Courtney Eckerle

Buying Versus Building Technology: Which is right for you?

February 12th, 2016

“I think the most important thing is that companies are realistic about what their expectations are for a technology investment, and realistic about their own capabilities,” Preston Wily, President, Sewell Corp, said.


In this interview, Preston speaks about his MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015 panel presentation, which was about “what we didn’t do right” when making an investment in their email marketing program.

Preston recommended that when making technology selections, marketers ask themselves:

  • Define what your goals are from the program
  • Make those goals crystal clear to your team
  • Ensure those goals are also clear to any potential providers

If a marketer does end up in a situation similar to the one Preston and his team were facing, having made the wrong choice in technology, he advised that “they should be realistic about the situation, where they’re at and what they did wrong.”

It’s never too late to change course, Preston added, and marketers can learn valuable lessons from mistakes like theirs.

“We learned so much from the failure. In the long-term, I think this will be a good thing for us. And we’re excited that we can share the experience with other people and help them avoid this,” he said.

At the end of the day, Preston added, when making any choice — technology-related or not — the relationship with your customer is key and “they need to trust you.”

View Preston’s full panel presentation, or see marketing stories like his at MarketingSherpa Summit 2016, held February 22-24 in Las Vegas.

 

You can follow Courtney Eckerle, Managing Editor, MarketingSherpa, on Twitter at @CourtneyEckerle.

 

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Courtney Eckerle

About Courtney Eckerle

With a focus on aspirational, customer-first marketing, Courtney’s goal has been to produce clear, interesting and actionable external content for MarketingSherpa readers. This has included writing over 300 case studies, moderating live event interviews, and producing video content. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Mass Communications and Film Studies from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind., and was a correspondent for USA Today College prior to joining MECLABS Institute.

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