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M A R K S E Y F O R T H

F IGUR ING OUT HOW TO PROV IDE THE RO I

For years, one of the biggest marketing challenges has been measuring theROI (return on investment) of marketing activities. This measurement iscrucial in helping markets to understand how effective each marketing

campaign or piece of content is. Proving ROI is also important if the firmwants to make an argument for increasing budget.

It hasn’t always been easy to track the ROI of every single marketing activity,and it’s even worse when there is no two-way communication between

marketing activities and sales reports. The best way to fix this will be to usemarketing software and a CRM solution. A marketing firm can then use a

service-level agreement to tie the two together. The best way to monitor ROIis to have a service-level agreement and inbound marketing.

UNDERSTAND ING THE MARTECH LANDSCAPE

When technology and marketing collide, the result is something many callMarTech. Marketing is changing faster than ever before thanks to advances intechnology. In recent years, the number of vendors, predominantly softwarecompanies, who are vying for marketers’ budgets has gone through the roof.

Between 2014 and 2015, the number of companies doubled from 1,000 to2,000. In 2016, that number was 4,000, and within the next 18 months, it is

expected to double again. Marketing companies will need to fully understandwhich solutions are available. They’ll need to make the right partnership to

solve tech-related challenges.

GENERAT ING TRAFF I C AND LEADSAccording to the 2016 State of Inbound report, the top marketing challengewas generating enough traffic and leads. This challenge is likely to be even

greater in 2017 as marketers will have an increasing amount of difficultyproducing enough demand for their content as the competition stiffens. It’s

hard for marketers to know when to focus their efforts now that there aremany platforms for marketers to publish their content and even more ways to

promote it.

If marketers want their content to produce traffic and leads, there are twoquestions they should be asking. The first is whether they are creating high-quality content. The content should be the type that people would be willingto pay for. The next question is whether they know what type of content their

audience actually wants. Once they know that they’re creating the contenttheir audience wants, they can shift their focus to promoting it in a way that

makes their audience take notice.

TRACK ING AND UNDERSTAND ING CUSTOMEREXPER I ENCE

One big trend in technology is that the customer experience is being tracked.Integrated mapping is also being used to better understand the customer

experience. This is a broader project than the specific problems thattechnology has been used to solve in the past. In 2017, tech vendors will beintegrated into marketing firms. One way that tech vendors are helping to

create a seamless customer experience is that they are developing apps tomake sure their product works well with the other vendors’ solutions.

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