments should be on the same page. Your CTO should be thinking about how to future-proof the process and, ideally, enable marketers to launch and optimize experiences with minimal developer support.
Start the Conservation Today
These questions can be your checklist. They're also a foundation for a stronger and more agile partnership between marketing and technology teams. The sooner you align, the sooner your teams can innovate, scale, and win together.
Which of these questions sparked something for you? Let’s connect and dive deeper.