"Mobile
is so big -- and, consequently, scary -- that people just don't
know where to start, so they're somewhat paralyzed," Ms. Lewnes
said. "While complex, personalization seems more finite to me.
Marketers understand the concept of segmentation and
personalization is really modern-day segmentation. There are tools
for it. And they know it works."
Even as
one-third of marketers said personalization will be key going
forward, 61% of marketers believe social media will be the most
critical marketing vehicle to focus on a year from now. And just
over half of marketers cited mobile.
"Marketers
have a lot of big, thorny issues to deal with. While
personalization ranked as their most important priority, marketers
know that mobile is a huge focus area too," Ms. Lewnes added.
"Mobile is where the eyeballs and dollars are moving. So marketers
are motivated to crack the mobile code. The tools -- adaptive
design, publishing, analytics -- now exist. So there are no more
excuses."
To that
end, more than one-third of marketers said investing in mobile
marketers would be essential in the coming year. Marketers will
also be looking to hire digital/social marketers, data analysts and
creatives.
Those types of hires could help marketers ready
themselves for change and push companies to embrace new
technologies. Sixty-five percent of marketers said they are more
comfortable adopting new technologies once they become mainstream,
though 45% said they'd like to take more risks. For now, nearly
half of marketers say they are trusting their gut to guide
marketing investments.
