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As we enter 2015, we are bound to see countless resolutions made (and broken) over the next few weeks. With the beginning of a new year also comes yearly planning, sales forecasts, and goal-setting in your professional life as well. As you start to map out your strategic plans and goals for your marketing organization in 2015, I've included five resolutions below that should be on every marketer’s resolution list for 2015.
We’re starting to see a major discrepancy in the marketing world. Our latest research, The State of Marketing Leadership, really brought that to light. We call it the “Customer Journey Takeover” in our research — it is the phenomenon we’re seeing where sales, service, and marketing as a whole are evolving beyond a channel-based and siloed approach to engagement.
Your audience (consisting of customers and prospects) is on a journey with your brand. This journey is comprised of a multitude of touchpoints and experiences, and brands need to know where their audience is in their journey. In 2015 we will see a greater shift away from “channels” and toward journey mapping as businesses look to create cohesive customer journeys across all touchpoints and channels.
In The State of Marketing Leadership,a joint report produced by Salesforce Marketing Cloud and LinkedIn, we found that 86% of senior-level marketers agree that it’s critical and important to create a cohesive customer journey across all touchpoints and channels. The customer journey is more than a phenomenon, buzzword, or trend; thinking about your marketing strategy from this approach is going to be a requirement in 2015.
A huge opportunity exists in the marketplace for companies that do this well. Only 56% of enterprise companies and 33% of mid-sized companies have adopted a customer journey strategy. However, only 29% of enterprise companies rate themselves as effective at creating a cohesive customer journey (State of Marketing Leadership).
Make it a resolution in 2015 to sit down and map out the customer journey your audience has with your brand. Begin to look at this journey as one cohesive experience and not just a number of different “campaigns” and “channels.”
Social media was drastically transformed in 2014 with numerous acquisitions, algorithm updates, and advertising platform launches. Social media grew up in 2014 and becoming the new broadcast networks.
The thing about social media, though, is that it is rented real estate. You do not own your Twitter followers or Facebook likes.
VP of Marketing Insights for Salesforce Jeff Rohrs talks about this often in his book, Audience. Brands need to start thinking strategically about proprietary audience development. Channels like email allow you to own the relationship you have with that audience. You aren’t at the mercy of algorithms. As brands discover this more in 2015, we will see a larger move toward owned channels and strategic development of these proprietary audiences. The companies that make this a priority in 2015 will reap the benefits.
Cyber security has become a dominant theme for 2014. If you haven’t prioritized your cyber security yet, 2014’s bloopers should be your wakeup call.
As brands continue to collect more and more data about their customers, visitors, and marketing campaigns, it is becoming more and more important to place an emphasis on your security practices. If you collect or store any customer data or marketing data relating to your customers and prospects, take extra precautions to ensure that data is safe. You don’t want to be one of the cyber security headlines for 2015.
The need for data is increasing rapidly. 61% of marketers planned to increase spend in data and analytics in 2014 (2014 State of Marketing). On top of that, 43% of senior-level marketers reported an increased need for data and analytics expertise over the next 12+ months (The State of Marketing Leadership). This growth and increased need stems from this “big data” explosion over the past couple years. Companies and marketers have more data at their fingertips than ever before — the problem is that this data isn’t actionable. The opportunity exists for 2015, though, in how marketers use that data and how integrated it is across the company.
Data integration is a key indicator for effectively creating cohesive customer journeys and experiences. 97% of marketing leaders who have fully integrated their customer data across all areas of the organization find themselves at least somewhat effective at creating a cohesive customer journey. The problem is that only 17% of marketing leaders have fully integrated their data (The State of Marketing Leadership). In 2015, we’ll see a greater importance placed on accessible and usable data. Data is useless unless its actionable and unless it is used to make better decisions. Let 2015 be the year where you stop letting numbers keep score and let them drive better decisions.
Personalization will see massive growth in 2015. We are at the point where customers are expecting experiences and communication to be personalized to them. If mass media communications like Google ads and social ads are already personalized, how much more will your customers expect tailored, personalized communications and recommendations from brands they know and trust.
Predictive analytics and predictive intelligence are already seeing major headway in the industry:
And this is just the beginning. This ties directly to the rise of data and analytics. The more integrated data becomes, the better personalization you can offer.
While you plan your 2015 marketing priorities and strategies, make sure to include these five resolutions. Businesses of all sizes can implement and benefit from these resolutions.
Want more tips for success in 2015? Download our free e-book to start your year off right.
