What’s next for Marketing is something we talk about A LOT at 6sense. The industry moves at the speed of light (at least, it feels that way) and marketers are expected to stay one step ahead — even when it seems like we’re struggling just to keep up.
As a CMO planning for a new year, here are the top five Marketing trends I’m looking at in 2020:
1. Say Hello to Scaling ABM
In the last few years, Account-Based Marketing has taken over as a better way to engage with modern B2B buyers — but without the ability to scale those efforts to more than a handful of accounts, “ABM” is really just good marketing. To reach the promised land of delivering a better prospect experience, marketers are looking to uncover and orchestrate critical buyer insights for their account-based initiatives across hundreds, even thousands, of accounts.
In 2020, marketers will say so-long to their generic “ABM” solutions and welcome a solution with real insights AND AI-orchestration to fuel their entire go-to-market strategy for a next-level prospect experience.
2. Four Pillars of Personalization
Personalization doesn’t mean slapping a name on your generic email and sending it off to clutter your audience’s inbox. It’s more about ensuring your message adds value. To really hit home with your buyers, and avoid them hitting the unsubscribe button, you have to encompass all four pillars of personalization when it comes to ABM: the account, persona and buying team, behavior and timing.
Next year, B2B marketers will step up their personalization efforts by implementing an intent solution that uncovers branded and generic keywords prospects are researching, helps tailor their message and content to these keywords and ensures those stage-based high-value messages actually get delivered at the right time.
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3. Siloed Team Stacks, Make Way for the Unified Revenue Stack
It’s common knowledge that the MarTech stack has gotten WAY out of control. To prevent marketers from fumbling around with 20 or 30 different tools, we saw the consolidation of siloed point solutions into one platform in 2019. As Sales and Marketing teams continue to unite, we’ll see individual teams ditch their disparate platforms and adopt one all-encompassing revenue platform with AI and Big Data built into the core so they can successfully uncover, orchestrate and utilize valuable buyer data.
4. In-Market Is The New Inbound
Most marketers believe that inbound leads are the ultimate prize for all of our hard work. But, the truth is, we can’t wait around for our buyers to raise their hand before we engage. The early bird gets the worm in the Marketing world — and waiting for an inbound lead means you’re one step behind. We have to know what buyers want before they make themselves known.
Next year, marketers will shift from an inbound approach to an in-market approach by using real buyer insights to focus on the accounts with the highest buying propensity. Then, they will have the power to influence the entire buying journey, ensuring their outreach lands at exactly the right time.
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5. The AI Expansion
Ten years ago, AI played no role in the Sales and Marketing tech stack. Some early adopters developed customized AI/ML/Big Data solutions in the early days, but these were expensive to build and maintain (data scientists aren’t cheap!) Gone are the days of mapping out linear-based journeys on a whiteboard in 2020. The role of AI is expanding and will drive “next best” actions, content and channels next year.
It’s safe to say the Marketing industry has changed more in just the last five years than it has in the last 50. So, if you think these are the only trends that will be making waves in the wide world of Marketing next year, think again! Stay tuned for part 2, where my team dives into more predictions on the 2020 Marketing landscape.
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