IDC CMO Advisory Service has published results from its 17th annual Tech Marketing Investment Benchmark survey. Investment patterns provide evidence for marketing’s expanding role.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform the way that marketing professionals work, and how organizations target, engage and connect with customers and prospects. Just like how marketing automation created new tasks and job functions, AI will revolutionize the way marketing is performed – and dictate a new set of job needs and skills.
Being in the middle of a digital transformation can be a time of excitement, confidence and risk-taking. Businesses are evolving, employee career paths are expanding and the way we market to our customers is changing. Even buyers’ journeys are taking a turn down a path that may not have existed several years ago.
Customer Experience (CX) will have a greater influence over future purchase decisions, say 93% of tech buyers. CX improvement must become a top initiative for CMOs or marketing will be the proverbial canary in the coal mine – the first to be blamed if the pipeline erodes due to customers’ poor experience. The CMO’s conundrum? Marketing can’t do this alone. To succeed, companies must integrate into an adaptable, team-based, organization focused on customer success.
Leaders call them tiger teams, circles, networks, or squads. Whatever term you use, the objective is the same: remodel the organization to better serve empowered customers and attract new workers who have fresh expectations. Leading companies are progressing towards a “network of teams” approach that is more agile and customer responsive than the traditional hierarchy of functional silos built for the industrial 20th century.