By You Mon Tsang, CEO, OutMarket
Over the past few years, digital media and mobility have created new ways to communicate, altering people’s expectations and interactions. Today’s citizens expect access to information whenever and wherever they want.
While most marketers understand their work is changing, marketing tactics and strategies have sometimes been slow to follow suit. Our State of Marketing report, performed by Market Connections, reveals a world in which marketers embrace evolution, incrementally or even hesitantly.
By You Mon Tsang, CEO, OutMarket
Over the past few years, digital media and mobility have created new ways to communicate, altering people’s expectations and interactions. Today’s citizens expect access to information whenever and wherever they want.
While most marketers understand their work is changing, marketing tactics and strategies have sometimes been slow to follow suit. Our State of Marketing report, performed by Market Connections, reveals a world in which marketers embrace evolution, incrementally or even hesitantly.
Everyone Is Optimizing For Mobile
Although 2014 has been touted as the year mobile marketing will take off, there are still challenges in this area. While mobile usage has increased greatly — 63% of smartphone owners say they use their phones to access the Internet — marketers have dawdled to meet their customers’ demands for mobile sites and apps. According to our report, only 43% use the medium.
Going forward, marketers will need to lead with a “mobile-first” mindset. I like how Tom Martin phrases the idea. He says marketers need to think of themselves as “taco trucks.” They can’t expect customers to come to them. They need to find out where their customers are and go to them.
Blogging Is Essential
Online wisdom claims blogging is essential for success. Our report shows a different reality. Many marketers view blogging as one of their least effective distribution channels. Only 35% rate it as a 4 or 5 (highest). In addition, 51% of survey respondents say they lack staff and time.
Blogging takes high frequency and consistent quality to compete with established publications. Text-heavy content isn’t the way to cut through the clutter and noise anymore, either. It may have worked a few years ago, but today’s audiences tend to prefer visuals and video to text.
Marketers need to evaluate blogging’s role according to audience expectations and their own abilities. If they have the time and resources to publish content multiple times a day, they might use the tactic; however, they should carefully consider what, if anything, they’re doing to address the desire for visuals and video.
Everyone Has A Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing is a well-utilized tactic, according to MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute. More than 90% of the market uses it, but only a small majority of marketers have a strategy for it. Our research discovered that 60% of marketers have a strategy in place, and 19% are considering adding one.
The finding is worrisome. Without a strategy, marketers are basically using a shotgun approach with their content; they are throwing it out on the Internet and hoping they’ll win customers with it. Marketers need to correlate their activities with quantifiable, specific goals if they wish to be successful with content marketing efforts.
Implementing Marketing Automation Is Complex, Costly And Time-Consuming
This myth is one of my favorites. While our research found that a number of marketers believe the myth, it also discovered that those with marketing automation solutions experience benefits like improved sales conversions (62%) and better lead generation (55%).
I believe marketing automation is for every company. But the people who will see the most benefit from it are the ones who understand that content is part of an ecosystem. Marketers who hope to compete in today’s online world will need to invest in marketing automation software to improve marketing initiatives, fuel creativity, and tie tactics to real-world results.
Prior to his position as CEO OutMarket, You Mon Tsang was the Chief Marketing Officer at Vocus. Vocus Marketing, the marketing business unit of Vocus, was rebranded as OutMarket. Before joining Vocus, Tsang was CEO of Engine140, a company Vocus acquired and subsequently integrated into its product portfolio.
