Marketing predictions for 2015

The new, changing buyer has caused a huge shift in
marketing. No longer is sales on the frontlines of the buyer
journey. Instead, the marketer drives the relationship.
2015 is the year of the marketer! And at Marketo, we know
marketing best practices. To help you jumpstart your 2015
brainstorming and planning, we have come up with 2015
predictions from our own internal thought leaders.
YEAR OF THE MARKETER!

MARKETING
In 2015 we’ll see the continued shift
away from transactional marketing,
with a ‘click’ as the point of interaction
to a new era of engagement
marketing, where marketers focus on
engaging people on a personal level,
continuously over time, and across
all channels and experiences.
To prepare for this change and
embrace it, marketers can focus on
4 things:
SANJAY
DHOLAKIA
Chief Marketing Officer
New Years Resolution:
Skiing is my escape, it helps me
get centered and it’s an activity
where I am totally immersed in the
moment. I skied 30 days last year
and in 2015, I want to do 40.

MARKETING
1. Your Organization
Do an audit of your organization—
are there missing skills when it comes
to creating a customer journey and
customer relationships? Do you have
silos that prevent your team from
creating a seamless experience? Hire to
prepare your organization for the new
era of engagement marketing.
SANJAY
DHOLAKIA

MARKETING
2. Technology & Data
Get smart about the tools and
capabilities that are available to
you. What tools will help you create
meaningful communication and
individual relationships at scale? What
data and analytics do you need to
create the experiences and outcomes
you want? Start with the end in mind
and design backwards.
SANJAY
DHOLAKIA

MARKETING
3. Content
Are you able to hold a conversation
with a potential customer and share
things that are meaningful and relevant
to them? Understand the value your
audience is looking for, where they
look for it, and develop the capacity
to create content that delivers value.
SANJAY
DHOLAKIA

MARKETING
4. Internal Leadership & Alignment
What will it take for your company
to have an externalized, consistent
view of the customer relationship?
Are other functions like sales, service,
and product aligned to your customer
journey and map? Marketing needs
to step into a leadership role and
guide the change process, getting
other people and teams in your
organization prepared to do real
engagement marketing.
SANJAY
DHOLAKIA

Earned media will matter more
than ever—today there are fewer
journalists and publication making
earned media’s supply and demand
challenge very complicated.
The earned media you deliver in 2015
will carry more weight and gravitas
than ever before.
COMMUNICATIONS
MIKE MOELLER
Vice President, Brand
and Communications
I run to clear my mind,
and this year I am also
running to qualify for the
Boston Marathon.

The separation between publishing
and editorial in media is gone and
the boundary will start to be redrawn
in 2015. Traditional publishing firms
have been playing in the gray area,
with sponsored content and native
advertising. We’ve seen that readers
don’t care who generates the content
so publishers looking for cash have
gained a tremendous amount of
velocity from these products.
In 2015, it will be interesting to see
how audiences react, and if there is
a significant push back to this new
‘digital’ advertorial.
COMMUNICATIONS
MIKE MOELLER
Vice President, Brand
and Communications
I run to clear my mind,
and this year I am also
running to qualify for the
Boston Marathon.

Communicating with your buyers
across channels, including mobile,
social, email, and website is going
to be even more critical in 2015.
Since today’s buyers are interacting
with brands on-the-go on their mobile
devices and communicating via many
channels, it is critical that brands be
where their customers are.
MARKETING AUTOMATION
KELSEY
KAJIWARA
Marketing Operations
Specialist
Volunteer more and make a
positive impact in the community.

Marketing automation platforms will
start to optimize more heavily for
multi-channel, and will include more
mobile and social listening capabilities.
The other trend I see for marketing
automation in 2015 is personalization.
People are tired of being blasted with
generic content. Through innovations
like real-time personalization on
websites and email marketing,
marketers will be able to target and
segment for a better user experience.
MARKETING AUTOMATION
KELSEY
KAJIWARA
Marketing Operations
Specialist
Volunteer more and make a
positive impact in the community.

