Hello Rabbit, Goodbye Tiger

For those familiar with the Chinese zodiac, we are entering the Year of the Rabbit. General traits of the rabbit are calmness, creativity and endurance. This is a distinct and welcomed shift from 2010, Year of the Tiger, which was distinguished by competitiveness and unpredictability. In a year marked by transitions, we saw companies forced to take on great financial and business burdens, and a year that was capped off with numerous acquisitions.Interestingly, we recently launched a brief survey via Twitter and Facebook that asked two questions focused on identifying marketers’ top 2010 challenges and 2011 objectives. Based on responses, marketers’ number one challenge in the past year was executing their marketing plan with limited budget and resources. Given well-documented, challenging economic conditions, this response is right in line with Year of the Tiger attributes.

As we examined responses to top 2011 objectives, “Effectively automating marketing activities and processes through technology” was tops on the list. This demonstrates a continued persistence, a Rabbit trait, by marketers to continuously improve results, either through new technology investments or maximizing the use of current tools. As we discussed through related whitepapers and webinars, many marketers continued to struggle with “making the case” for new technology investments, despite well documented benefits. For those marketers, 2011 will hopefully be the year where their persistence pays off. For those with current tools, we predict 2011 will be a year of constant and deliberate improvements, where conversational marketing technology will empower the establishment of best practices around key marketing processes and activities – best practices shaped by regular one-to-one personalized dialogues across channels; more targeted, consistent and relevant offers; and greater, more predictable revenue.

Do you agree with these predictions? Will 2011 ultimately become The Year of the Marketer? Share some of your own predictions for 2011 here. We look forward to hearing from you.