Chief Outsiders’ Survey of CMOs Reveals 2020 Digital Marketing Trends

While 44 percent of CMOs say business and economic conditions in 2020 will have a negative impact on business performance this year, 80 percent of businesses plan to increase digital advertising spend, according to a January survey from “executives-as-a-service” firm Chief Outsiders. Digital marketing spend will be allocated primarily toward gaining organic search, content marketing and email marketing.

The firm polled more than 50 fractional CMO consultants serving Fortune 500 companies about business performance and challenges in 2020. Following are additional key takeaways from the Market Trends 2020 report and an inforgraphic detailing the findings, here.

• 72 percent of CMOs say greater collaboration is happening between organizational entities in order to meet company-wide growth.
• In terms of achieving that growth, understanding the customer and developing relevant strategy are the first and second most vital ways to do that.
• Approximately one third of businesses expect to bring more marketing agency work in-house in order to reduce costs.
• Looking at content focus for CMOs, the survey showed video, blogging and case studies as the top three priorities.
• Keeping up with technological advances is major challenge, with 88 percent of CMOs surveyed saying it’s difficult to keep pace.
• CMOs expect that private equity partners in particular will be more demanding of growth this year.
• 54 percent of CMOs believe retailers will see Amazon’s dominance as a negative, with just 14 percent viewing it as a positive.
• In order to thrive amidst Amazon’s dominance, a direct-to-consumer strategy for retailers is recommended by 53 percent of CMOs.
• Experiential marketing campaigns will continue to be used to encourage brand advocacy.
• Advancements in predicative analytics will particularly influence predictive modeling of consumer behavior, qualification and prioritization of leads, and customer targeting and segmentation.

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