Marketing is getting smarter.

Jake Sorofman, a research vice president at Gartner, said that CMOs are on track to spend as much (or more) on technology than their CTO and CIO counterparts this year; more than one-fourth of every marketing dollar is spent on technology.

Dan Curran, CEO of PowerPost, a client of ours, was really intrigued by this finding. “The conference certainly left everyone feeling optimistic regarding the evolution of content marketing technology,” he said. “However, every stage of the content supply chain must evolve.”

And as marketing evolves to become savvier and more intelligent, so will the content it’s creating for audiences. Most audiences and content consumers have grown to expect somewhat more personalized content from the brands they interact with, and that content marketing trend is only going to continue with a move to “atomic content.”

2. Customer journeys are discovered, not created.

I’ve seen plenty of marketers waste time and resources by trying to develop buyer personas and engineer their customers’ path to their company and then create content around what they’ve put together. However, the best customer journeys aren’t created; they’re discovered.

And with additional players in the game — especially social media platforms and other tools that make it easy to distribute content — your audience members’ journeys are more complicated than ever. Andrew Hsu, CEO of Spotlight, noted, “Marketers must acknowledge the remarkable roles Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google play in their customers’ lives. From customer acquisition to relationship building through customer servicing, marketers will be borrowing moments from, shaping experiences within, and co-existing beside these market-shaping platforms.”

To improve your customer experience, study what your customers actually do, what kind of content they consume, and where they go for it. Use data to discover how your best customers are coming to you, and create content that enables their journey.

3. Content is your best tool for hitting trust touchpoints.

Marketing is expected to create exceptional brand moments at every customer touchpoint, and audience members touch six different channels before they become customers.

Think of touchpoints with your audience like moving targets: It’s not going to be easy to hit each one every time, but as marketers, it’s up to you to hit as many as you can — and content can be your biggest help. The more you hit, the better you keep your audience engaged and the more trust you build with them. So listen, learn, and engage with triggered, personalized content.

https://www.inc.com/john-hall/the-era-of-the-empowered-consumer-insights-from-the-gartner-digital-conference.html