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Where are the most exciting digital marketing opportunities?

Written by Guest contributor
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from MarketingCharts, a Watershed Publishing publication providing up-to-the-minute data and research to marketers. Optimizing the customer experience continues to be the most exciting digital opportunity available to marketers today, according to results from the latest Digital Trends report produced by Adobe and Econsultancy. But fast-forward five years and respondents believe a different opportunity will take precedence. Indeed, a leading 21 percent of respondents surveyed (predominantly European-based) feel that the top opportunity in five years' time will be data-driven marketing that focuses on the individual. Currently, that sits as the second-largest opportunity for marketers, along with creating compelling content for digital experiences. While compelling content creation is slated to retain its importance over the next five years relative to other opportunities, the real gainer (aside from data-driven marketing) is the Internet of Things (IoT). While only six percent of respondents currently see this as their biggest opportunity, that figure rises to 10 percent in five years' time, overtaking other opportunities such as marketing automation and cross-channel marketing. The results indicate that marketers will place their greatest emphasis this year on making the experience as:
  • Personalized and relevant as possible (25 percent share);
  • Valuable as possible (25 percent);
  • Easy to understand as possible (17 percent); and
  • Safe and reliable as possible (11 percent).
By comparison, fewer will be emphasizing speed or mobile-friendliness. Finally, while data-driven marketing might be the most exciting opportunity in five years' time, that doesn't mean that company respondents will be ignoring it this year. In fact, asked to rank five areas in order of priority this year, respondents overwhelmingly pointed to data-driven marketing (53 percent) as their first choice, with far fewer tabbing cross-channel marketing (19 percent) and, surprisingly, customer experience (15 percent), as their top choice. While it may seem unusual that marketers would not prioritize their most exciting opportunity, the study authors note that "data-driven marketing is increasingly seen as the heart of the new customer-centrism" and that "given that data and customer experience are indivisible, the two may be considered a single, overarching priority." Source: Marketingcharts

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