Post

Marketing is Dead?! Hah. Marketing Has Never Been More Alive!

Marketing is Dead?! Hah. Marketing Has Never Been More Alive!

You’d think marketers and those who study them were necrophiliacs, metaphorically speaking, of course. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen at least a handful of articles and posts using the title framework of “[BLANK] is dead.” Marketing is dead. The CMO is dead. Digital is dead. PR is dead. SEO is dead.

Provocative statements sell, so I understand the use of the word “dead” for this purpose. But there’s something bigger going on here — and I don’t think it’s death. Yes, the marketing function, and everything related to it, bears little resemblance to its previous states, but it’s not losing life. Rather, marketing and the CMO are more vibrant than ever, and are on the rise. Their potential impact has never been greater:

* Marketers sit on the most valuable inforation the company has: customer/consumer data and insight.

* Marketers are in control of the lion’s share of the sales cycle now — the 67%* of the buying cycle before customers even engage with a a company or product.

* CMOs are taking on more responsibility within their organizations, and even taking on new functions, like HR.

* Marketers are directly and measurably impacting sales and revenue like never before. Long gone are the days when contributing 1/3 of the pipeline was considered a stretch goal. 75% is not unheard of.

* Marketers will be spending more on technology than IT within the next few years, according to Gartner.

* Marketing budgets are growing at 3-13%, whil other department budgets are flatlining.

* Entire companies are being built around, or investing heavily in, supporting the CMO. Think Eloqua’s or Salesforce’s “Marketing Cloud.”

Marketing is indeed ascending as a function. Let me know your thoughts on how to continue to evolve it and continually breather new life into it!

* Sirius Decisions

Leave a Comment

%d bloggers like this: