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Survey population
Digital Marketing Trends
Most marketing functions are not creating content for all four stages of the customer life cycle
■ Stage 2 (conversion): 73% of leaders do so vs. 69% of followers
■ Stage 3 (support): 44% of leaders vs. 34% of followers
■ Stage 4 (retention): 56% of leaders vs. 39% of followers
In the awareness stage, marketers use digital channels most frequently and personalize communications based on demographics more than other types of data.
Most marketers involved in the conversion stage use digital data and digital channels to personalize communications to influence buying decisions
Most marketers involved in post-sale support personalize customer communications through their company website and email
BenefitsMarketers involved in the customer retention stage use digital ads and their company website to personalize messages
By 2020, CMOs expect that digital personalization of communications will be most important in attracting new customers, not nurturing existing customers
Analytics are used most often to convert prospects to customers, but far less often to retain customers
Marketing activities are becoming heavily automated and shifting to public/private clouds
■ Content and customer experience (including content marketing and social media management platforms, content creation tools, etc.)
■ Advertising (including ad verification, native or social advertising platforms)
■ Direct marketing management (e.g., email marketing platforms, lead management platforms)
■ Web operations (e.g., personalization platforms, search engine marketing/optimization)
■ Data and analytics solutions (e.g., digital marketing analytics tools, marketing campaign dashboards)