The digitally empowered consumer has more options and information to make real-time purchase decisions like never before. Because of mobile applications and social media, consumers have a HUGE impact on a brands reputation. You could say the consumer now owns the brand, not the marketing guy. New technical innovations make for digital advantage in using new methods to engage consumers digitally.
Consumer technology has found its way into mainstream business. The effect is that B2B marketing is more aligned to Consumer methods. B2B now looks like B2C, some have said even that is old, its more akin to C2B. Business buyers are typical 60% down the purchasing journey before they ever pick up a phone or agree to a meeting with a vendor
It moved way beyond CRM, lead nurturing, email blasts and cold-calling. Simply put, it begins with a company learning to leverage ALL of its data assets, finding the best 3rd party data to augment, and then put it through automation and analytics tools that make the existing staff function and perform "smarter". This part of the market has built enourmous momentum and is creating many new opportunities for companies to grow. Analytics and automation that removes the Human In the Loop [HITL] is one area that is both better for the consumer and frees the marketing resource to focus on their more imporant challenges.