Optimizing design for mobile will be
huge for 2015. Mobile and tablets
are the future, so companies will
start to create more custom mobile
applications for their marketing
campaigns and product solutions.
Additionally, digital publishing will start
to become a focus. Instead of static
ebooks, companies will start moving
to more interactive electronic media.
Ebooks and other written content will
have embedded videos, interactive
graphics, social integrations, and
mobile optimization.
DESIGN
DAVIS LEE
Creative Director
I would love to complete a
full marathon.

In 2015, the line between B2B and
B2C content will continue to blur as
storytelling and customer experience
becomes more important than ever.
B2B companies will focus on telling
more compelling and interesting
stories in a much more humanistic
and entertaining way. We will start to
see more multi-channel and relevant
campaigns that focus on behavior and
emotional appeal.
CONTENT
DAYNA
ROTHMAN
Senior Manager,
Content Marketing
Start a personal blog or write
more LinkedIn Pulse articles.

I also think that mobile and multi-
device content will become
increasingly more important and more
interactive. More and more content
will be read solely on mobile and
tablet devices, so marketers will have
to think about mobile user experience
with their content and even create
content specific to mobile devices.
Wearable technology will also provide
an additional layer to providing content
and user experiences on-the-go.
CONTENT
DAYNA
ROTHMAN
Senior Manager,
Content Marketing
Start a personal blog or write
more LinkedIn Pulse articles.

In 2015, social will be considered
an integral part of an organization’s
digital marketing mix, becoming a real
revenue engine.
To do this well, organizations need
to create relevant and personalized
social campaigns, be ready to do
real-time optimization of their social
advertisements, and take advantage
of the increasingly refined targeting
options on each social platform.
SOCIAL
DIVYA DUTT
Senior Program
Manager (PPC & Social)
SHANNA COOK
Social Media Manager

The other trend we’ll see in 2015 is that
social influencer identification tools will
become more prevalent and refined.
Incorporating influencers into your
social marketing has become more and
more important. A tool that helps social
media teams identify social influencers,
and get content in front of them and
their audiences is key to success.
SOCIAL
New Years Resolution
(Divya):
Sign up for more volunteer
opportunities. I am especially
passionate about helping kids
in need.
New Years Resolution (Shanna):
I come up with my best social
campaign ideas after an intense
workout. So training for my first
full marathon will be hundreds of
miles of marketing breakthroughs
(it also will counteract my desk job)!

As organizations shift towards
engagement marketing in 2015, they
will need a team member to ensure
the entire organization is focused on
emphasizing personal relationships
and delivering relevant messages
to customers at every stage in
their lifecycle.
DAVID CAIN
Group Vice President of
Global Demand Marketing
This year I traveled to a couple
places on my travel bucket list,
Sydney and Dublin, and I am
resolute to explore more in
2015, I’m aiming for three!
MARKETING
ORGANIZATIONS
They should have insight into the
teams that are customer touch-
points, like customer success sales,
etc. and drive their programs toward
a united vision.

MARKETING
ORGANIZATIONS
While customer journey roles already
exist, in 2015 this role will look
holistically across the organization and
be accountable for ensuring a seamless
customer experience.DAVID CAIN

Another shift we’ll see 2015 will be in
content. Obviously the role of content
in a marketing organization has grown
over time, but we will start to see
content roles that focus on creating
content for the entire customer
journey, across multiple channels and
with a singular voice. Content will start
to own and define an organization’s
voice. To do that well, you’ll need
dedicated resources.
MARKETING
ORGANIZATIONS
DAVID CAIN

SEO is going to continue to become
more competitive and difficult—
especially with the focus on creating
authentic content.
Companies know that this shift is
eminent and are spending more
time and money creating unique
and valuable content across multiple
channels. Just having a website isn’t
enough anymore. Blogs, contributed
content, and social media posts will
become increasingly important in 2015.
SEO
MIKE TOMITA
Senior Manager,
Online Marketing
To sign up for Twitter.

SEO
Google is putting less emphasis on
keywords and more on how they
relate to search. They are looking at
keywords as part of a bigger, more
comprehensive picture. Companies
must have real expertise in what they
are talking about to even rank.
Instead, companies will have to be
more creative and test what content
ranks and resonates across all
online channels.
MIKE TOMITA
Senior Manager,
Online Marketing
To sign up for Twitter.

