'Food for Growth' Report Highlights Top Marketers' 2020 Predictions for the Profession

    LONDON, ENGLAND, March 16, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- New insight commissioned by real-time data dashboard specialists Geckoboard has revealed some of the world's top marketers' predictions for the profession over the next five years.

The findings are presented in 'Food for Growth', an eBook launched by Geckoboard in partnership with media monitoring experts Mention, which features tasty contributions from 50 leading marketers highlighting their most important career learning's, their success factors in the job, and their expectations for future innovations.

Globally-renowned opinion leaders including Rand Fishkin (Co-founder of Moz), Michael Stelzner (CEO of Social Media Examiner) and Neil Patel (Co-founder of KISSmetrics) all share their advice and top tips in the eBook.

Sofía Quintero, Head of Growth at Geckoboard, whose technology allows businesses to monitor campaign performances, budgets and social stats in one place, said she hoped the insight provided would inspire the development of digital marketing professionals. "'Food for Growth' provides some serious inside knowledge from some of the world's top marketers across all sectors," she explained. "Learning from the successes and mistakes of like-minded professionals is all part of our personal development and we want established and budding marketers to use this eBook to plan for tomorrow."

Among the "most exciting" opportunities cited by interviewees is responding to the shift in technologies being consumed. "Just look at where audiences are moving towards and hanging out - like the current wave of pod-casts and the consistent hunger for interesting/fun things to watch," said Janet Choi, Marketing Manager at Consumer.Io. "In the next few years being helpful will be a compelling marketing strategy - with people getting overloaded with information, relevance and utility will go such a long way to cut through the noise."

"As consumers continue to rely more and more on their mobile devices the biggest trend will be a way to create and distribute content that will reach those mobile users in a meaningful way," added Eder Holguin, CEO at Ideal Media.

The use of data to "build better products and find the right audiences" is seen as a must-have development for marketing professionals to support business' bottom line. "There's so much information out there that can help us bring the right products to the right people," said marketing consultant Amy Vernon. "People are far more receptive when they believe that we know what they actually want and are listening."

"In the next five years marketers are going to get deeper into the data with more in-app analytic's tools so they can understand the customer better," said Will Fraser, CEO and Co-Founder of Saasquatch. "They will work closer with product managers to include marketing inside the product, and engage the users in unique community building ways. Marketers who are willing to shake things up are ultimately going to continue to see their power grow."

"Any marketing team that fails to adopt a data-driven approach over the next few years is ignoring one of the most compelling opportunities for growth," warned Sally Hadidi, Head of Communications at Import.io.

There is also likely to be a fundamental shift in the profile of the marketing professional, according to respondents. "We've seen the evolution of marketing to encompass product and data more and more. This will only continue, as traditional marketers who only do comms, campaigns and PR become something of the past," said Howard Kingston, Co-Founder of Adludio. "This is only a good thing as it will help to improve the results and ROI of campaigns."

"Marketing in the future will be a broader company initiative as each individual in a company is now a marketer in some form," added Aaron Ginn, Growth Project Manager at Everlane.

Geckoboard's Ms Quintero concluded: "No matter what innovations occur - or don't occur - over the next five years we can make some clear assumptions. Firstly, marketing is about relationships. Secondly, listening to our target audience will aid us in growing and nurturing these relationships and loyal brand advocates. Thirdly, we always need to be testing, measuring and growing - use the data at your fingertips to make smart decisions and strategic plans. Finally, it's easier now than ever to bring our marketing back to one-to-one personalised messages, so add the value that each customer expects."

Interviewees for the report also revealed their most admired marketing brands. Denny's Diner, Red Bull, Slack, KissMetrics. Groove, Marketo, Product Hunt, Zendesk, Wooga and HubSpot were all singled out for their innovative strategies.

The 'Food for Growth' eBook can be downloaded at http://www.geckoboard.com/learn/guides/food-for-growth.

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