Media and technology are continuing to merge providing business opportunities that will engage customers in new ways.

Digital marketing transformation is occurring within enterprise companies across the globe as they seek to better understand their stakeholders who have infinitely greater control. This is not new, we knew this shift to the empowered customer has been happening for years, but it seems to have reached a tipping point.

Businesses of all sizes are (truly) embracing the concept of customer centricity and understanding that marketing is no longer a department, because everyone (customers and employees alike) has a voice that can be amplified through social and mobile channels. Every interaction with a customer is part of their experience with your brand. It is why companies are focusing on employee engagement now more than ever – employees are the face of the company to the customer.

Effectively tackling customer engagement today can certainly be overwhelming. Look at this list of over 2,000 marketing technology vendors that ChiefMartec.com’s Scott Brinker has compiled.

Above: The Marketing Technology Landscape, January 2015.
Image Credit: Scott Brinker/ChiefMartec.com

And while at VentureBeat’s GrowthBeat Summit in Boston last month, Brinker pointedly called out that “the tech is a distraction,” but the fact that marketing is changing “in fundamental ways” is what is driving the landscape so radically. We now need to weave a company’s storytelling into digital experience – and digital itself is changing.

Internet-of-Things (IoT) is coming online rapidly. “IoT provides a new channel to reach customers through devices and interaction points”, with Goldman Sachs predicting that IoT has the potential to connect 28 billion “things” to the Internet by 2020, ranging from bracelets to cars,” says Cynthya Peranandam. This is providing business opportunities to create new revenue streams by effectively engaging customers in new ways.

But let’s take a look at some of the near-term changes in the space. LUMA Partners has forecast the top 5 trends for 2015 and beyond are:

Programmatic
Mobile
Omnichannel/personalization
Identity
Convergent TV

I encourage you to check out LUMA’s “State of Digital Media 2015 “ presentation to understand these trends in detail and how media and technology continue to merge. Review it alongside Mary Meeker’s “2015 Internet Trends” report for a full view into current and future state of how we will engage with customers and each other. I find it helpful to stay informed of these trends as they will quickly be upon us to develop strategic engagement strategies as part of our ever-evolving marketing plans.

We live in exciting times and I can’t wait to see the incredible marketing that is created on and from these new insights and platforms!

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This post originally appeared in ClickZ. It is written by Michelle Killebrew, an award winning marketing professional, TEDx speaker, and the Board Vice President of the San Francisco American Marketing Association. She’s the also the Head of U.S. Marketing at Fisher Investments, an independent multi-billion dollar investment management firm.