IDC's CMO Predictions for 2013: The CMO Becomes Master of Data

Here are our Top Ten calls for 2013.

Please feel free to contact me in 365 days and we can tally up our success rate!

1. The C-suite (CEO, CFO, and COO) will demand that the CMO produce both a strategy and a plan for how market-driven data will significantly contribute to corporate objectives.

2. The CMO and the CIO will begin the year as functional peers and end the year as either friends or frenemies, and per the CEO, the CIO will become more actively involved with the CMO in all marketing automation decisions that have cross-functional implications.

3. The automation outlay could approach 10% of marketing's discretionary budget in 2013, with two-thirds of the total outlay coming from marketing and one-third coming from IT; for "best practice" organizations, this will shift to 50:50 by 2014.

4. Even with their new partnership with the CIO, many CMOs will find that their positions are in jeopardy as they failed to produce a robust data analytics function — or even a game plan to get there.

5. Starting in 2013, after the CMO realizes that he/she does not have the skill sets in place for data analytics proficiency, 50% of new marketing hires will have technical backgrounds.

6. Eight out of ten companies will report that most social media initiative growth is taking place outside of marketing.

7. By the end of 2013, 5% of CMOs will shift to a "mobile first" strategy.

8. Content isn't king — it's a wild beast; In 2013, CMOs will be pragmatic, shifting focus less on big platform projects and more on linking access to audience needs.

9. The demand for greater insight into the revenue impact of marketing and sales will require that older CRM systems be replaced, creating infrastructure disruption.

10. High-tech pipeline conversion metrics will continue to improve; expect a 20% improvement in target-to-deal ratios and a 10% reduction in time to create a customer, with both due to better automation and analytics-driven process improvement.