Weekly online
Each four-month module includes 14 interactive two-hour classes and one reading week, following an optional full-day London masterclass. Read selected material, practise between sessions and bring your questions back to the group.
Professional learning · Marketing
Marketing Technology.
Choose marketing technology for the problem you need to solve.
A growing collection of marketing tools can create more work unless the systems, data and people fit together. Marketing Technology helps you examine what technology should enable, how to assess a proposed solution and how to govern its use. The reading combines Darrell Alfonso’s practical martech framework with Ediz Edip Akçay’s 2026 treatment of emerging technologies. KBC’s proposed activities move from a customer problem to requirements, evaluation and an implementation case. You will learn to ask better questions about integration, automation, measurement and AI, while keeping the customer experience and organisational capability at the centre of the decision.
Weekly route4 months
Live online2 hours a week
Module startsOctober · February · June
Learning structure1 module
The professional challenge
Make the next decision with more confidence.
The business has a CRM, an email platform and several reporting tools, yet staff still copy data between systems and customers receive inconsistent messages. A new AI product promises to solve everything. You need to identify the actual problem, assess the options and show what a credible improvement would require.
Who will benefit
For marketers, marketing-operations staff, commercial managers and business owners who select, use or sponsor marketing systems. It is particularly useful when you work with CRM, email, automation, analytics or customer data and need to communicate requirements to technical colleagues, challenge supplier demonstrations or make a case for improving an existing toolset.
What you take back to work
Practical capability, built through learning.
- Define business and customer requirements for marketing technology.
- Map tools, data flows and ownership across a marketing system.
- Evaluate automation and AI opportunities with explicit limits.
- Build an implementation and measurement case for a proposed change.
Inside the course
A connected learning journey.
The proposed KBC four-month module uses 14 sessions: 1–2 requirements; 3–5 systems and data; 6–8 automation and AI; 9–11 selection and implementation; 12–14 governance and final review. This is KBC’s teaching sequence, not either book’s chapter structure. Product demonstrations should use current official documentation at delivery.
01Start with the customer and the business need
Reading connection: Alfonso chapters 2–3; original KBC requirements exercise.
Explore the difference between a technology feature and the outcome it should enable. KBC’s proposed exercise begins with a request for another platform and asks you to investigate the underlying customer or team problem. You will identify the desired change, the process involved and the evidence needed to judge success.
Apply it at work: Write a problem statement and prioritised requirements brief.
02Map the tools and the information between them
Reading connection: Alfonso chapters 4–6; KBC application design.
Consider how customer information passes through acquisition, engagement and ongoing relationship management. In the KBC case, each platform contains useful data but the team lacks a shared understanding of where it originates and who maintains it. You will map the essential connections, identify duplication and missing ownership, and propose the questions that technical colleagues need to answer before an integration decision.
Apply it at work: Create a marketing-system map with data and process owners.
03Evaluate automation and AI against a use case
Reading connection: Akçay: AI, machine learning and automation themes; Alfonso tool-selection scope.
Explore where automation and AI may support a defined marketing activity and where human judgement remains necessary. KBC’s proposed workshop compares a manual process with a suggested automated alternative. You will examine input quality, error handling, review points and the effect on customers, then decide what a limited trial should establish. The task develops evaluation skills without assuming that novelty proves usefulness.
Apply it at work: Prepare an automation or AI pilot brief with review criteria.
04Select and introduce a workable solution
Reading connection: Alfonso chapters 5, 7–8 and 10; original KBC selection case.
Consider the practical requirements behind a successful technology decision, including people, integration, supplier support and ongoing operation. In KBC’s selection case, one product has an impressive demonstration while another fits existing processes more closely. You will compare the evidence, identify uncertainties and propose a staged introduction. The recommendation should explain what must be true for the organisation to gain the expected value.
Apply it at work: Build a supplier-comparison matrix and implementation outline.
05Govern, measure and improve the investment
Reading connection: Alfonso chapters 9–11; Akçay ethical/future-technology themes.
Bring together ownership, performance measures and the decisions needed after a system goes live. KBC’s final exercise asks you to review a tool that is technically available but inconsistently used. You will investigate adoption, data reliability and customer effects, then recommend a focused improvement. The discussion also explores how to monitor emerging technologies while maintaining agreed priorities.
Apply it at work: Produce a benefits review, ownership model and improvement roadmap.
Learn around your working life
Time to understand. Space to apply.
Online or in a city near you
Face-to-face delivery can be arranged in London, Maidstone, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. Your course offer confirms the venue and teaching dates.
A London masterclass to start your module
Meet your tutors and fellow professionals at an optional full-day London event. KBC covers the event, agreed transportation, refreshments and an open buffet dinner. Confirm arrangements with the team before booking travel.
Support between sessions
Return to class recordings and learning resources, bring questions to your tutor and use free one-to-one tutoring and coaching support. Your course plan sets out the guided reading and practice needed alongside live teaching.
Your route to recognition
Know what the assessment involves.
KBC proposes a technology-improvement case supported by requirements, a system map, an options comparison and a measurement plan. Learners would explain their recommendation in a short presentation, including the assumptions and dependencies that could affect value. No external awarding-body examination or professional-body award is established for this standalone course. Any completion certificate and assessment requirements should be specified in the enrolment information. The proposed work can be completed through case analysis and design; purchasing software or deploying a live system is unnecessary.
Your written offer records the award or course completion requirements, any examination fees included, and the relevant eligibility checks.
The professional knowledge behind the course
Explore the books and standards.
The learning themes above bring together the relevant guide, syllabus and workplace practice. KBC’s teaching sequence connects these ideas through discussion and application.
- The Martech Handbook: Build a Technology Stack to Attract and Retain Customers — Darrell Alfonso ↗Kogan Page · 1st edition, 3 August 2022; ISBN 9781398606449
Verified contents cover business need, stack design, core systems, tool selection, scalable management, governance, buy-in and improvement.
- Marketing Technology: Integrating Martech for Transformational Marketing — Ediz Edip Akçay ↗Kogan Page · 1st edition, 3 February 2026; ISBN 9781398625259
Verified publisher contents include AI, analytics, machine learning, connected technologies, automation and future trends, with an ethical perspective.
Your investment
Get a course offer that fits your route.
Request the standalone fee for your chosen format, including the teaching, reading materials, assessment and membership arrangements relevant to this course.
Standalone professional development is self-funded or employer-funded. The agreed course offer explains any available support and the costs included.
Your questions, answered.
Do I need to be a developer?
No. The focus is evaluating needs, defining requirements and working effectively with technical specialists.
Will I have to buy a particular platform?
No. The proposed learning is independent of a required software purchase.
Is this an AI course?
AI is covered alongside systems, data, automation and customer processes.
What would this help you achieve?
Talk to KBC about your experience, your goals and the right learning route for you.