Yesterday, the IDC held a web conference titled “IDC – 2013 IDC - 2013 Chief Marketing Officer Predictions: Today's CMO Becomes Master of Data” which covered the company’s top 10 predictions for the CMO niche in 2013. The event was hosted by respected analysts, Kathleen Schaub and Rich Vancil.
The top 10 IDC predictions for the CMO role in 2013 are as follows:
- CEOs, CFOs and COOs will require any CMO to create a plan and strategy for using market-driven data to contribute to overall objectives.
- The CIO and CMO roles will become more intertwined, with both parties needing to work together to meet CEO requirements for cross-functional situations.
- IDC predicts that automation outlay may be up to 10% of the marketing department’s budget. The outlay itself will be split between 2/3 marketing (2/3) and IT departments (1/3).
- According to IDC, many CMOs may find their roles on shaky ground if they fail to build a robust data analytics function due to lack of technical experience.
- As a result of prediction #4, many of the new CMOs hired will come from highly technical backgrounds.
- Social media will move beyond the marketing department in 80% of organizations.
- By Q4 2013, IDC expects that 5% of CMOs will be on a “mobile first” strategy.
- In 2013, CMOs will shift focus from big platform projects to projects that better meet audience needs.
- According to IDC, the high demand for sales and marketing revenue analytics will pressure organizations into moving away from older CRM systems, which may cause infrastructure disruption.
- Overall, conversion metrics will improve. IDC predicts that there will be a 10% reduction time in winning a customer and a 20% improvement in target-to-deal ratios. This is the result of better analytic processes.
"The challenge for the CMO is dealing with self-educated buyers. These are the smart, resourceful, and socially connected consumers who do their own research before ever entering the formal channels of a vendor's marketing and selling apparatus," said Rich Vancil, IDC Group Vice President, in a press release yesterday. "In the wake of all of their self-education is a stream of data that the CMO will have to understand."
IDC will have a replay of this web conference available on their site here within 48 hours. In addition, they have their other “Top 10 2013” lists available here.
