Theres a lot of noise out there about best practicesfor marketers trying to optimize their marketing strategy. In a crowded marketplace, you cant always be sure your search results are coming from the experts in the industry who know what theyre talking about. Fortunately, weve got you covered.

We spoke to five senior marketers and CMOs and asked them to share their best advice and insights on what their fellow marketers are excelling in, where theyre lacking, what makes a marketer and their campaigns great, and what we can expect in the future from the marketing industry.

Marketers have figured out that the idea of content marketing works, saysNick Stein, senior vice president of marketing at Vision Critical.If you look at the numbers that came out last year from the Content Marketing Institute study that86% of companies are doing it, its obvious that marketers are understanding that content is the way to open up a conversation with a prospect. We couldnt agree more.

Marketers also have rapidly adapted to the ever-changing technological landscape, saysAlan See, chief marketing officer atCMO Temps, LLC: They have quickly come up to speed on technology. Of course, as more of their marketing budgets began to shift into technology and all the new social media applications started calling for their attention they had to get onboard fast.

According to Ben Plomion, former vice president of marketing at Chango, this technology has made marketers more in tune with their audiences. We are seeing the emergence of marketing technologists who use data, platforms and processes to deliver the most relevant message to the right audience at the right time, says Plomion. For example, programmatic advertising has changed how media is purchased and delivered to the most relevant audience based on their interests and behavior.