Three Key 2014 Marketing “Ideas” that will become Marketing “Realities” in 2015

I love speaking with our customers about what’s working (and not working) in their worlds – even (especially!) if it’s outside of the scope of what Activate does. Why? By hearing what marketers are struggling with – where they’re thriving – I get insights into what pain points drive their activity, and most importantly what they care about.

Here are three themes I hear time and again, with increasing energy as we’ve moved through 2014. While most of these are just “concepts” (or aspirations) for many marketers today, my prediction is that they will become realities for the majority of B2B marketers in 2015.

Creating content with buyers’ journey in mind.

Today everyone gets the concept of a buyers journey, and understands that content needs to map to roles and phases. However most content isn’t created with explicit intent to be used in phase-based marketing programs (e.g. mid-funnel nurture program). Instead content is mapped back to phases post creation. From the content audits we’ve performed, this leads to wasted content (too much in one phase, not enough in another) as well as no easy mechanism to plan phase-based campaigns with a mix of assets. I predict in 2015 more marketers will have their persona roles in place, and create content from the get-go with funnel-stage in mind before pen hits paper!

Use Lead Scoring, Really.

Same deal here, most everyone knows what lead scoring is and has some level of grading or scoring in place. But still relatively few marketers are  materially differentiating their actions (tele-qualification, follow-up nurture, etc.) based on those scores. Too many are still calling every lead with the same priority. I predict in 2015 tele-qualification and inside-sales teams will work more effectively with marketing to truly utilize lead scores to prioritize follow up with hot leads, disqualify low-propensity leads, and continue refining the acquisition lead quality (not quantity).
Leverage small data (ok, maybe big-data too).

We all love to read about big data, but for too many of us it’s a concept that someone else works on. The reality in 2015 is that we will all make better use of our local data (small data? or our small slice of big data) to accelerate marketing actions. In particular, more marketers will seek to apply historical intent activity (be it their own or acquired from third parties) to apply it to lead scores, further qualifying the best leads for follow up. This is a concept with much appeal, but today very few marketers are actually doing it on a consistent, actionable basis.

One thing that’s already a reality: it’s a great time to be a marketer. The tools and transparency of best practices are making marketers more effective than ever. Big aspirations, big change – lots or progress on driving pipeline happening now, and more to come in 2015!