For the past three years, I’ve seen an unmatched focus on marketing technology adoption, integration and implementation across the Red House client base. So it’s no surprise that in our 2016-2017 Red House Marketing Survey, the number one focus for marketing departments in 2017 will be lead generation.
I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t that always the focus? It is. But the last couple years have been a watershed as organizations adapt to the “new marketing paradigm.” As with anything worth having, it comes at a cost, and that cost has been time and money dedicated to lead generation.
Now that these technology components are in place, we will see the biggest change in lead generation development since the inception of the marketing automation platform.
2017 TRENDS: THE OPERATIONAL SIDE EFFECTS
Getting off the technology-adoption treadmill has left many marketers with a gap in strategy and human capital that must be addressed before realizing ROI:
- Strategic/Planning–You got it together, now who has the strategic understanding to apply the technology to marketing initiatives?
- Logistics & Workflow–It’s all new: new roles, new requirements, new skills. How will we restructure internal workflows?
- Creative–Who has the skills to develop the new initiatives from technical to design?
In short—you built an awesome car, but you’re starting with a learners permit.
The Content Marketing Institute’s recent survey agrees with ours, “80% [of marketers] will focus on lead gen as a content marketing goal over the next 12 months,” creating a serious vacuum in content necessary to fuel the car you just built.
2017: ADDITIONAL TRENDS WE WILL SEE
- Rise of the Always-on Content Strategy
Clients will need an “always-on” strategy for base content–like case study development–that will be the foundation of their assets targeted to multi-stage funnel development.
- Strategic Automation Planning & Workflows
There will be a growing need for more complex thinking around segmenting audiences and content mapping to help direct priorities around asset development, trigger campaign design, and other capabilities the new ecosystem affords.
- Analytics as a Road-map
Beyond the stock dashboard reporting of technology platforms installed, a rise in connected measurement and analytics will go hand-in-hand with the mounds of behavioral and preference data these new marketing systems will generate. It will be leveraged for targeted program refinement.
If you’d like us to help you stay ahead of the trends, read more about how Red House can help you with your initiatives with the links below.
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Dan Hansen
Senior Partner
Dan Hansen is a Senior Partner with Red House and a 30-year veteran of the marketing industry. In addition to holding a master’s degree in advertising from Syracuse University, he works in a marketing consulting capacity with Red House clients such as McKesson, Elsevier, Equifax, and AT&T.