10 Trends to Define Marketing for 2014

Ready for 2014? Mike Haskell at SourceLink.com surveyed 10 professionals for their takes on where marketing will go in 2014 – he’ll devote a blog post to each in the coming weeks. For a preview, visit SourceLink, but in the meantime, below are some highlights we think are relevant to the nonprofit fundraising market:

• Understanding customer behaviors and preferences will lead to sophisticated micro-marketing campaigns, and marketers will then be tasked with modeling content creation and communications strategies based on how content is being utilized. We agree. Digging deeper into your data allows us to tailor our communications and outreach to supporters, engaging and communicating with them based on their preferences (channel/timing/messaging) – leading them to further bond with your organization.
• An overarching theme through several of the interviews was the extreme importance of mobile marketing. Consumers now have the ultimate choice of whether to engage with a brand, cultivating an environment of permission. Nonprofits should get ready to dip a toe into this pool – testing messaging and timing to find the mix that is right for them without breaking the bank.
• 2014 brings the realization that IT and Marketing cannot be siloed, as their strengths will make each other stronger and will account for the weaknesses in the other, as the “right and left brain” come together. We could not have said it any better.