Can marketing teams lead the digital transformation journey?

In my opinion, Yes.

Being able to reach the consumers directly, marketers become the voice of the customer that organisation should pick. Marketing is measurable in real-time and provides data that can lead the way for experimentation and innovation. Data allows experimenting and promotes agility.

Couple of points that cross my mind that need to be done in order to make this transformation happen.

1. Organisations must invest in the right talent and form the apt team structure. A conventional setup or structure may not suffice. Organisations may need to look at cross-functional teams with marketing-like functions sit across all other teams which encourages more cooperation and reduce silos. This kind of agile structure will increase innovation, the ability to manage changing priorities of the business and improved alignment.
2. Organisations should also train teams in new techniques and trends or apply an education-based approach including training programs and access to new tools. Marketers should also bring their data capabilities in-house so that they can be competitive. The trend of in-sourcing data is about transparency and control and marketers must look at a balanced team structure of in-house and out sourced teams.
3. Organisations must have a definite budget allocated towards the innovations and encourage experiments. E.g. 70% budget could be for the core marketing activities and 30% for upcoming technologies & radical experiements that drive the transformation.

For Marketing leaders digital transformation should focus on people, processes and partners with a goal to guide the rest of the organization through a transformation breaking down silos and putting the customer at the center.