REPORT

Marketing is at a tipping point—so close to leaping into the next exciting frontier, yet under constant danger of getting crushed under the weight of increasing complexity.

Excerpt

Technology is completely transforming how we think about modern marketing. Almost everything we do to acquire and convert customers now revolves around the use of some type of marketing application, whether it’s for social media, search engine marketing, retargeting, measurement, advertising, or more.

According to Scott Brinker, a leading authority on marketing technology (chiefmartec.com), there are more than 1,000 cloud-based digital marketing solutions. Depending on what is considered commercially significant, “My guess is that it’s probably closer to 2,000,” Brinker says.

Whatever the exact number, it’s clear that the use of technology in marketing is here to stay; they’re “entwined together forever,” as Forrester Research Analyst Sheryl Pattek put it in a recent blog post on how savvy CMOs must embrace their inner technology geek to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.