It is that time of year again! The time when we, as marketers, reflect on the past year and plan for the year to come. Marketing and technology change so fas that we need to prepare. To help with your 2016 planning--and for a fun look ahead into the future of marketing--EverString has compiled marketing predictions form internal and external thought leaders from around the company.

1. 2 0 1 6 M A R K E T I N G
P R E D I C T I O N SMARTECH, ADTECH, CONTENT, DATA, ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING, AND BEYOND
ADTECH
MARTECH
CONTENT
DATA
DEMAND GEN
ACCOUNT-BASED
MARKETING

2. It is that time of year again! The time
when we, as marketers, reflect on the
past year and plan for the year to come.
Marketing and technology change so
fast that we need to prepare.
What new advancements and innovations
will 2016 bring to marketing and sales leaders?
What will you have to prepare for and think
through?
To help in your 2016 planning—and for a fun
look ahead into the future of marketing—
EverString has compiled marketing predictions
from internal and external thought leaders from
around the country!
Let’s see what 2016 will bring!
2

3. MARKETING BECOMES
COMMISSIONS-BASED
As the buyer journey continues to mature
further towards self service, marketers
become more and more responsible for
education at scale, pushing leads deeper and
deeper into the funnel before they are even
touched by sales. In this new world, sales
does less educating and more closing. And
with the advent of new tools and practices
that proactively fill top-of-funnel with
qualified accounts, marketers shift their
programs from TOFU to MOFU in order to
accelerate deals. As they take on more of a
sales role, they ultimately shift to a variable
compensation structure that more represents
sales commissions.JIM WALKER
VP OF MARKETING,
EVERSTRING
3

4. NO MORE
WASTED IMPRESSIONS
In 2016, there will be a much deeper
integration between the martech and adtech
stacks. Specifically, the ability to serve
targeted ads to highly targeted accounts.
If I could write a memoir as a marketer, I’d
title it Wasted Impressions. There is just too
much wasted money on the wrong accounts
that will never convert. We can do better and
it’s coming in 2016.
JESSICA CROSS
DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE MARKETING,
EVERSTRING
4

5. 5 SALES AND MARKETING
TRENDS FOR 2016
BUYER PERSONAS
Literally writing them down and translating them
into actionable, buyer-centric story lines. Sounds
fundamental, but few companies do this!
SALES AUTOMATION
As a component of sales enablement programs run
by marketing, sales automation platforms will drive
consistency, productivity, and conversion.
ADVOCATE MANAGEMENT
Companies will place more emphasis on mobilizing
their customer communities and driving advocacy
through technology.
INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT
Companies doing this right are earning impressions,
endorsements, traffic, and conversions.
ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING
ABM will be front and center. It will also be a top driver
of sales and marketing alignment.
MATT HEINZ
PRESIDENT, HEINZ MARKETING
5

6. CONTENT
SCALING AND
MEASUREMENT
In 2016, content marketing will mature from
a ‘go do it and see how it goes’ practice
to a ‘go do it and let’s measure if it works’
practice. Marketers will be focused on
leveraging their growing library of content
through rich experiences that make it
easier to generate leads and draw insights.
Software that allow marketers to manage
content at scale will see significant uptake.
In 2015 marketers focused on creating
great content. In 2016 marketers will focus
on leveraging that content.YOAV SCHWARTZ
CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, UBERFLIP
6

7. THE AUTOMATION OF
HYPER-PERSONALIZATION
IN SALES
Hyper-personalization. That’s what it’s all
about. In 2016, we will see personalization
gain momentum for sales reps. Tools
will emerge that enable automation of
personalization through data integration
with your CRM. These tools will mine
for interesting data about accounts and
individuals, sync with a sales automation
tool, and allow for more personalized
messaging at scale.
MATT AMUNDSON
DIRECTOR OF SALES DEVELOPMENT,
EVERSTRING
7

8. THE EMERGENCE OF
ACCOUNT-BASED
MARKETING
2016 will be the year that Account-Based
Marketing goes mainstream, just as 2009
was the breakout year for marketing
automation. We’ll see the hype move
beyond basic articles to talk about why
ABM is important to actionable content that
shares best practices and how-to guides
from real practitioners. And, we’ll finally see
technology emerge to manage the ABM
process at scale.
JON MILLER
CEO OF ENGAGIO AND
CO-FOUNDER OF MARKETO
8

9. CONTENT AS A
CENTER OFEXCELLENCE
Content is becoming increasingly critical
within all marketing organizations. In 2016,
we will see marketing teams restructure
around content. Instead of content being an
add-on to a functional group, content will
begin to act independently as a center-of-
excellence, working with all of the teams
within marketing to maintain consistency
in voice, tone, and brand.
DAYNA ROTHMAN
DIRECTOR OF CONTENT AND INBOUND,
EVERSTRING
9

10. THE
DATA-DRIVEN
COMPANY
In 2016, as data science and artificial
intelligence break into the mainstream,
every decision made within a company
will be driven by data. That means ad
spend, content, marketing decisions,
the day-to-day of a sales rep, and more.
I don’t think data is meant to replace
intuition and experience gained by an
individual, but I do think that data is going
to take that intuition to the next level.
TIM JOHNSON
VP OF ENTERPRISE SALES, EVERSTRING
10

11. BRING YOUR CUSTOMER RIGHT
INTO THE STORY
Marketers will be hyper-personalized with
content in 2016. These days it takes more than
a fancy ebook and clever title to stand out from
the crowd. In 2016, marketers will go beyond
traditional tactics, like adding someone’s
name to a text-based email or serving curated
content, to personalization in the content asset
itself. An ebook or video will become uniquely
personalized in real-time for a true 1:1 content
experience. Imagine bringing your customer
right into the story? Literally!
TYLER LESSARD
VP OF MARKETING, VIDYARD
11

12. CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
IN PREDICTIVE MARKETING
The biggest challenge with deploying
new technology is managing the change
required to capitalize on the value of that
new technology. In 2016, we will see the
coalescence of best practices for predictive
marketing. These best practices will help
companies understand what to do and
how to execute with predictive marketing
insights to drive more conversions and
increased revenue.
READE TRIOLO
VICE PRESIDENT OF SOLUTIONS SUCCESS,
EVERSTRING
12

13. We wish you a happy, healthy,
and productive 2016!
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