How Can You Succeed at Digital Marketing Next Year? 17 Great Posts Offer Answers

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Are you starting to get ready for next year? Not sure what you need to ensure success in your digital marketing? Well, these 17 great posts can help you succeed at digital marketing next year. Enjoy:

1. ChiefMarketer explains “Why CMO is the Hardest Job in Tech,” noting in particular the challenges of keeping up with trends.
2. To help, you might enjoy taking a look at “What the Future of Marketing Might Look Like” from a recent episode of Thinks Out Loud, our weekly e-commerce and digital strategy podcast.
3. You can gain additional insights from another recent podcast episode that explored “How to Keep Up With Technology as a Marketer: The Quick and Dirty Guide.”
4. Finding the right talent for your marketing team continues to represent a critical challenge, as eMarketer found noting, “Marketers Struggle to Balance Marketing Technology Tools and Talent.”
5. Marketing Charts helps answer that question with a chart that asks, “As Marketing Complexity Rises, Where Are Marketers’ Biggest Digital Gaps?” User experience and and e-commerce are at the top of the list… which helps explain why we put so much focus on those critical areas among our services.
6. CMO.com found that, quite simply, “Nobody Is Comfortable With Digital Media.” But it doesn’t need to be that way. Again, our look at “How to Keep Up With Technology as a Marketer: The Quick and Dirty Guide” can help.
7. While we’re talking about top trends, consider we asked, “Is Execution the New Innovation?” and found that generally, the answer is “Yes.” Give a listen to the whole thing to see how you can leverage that to your advantage in the coming year.
8. Robert Allen highlighted a chart that looks at “How Marketing Budgets Are Shifting in 2016.” Big takeaway, most respondents said their budgets were holding steady but moving a much larger share of budget towards digital.
9. That seems to make sense, especially when combined with MarketingProf’s look at “How Business Leaders View Digital Marketing.” Given that most see digital as only “somewhat successful,” the key is to tie your efforts to business results and to make sure you’re talking your business leader’s language when pitching new initiatives — or funding existing ones, for that matter.
10. While we’re on the topic of budgets, eMarketer found that “US Marketers Plan to Invest More in Loyalty Programs by 2017.”
11. In a highly-useful and related infographic, SocialMediaToday showed “The State of Digital Marketing 2016.”
12. These thoughts on “What Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Can Teach You About Digital Marketing” from Thinks Out Loud offer some additional insights along those same lines.
13. Video represents another key opportunity for your digital success, with Niemen Labs quoting Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa as saying “Your News Feed will likely be ‘all video’ in five years” while CMO.com states flatly that “Mobile Video is a Marketing Necessity, Not a Luxury.”
14. In a similarly bold statement, Benedict Evans asserts that “Video is the new HTML.” We agree, stating that you have to “Make Room For Mobile Video” and including it among 2016’s top trends.
15. Joel Comm hammers that same message over on Inc., saying that you “Ignore the Live Video Revolution at Your Own Peril.”
16. The folks over at iMedia Connection put together a group of “13 Ways to Shift to a Data-Driven Marketing Approach” that you’ll want to check out and you’ll likely also enjoy these set of “11 Data-Driven Marketing Insights to Start Your Week Off Right.”
17. Finally, you’ll definitely want to set yourself up for future success by reviewing these “32 Killer Resources to Improve Your Digital Strategy: The Top Posts of 2016 (So Far).” You’ll be glad you did.

If you want learn even more about how your customers’ changing behavior shapes e-commerce and marketing, be sure and register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You can also check out these slides and video from my recent webinar, “Digital Marketing Directions: Three Key Trends Driving Your Marketing Next Year”:

Finally, you might enjoy some of these past posts from Thinks to help you build your e-commerce strategy and your digital success:

• 6 Mobile Commerce and Strategy Insights: E-commerce Link Digest
• Content is Still the King
• The Digital Strategy Myth
• Why Mobile Payments Will Rule
• Driving Seamless Experiences in 2016 (Thinks Out Loud Episode 149)
• Mobile is So Much Bigger Than You Think (Thinks Out Loud Episode 140)
• It’s Not “Mobile First.” It’s “Customer First.”
• 8 Killer Entries About Improving E-commerce Experience: E-commerce Link Digest