Conductor Survey: More Spending on Marketing Technologies in 2015

It’s January 2015, and most marketing executives will be busy reevaluating their strategies and restructuring their teams. In a survey that polled 182 B2B, B2C, and agency marketing executives, web presence management firm Conductor noted that 65% of marketing executives were committed to investing more in marketing technologies this year. Within that percentage, 28% of marketers say they will be spending “significantly more” in this area. [See Figure 1 below]

Customers are now more likely to share their experiences with brands and businesses on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, as well as provide feedback. Hence, researching customer needs before creating content has become top priority for many marketing executives. On a 4-level scale, ranging from “not important” to “very important,” an overwhelming majority agreed that researching customer needs before creating content was “very important”. [See Figure 2 below]

“Every audience has distinct pain points and desires that drive them to particular products or services,” states the Conductor survey. This insight clearly indicates that the old generic marketing approach no longer works, and that persona marketing should be the main focus of marketing executives this 2015.

While creativity remains an important part of the content creation process, more and more marketing executives are acknowledging the importance of incorporating hard data into content. [See Figure 3 below] “This trend is reflective of the increasing importance of data in how marketers do their jobs—from content to SEO to social, data serves as the foundation for everything. It measures tactics, identifies opportunity and exposes trends.”

The era of working with “gut feeling” is slowly fading, and Conductor believes that marketers and organizations that still follow this “need to step back and re-evaluate.” In order to gather large quantities of data, however, marketers need to invest in more modern technologies. By knowing what technology to use for data collection, analysis, and reporting, marketers and organizations can pair the right technologies with the right people for optimal performance.

Based on their survey, Conductor highlighted three tactics in 2015 that marketers and organizations should pay heed to:

• Target your customers by who and how buy-ready they are
• Hire both creative and data-driven minds
• Foster collaboration between teams

Even though marketing goals have remained the same, Conductor observes that execution has to change. “Now that customers can pick-and-choose when, where, and how they interact with brands, organizations must look at creative ways to drive a consumer through the purchase funnel.”

What other strategies and insights may have been overlooked by the Conductor survey? What tactics is your organization focusing on in 2015?

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