Marketing Technology Trends for 2016

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I came across a great article from Rohit Roy and the MarTech team today that looked at recent results from a survey completed by Spear Marketing Group in September 2015. The survey focused on shifts in importance of specific marketing technologies.

Here are some of the great data points, from Rohit and Spear Marketing, on the current and future importance of specific technologies:

  1. Content marketing emerges as the leader with about 85% of the respondents testifying to its importance. Its share is expected to fall to 60% in the near future.
  2. CRM can see yet another large fall, from the current 68%, all the way down to 29%.
  3. Marketing automation remains more or less stable, going down from the current 62% to 56%.
  4. Personalization solutions are expected to grow from 33 to 34%,
  5. Predictive analytics is expected to show significant growth, from its current 16% to 37%.

Mostly in line with what I would expect to see, both in terms of shifting focus and the nature of the rise/fall of different technologies as some become more mature. Some great nuggets as well, for example, declining focus on CRM but consistent focus on Marketing Automation.

However, I think the real magic may be in looking at these technologies in concert with one another. For example, our view is that content marketing success is ultimately driven by personalization technologies and predictive analytics.

Or another way of thinking about it is that as organizations mature in the mechanics of content marketing (i.e. buyer journey mapping, content mapping to personas, content development, etc.), they begin to see much more value in personalization and predictive analytics as core ways to ensure that they are getting the most out of their content ( getting it in front of the right prospects, at the right time, through the right channel, etc.).

Fascinating stuff…and really excited to see how it shakes out in 2016! Kudos to Rohit and Spear Marketing for this great data which gives us insight into how marketers are placing value on these technologies looking forward.