Making predictions more than 10 years away is tricky, but as with developments over the previous decade, demand generation will look radically different to how it does now.
The end of demand generation as we know it
In its current high-volume, mass-marketing form, demand generation is simply not sustainable for the next 10 years. The shrinking audience, lack of engagement and tighter privacy restrictions will render it untenable.
The rapid rise in the popularity of account-based marketing over the past few years is a direct reaction to this as marketers search for a fresh alternative that will allow them to steal a march on their competitors. While the excitement and hype around ABM will undoubtedly die down, the method itself is here to stay.
A characteristic of successful account-based marketing is a full commitment to the strategy, and for organizations with limited marketing resources this might mean dialing back on demand gen activity. This is what happened at Fujistu when the company went all-in on ABM a few years ago. As head of ABM, Andrea Clatworthy told the B2B Marketing ABM Conference in 2017: “We had to stop doing some stuff to give people the space to do ABM. So we stopped demand gen, we stopped lead gen – the business didn’t notice for a year.”
Most companies won’t have the luxury of just switching demand gen off; it’s likely companies will operate some form of hybrid model with a combination of one-to-one/ one-to-few ABM, and one-to-many (or programmatic) ABM replacing the demand gen of today.
Programmatic ABM is powered by technology, its popularity is also likely to grow as the martech behind it becomes more powerful. Advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning will support smarter prospecting, better lead qualification, and much stronger personalisation through content, products and support.
No silver bullet, but multi-touch attribution will get easier
Attribution modelling in the complex customer journey remains a headache, and unfortunately there is no foreseeable silver bullet to deliver a 100% accurate map of how marketing has influenced a sale. It should at least get easier.
Collating data from a variety of systems that aren’t integrated can be a slow and laborious process. Consolidation among martech vendors, such as Adobe’s acquisition of Marketo (which owns Bizible) should mean systems can trade data with each other more easily, giving a more complete picture of the customer journey.
Other technology improvements will support the collection of touchpoint data. One reason brands currently invest in airport ads, is that they’re worried what might happen if they don’t. Soon they will have clear metrics for why. “It won’t be long before a brand can link up the fact that I’ve walked through Heathrow, seen their adverts, and become a customer,” says Peter Morgan. “Even if we’re getting a bit more data about why an organisation is increasing its spending, that’ll put us in a much better place than we are now.”
Other countries follow the lead of the EU
Just as GDPR took inspiration from Canada’s tough CAN-SPAM Act, which established new restrictions and requirements around the use of commercial email, other nations will look at the implementation and precedents established by GDPR and consider their own legislation. Politicians in the US, both at state and federal levels, are already floating the prospect of similar privacy legislation that will in part help them rein in the power of the multinational tech firms.
These will be fiercely debated and opposed, so finding a consensus and bringing them into law will take a long time.
It’s clear that at some point – but perhaps not in the near future – there will also be a reckoning in the way the large social media companies use personal data, and how brands are then able to use this data to target audiences. It’s not impossible that at some point social media companies will be prohibited from offering the range of targeting options they currently do.
Preparation pointsGet up to speed with ABM. Even if you’re not one of the enthusiasts adopting, trialing or deploying ABM, you need to understand what it is, how it works, and how it can deliver because it’s here to stay. B2B Marketing’s ABM Benchmarking Reports and templates can give you the introduction you need.Refine your attribution models with repeated testing. Given the diversity and complexity of today’s customer journey, even in the far future there won’t be a silver bullet for attribution modelling. The only way to build an effective model is test, test and test again.Build in privacy by design. GDPR has required marketers to put concerns about customer data front and center. Putting the customer first, and ensuring their data is protected and not abused to suit the objectives of the company, is the only way organizations will avoid more restrictive legislation in the future.
