Many of the clients I work with came into marketing through the technical ranks. They have valuable insight and technical no-how that makes it possible to develop marketing programs, and user documents that benefits the end user. More importantly, they know how to tailor marketing content so that it “speaks” to the technical person. This perspective is a valuable insight.
However, many of them learn marketing and communcations strategy by trial and error. Many of them feel overwhelmed by the amount of “new” marketing and media strategy they must learn — and implement to help marketing the products — many they helped develop.
The important quality of the IT/Marketing hybrid, is how in-touch they are with the customer. Those who continue to spend time with the customer, out in the field, gathering feedback and insight from the customer, will naturally evolve the best marketing programs, that still speak to the customer.