Looking to the Year Ahead: Or, Why We’re Going Back to Basics.

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 its 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 gen.

However, 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:

1. Strategic/Planning –You got it together, now who has the strategic understanding to apply the technology to marketing initiatives?
2. Logistics and workflow–it’s all new: new roles, new requirements, new skills. How will we restructure internal workflows?
3. 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

1. 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 asset development targeted to multi-stage funnel development.

2. 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.

3. Analytics as a roadmap

Beyond dashboard reporting of the variety 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 to stay ahead of the trends, read more about how Red House can help you with your initiatives with the links below.

*Content Marketing Institute—2017 B2B Benchmarks

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