DEMAND GENERATION
Marketers in demand generation
are more inundated than ever
with technology and the pressure
to communicate across multiple
channels.
In 2015 we will start to see
products that make it easier and
more streamlined for organizations
to communicate across channels.
HEIDI BULLOCK
Vice President of Global
Demand Generation
In 2015 I’m going to take
more mini-vacations, spend
time sending notes to my friends
(funny memes included) and
focus on being guilt-free
about not finishing the books
on my nightstand!

DEMAND GENERATION
I believe we will begin to move towards
a model of not ‘doing everything’ in
digital marketing because it’s possible,
but rather be confident and data-drive
enough in our decisions to ‘do what’s
best’ for your business.
Additionally, we’ll see more budget
requests for content so we’ll need to
be able to justify it. Marketers will need
to become more data-driven about
their content—meaning, have a clear
understanding of the goal for content,
and a specific mechanism to know
what works and what doesn’t.
HEIDI BULLOCK
Vice President of Global
Demand Generation
In 2015 I’m going to take
more mini-vacations, spend
time sending notes to my friends
(funny memes included) and
focus on being guilt-free
about not finishing the books
on my nightstand!

The first trend I see for events in 2015
is mobile. I think that mobile is going
to start changing the way that we
interact at events.
Event apps are going to be more
useful and serve a bigger purpose.
They won’t be just floor plans. Instead,
they will include social components,
a way to interact directly with
attendees, include a full branded
look and feel, and innovative lead
capture and customization.
EVENTS
ANDREA CONTI
Event Marketing Manager
To successfully plan my
wedding without becoming
a Bridezilla. More event planning!

Marketers are aware of how important
multichannel marketing is, but all
channels are not equal. I believe that
we’ll see 2015 become mobile first,
where mobile rises above
other channels.
CORPORATE & PRODUCT
MARKETING
CHANDAR
PATTABHIRAM
Vice President, Product
and Corporate Marketing
Pick tennis back up after many
years. I used to play a lot with my
kids and in the New Year I want to
get doubles tennis going again,
once a week, to have some fun
and build camaraderie.
To prepare for this, marketers need
to focus on both consistency and
consumability—not only to make sure
that they are providing a consistent
experience across channels but to also
ensure that that they provide a highly
consumable mobile experience.

I also think that marketers will see
a continued shift from focusing on
the art to the science of customer
interactions and insights.
Marketers will be faced with the
question: ‘How do I use data to drive
meaningful interactions and insights?’
CORPORATE & PRODUCT
MARKETING
CHANDAR
PATTABHIRAM

To do this well they will need to drive
hyper-personalized interactions based
on what a prospect or customer
does (behaviors) versus just who
they are (demographic/firmographic
information). And then be able to
empirically measure the effectiveness
of these interactions and make data-
driven decisions.
CORPORATE & PRODUCT
MARKETING
CHANDAR
PATTABHIRAM

Marketo (NASDAQ: MKTO) provides the leading marketing software and solutions designed to help marketers
master the art and science of digital marketing. Through a unique combination of innovation and expertise,
Marketo is focused solely on helping marketers keep pace in an ever-changing digital world. Spanning
today’s digital, social, mobile and offline channels, Marketo’s Engagement Marketing Platform powers a set
of breakthrough applications to help marketers tackle all aspects of digital marketing from the planning and
orchestration of marketing activities to the delivery of personalized interactions that can be optimized in real-
time. Marketo’s applications are known for their ease-of-use, and are complemented by the Marketing Nation®,
a thriving network of 400 third-party solutions through our LaunchPoint® ecosystem and over 50,000 marketers
who share and learn from each other to grow their collective marketing expertise. The result for modern marketers
is unprecedented agility and superior results. Headquartered in San Mateo, CA with offices in Europe, Australia
and Japan, Marketo serves as a strategic marketing partner to more than 3,400 large enterprises and fast-growing
small companies across a wide variety of industries. For more information, visit marketo.com.
© 2014 Marketo, Inc. All Rights Reserved Designed by SCORCH®

Marketing predictions for 2015

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