Modern Marketing has come a long way in 2016. More leading brands are using marketing technology to better understand their customers and provide a better customer experience than ever before. Data is part of nearly every marketing conversation. Customer obsession and experience is the main focus.
But this has also created a culture of more, more, more. More marketing technology solutions—nearly 4,000 of them—are available than ever before. More marketers are creating more content than ever before. Whether you view the marketing landscape as an embarrassment of riches that provides a myriad of choices for consumers or as a glut of tools and content that causes analysis paralysis and confusion, this was a year that will be remembered.
It was almost as hard to avoid Pokémon Go this year as it was to avoid discussions of the US election. These popular events brought the terms augmented reality and emotional brand connections to the forefront of marketing. They also changed the way many marketers thought about the mobile environment and the app landscape. Months later, we ask questions about customer engagement and what to do when the event is over and nearly all the participants have moved on.
If you are a B2B marketer, this was the year that you announced your account-based marketing capabilities. ABM was everywhere, as it provided positive ROI and the promise of marketing and sales alignment. This approach is something that will quickly become the norm, as adoption of ABM seems to be quite rapid. This may seem like a fad, since fewer marketers will be talking about it in the coming year, but many will already be doing it.
And finally there was a slowdown in 2016 where marketers fought against the tide of more and thought about less. Asking “Why?” and tying our marketing activities to strategies and business goals. Simplifying systems and eliminating data silos. Shifting from transactions to relationships.
This post originally appeared on the Modern Marketing blog.
