[Research] What initiatives are marketers prioritizing in 2020?

Marketing departments are under continuous pressure to "transform," but with limited budgets and resources, there's only so much they can accomplish. At any given point, a CMO is being asked to invest in data, martech, new skills, more content, more content formats and better ways to measure everything.

We wanted to understand which digital initiatives were most likely to be prioritized by marketers in 2020, so that other companies could compare their own prioritization plans for the year.

In Altimeter's 2019 State of Digital Marketing survey, we asked over 500 senior marketers in North America, Europe and China to tell us their top initiatives in 2020. Here are the results:

Our survey results show that the top future initiatives for marketers concern using data to deliver relevant content and experiences. Fifty-one percent of respondents said their top priority was to rely on data to create customized content, and an almost equal number said they would invest in technology that enabled real-time personalization (50%).

But the top future initiatives cited by our respondents weren’t all about data and analytics. A healthy percentage of marketers pledged to hire more creatives to scale production of content in new formats (48%), underscoring the continued need for content creators and data specialists.

Although there were slight differences, respondents across regions and industries consistently reported these same top three priorities for the next 12 months. 

These results underscore just how technically competent marketing departments need to be, both in their ability to use data, as well as operate sophisticated marketing software. The focus on these initiatives means less time to experiment with new channels, or even focus on initiatives that are more cost-efficient/productive, such as sales collaboration.

It also highlight how difficult it is for marketing departments to take a step back and holistically transform their organization to become more data driven and innovative. The initiatives being prioritized here are still very oriented towards producing more messages to more people, even if some of it is personalized.

Download Altimeter's"2019 STATE OF DIGITAL MARKETING" for free to get the latest stats, facts and benchmarks for digital marketers all over the world.