When it comes to marketing a product or service what are your biggest
challenges?

How about your biggest priorities? What trends are shaping your profession?

HubSpot’s 2017 “State of Inbound Report”
contains insight into what’s working in marketing and where the industry is
headed. Conversion, content and video feature heavily, with many marketers
also saying they’re committed to proving ROI and boosting their digital
prowess.

Seventy percent of marketers surveyed said converting contracts and
customer leads was a top priority, and more than half (55 percent) said
they were focused on increasing their website traffic. Forty-five percent
of marketers said boosting revenue from current customers was a top
concern, and 39 percent say it’s a priority to prove marketing tactics’
ROI.

In terms of inbound marketing, 61 percent of marketers said perfecting SEO
and growing a robust online presence is a top priority. More than half (53
percent) are focused on crafting blog content, and nearly half (47 percent)
said distributing created content was a top priority.

Content dominates the remaining priorities for inbound marketers, too.

Forty percent of those surveyed said their focus is on marketing
automation, but several list interactive content creation (31 percent)
visual content creation (29 percent) and long-form content creation (28
percent) as top priorities.

[RELATED:
Join us for the Brand Storytelling and Content Marketing Conference at The Coca-Cola Company.]

Appropriately, many of the top marketing challenges we face today lined up
with the top priorities.

Sixty-three percent of marketers said generating traffic and leads is their
biggest challenge, and nearly half (49 percent) said they struggle to prove
the ROI of marketing activity. Other struggles include securing a budget
(28 percent), identifying and using the right technology (26 percent) and
website management (26 percent).

Marketers are becoming more confident in their efforts: 61 percent of
respondents said that their organization’s marketing strategy is effective.
That number rises to 69 percent when you ask marketing executives.

However, the cliché remains that marketing and sales aren’t in sync.

Only only 22 percent of respondents said that marketing and sales are
“tightly aligned.” Forty-four percent say their organization’s marketing
and sales departments are “generally aligned” and 25 percent said their
organizations were either rarely aligned or misaligned altogether.

Many marketers firmly believe the future of the industry is online video.
Content distribution channels that marketers expected to add in 2017
include YouTube and Facebook.

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