1.
The 2018 State of
Digital Marketing
© SilverTech, Inc. 2017

2.
YOUR HOSTS
Ian Hughes
Content Strategist, SilverTech
Samantha Maltais
Principal Strategist, SilverTech

3.
1996
Founded
In 75+
Crew
members
80+
Average Active
Projects

4.
Our Work
We believe in the Three C’s
Clients
Crew
Company
CMS
Content Management
Systems
MA
Marketing Automation &
Journey Management
CRM
Salesforce
PARTNERSTECHNOLOGY
SEAMLESS INTEGRATIONS SHARING DATA

5.
Agenda
1. Report Overview & Key Findings
2. Resources, Challenges, & Top
Priorities
3. The Digital Marketing Foundations
of Effective Marketing Teams
4. Emerging Trends in 2018

6.
Report Overview
& Key Findings
© SilverTech, Inc. 2017
01

7.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Report Overview
For our third annual State of Digital Marketing Report, SilverTech surveyed 150 marketing leaders,
including 34 Directors of Marketing, 15 Marketing Managers, 11 Chief Marketing Officers, and 11
Digital Marketing Managers from 122 unique companies headquartered in 30 different states.
1 to 2 3 to 4 5 to 6 7 to 10 10 plus
Team Size

8.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Report Overview
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Website Optimization (UX, A/B Testing)
Content Creation
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Marketing Strategy
CRM Implementation & Management
Marketing Automation
Internal Only Combination of Internal & Partner Resources Mostly Partner Resources

9.
KEY FINDING
Small marketing teams are adopting the strategy
practices of their larger peers and competitors.

10.
KEY FINDING
Marketing teams that rate their website presence
as “effective” are 2.8x more likely to have
redesigned their website or upgraded their content
management system (CMS) within the last year.

11.
KEY FINDING
Marketing teams that rate their inbound marketing
as “effective” are 1.7x more likely to utilize a
marketing automation platform than marketing
teams that rate their inbound marketing as
“ineffective.”

12.
KEY FINDING
Marketing teams that rate their social media
marketing as “effective” are 1.6x more likely to
utilize personas and 1.8x more likely to have
adopted a customer journey strategy than
marketing teams that rate their social media
marketing as “ineffective.”

13.
Resources, Challenges,
& Top Priorities for 2018
© SilverTech, Inc. 2017
02

14.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Resources, Challenges, & Top Priorities
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Budget Constraints Team Resource
Constraints
Ability to Keep Up
With Latest Trends
Lack of Unified
Marketing Strategy
Large Team Small Team
Looking ahead to 2018, what are your organization’s top marketing challenges?
Large and Small Teams identified what they saw as challenges and/or major challenges

15.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Resources, Challenges, & Top Priorities
When was the last time your organization went through a website redesign?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Within last 2 years Two or More Years ago
Large Teams Small Teams

16.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Resources, Challenges, & Top Priorities
Of the following trends, which will be priorities for your organization in 2018?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Personalization One-
to-One
Mobile Presence
Optimization
Marketing
Automation
Social Media
Effectiveness
Large Teams Small Teams

17.
MA
CRMCMS

18.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Resources, Challenges, & Top Priorities
A look at the adoption and use of core marketing technologies
in large teams vs. small
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Went through a website
redesign or CMS upgrade in
past year
Actively use MA Actively use a CRM
Large Teams Small Teams

19.
FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT | MARKETING AUTOMATION
Marketing automation is not a passing trend. It is an
actionable and useful tool that, when implemented
and executed properly, can make measurable
impacts to an organization’s bottom line.

20.
FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT | MARKETING AUTOMATION
Marketing automation helps, “scale marketing
initiatives, deliver more personalized and targeted
communications, align with sales, and measure
which channels and programs are the most
effective.”

21.
The Digital Marketing
Foundations of Effective
Marketing Teams
© SilverTech, Inc. 2017
03

22.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Website Presence is “Effective”
Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of their website presence toward meeting their
business goals. Those that rated their performance as “effective” were 1.8x more likely to utilize
personas.
Website Presence is Effective Website Presence is Ineffective

23.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Email Marketing is “Effective”
Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of their email marketing toward meeting their
business goals. Those that rated their performance as “effective” were 1.5x more likely to utilize
personas.
Email Marketing is Effective Email Marketing is Ineffective

24.
FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT | PERSONAS
Personas are the foundation of personalized, one-to-
one communication. They are fictitious
representations of your audiences - who they are, what
they like, and most important, what they don’t like.

25.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Digital Advertising is “Effective”
Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of their digital advertising toward meeting their
business goals. Those that rated their performance as “effective” were 1.7x more likely to utilize a
customer journey strategy.
Digital Advertising is Effective Digital Advertising is Ineffective

26.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Social Media Marketing is “Effective”
Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of their social media marketing toward meeting their
business goals. Those that rated their performance as “effective” were 1.8x more likely to utilize a
customer journey strategy.
Social Media is Effective Social Media is Ineffective

27.
FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT | CUSTOMER JOURNEY
A customer journey strategy is critical to creating an
optimized user experience (UX), one that removes
barriers and heightens usability.

28.
FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT | CONTENT STRATEGY
A documented content marketing strategy helps
drive strategic proactive, short-term, and long-term
content plans.

29.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
Inbound Marketing is “Effective”
Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of their inbound marketing toward meeting their
business goals. Those that rated their performance as “effective” were 2.2x more likely to utilize a
technology roadmap.
Inbound Marketing is Effective Inbound Marketing is Ineffective

30.
The Seven Steps to Successful Persona Creation
SEO is “Effective”
Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) toward
meeting their business goals. Those that rated their performance as “effective” were 1.9x more likely to
utilize a technology roadmap.
SEO is Effective SEO is Ineffective

31.
FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT | TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP
“When we are working with any type of organization
that is looking to do a long-term [web] rebuild or
digital transformation project, [the roadmap] is one
of the first things that we want to tackle.”
Jeff McPherson, Chief Digital Officer

32.
Emerging Trends in 2018
© SilverTech, Inc. 2017
04

33.
Micromoments
EMERGING TREND

34.
KEY TAKEAWAY
“We're heading toward an age of assistance where,
for marketers, friction will mean failure, and mass
messages will increasingly mean move on.”
Google Think

35.
Virtual Reality (VR) &
Augmented Reality (AR)
EMERGING TREND

36.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) &
Machine Learning
EMERGING TREND

37.
Source: HubSpot

38.
KEY TAKEAWAY
“Machine learning and artificial intelligence have
phenomenal potential to simplify, accelerate, and
improve many aspects of our lives.”
Tony Bradley, Forbes

39.
Chatbots
EMERGING TREND

40.
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