It's safe to say that 2016 will go down in history as one of the strangest in modern times: Trump, Brexit, Leicester City's winning the Premier League, and the death of so many iconic artists.

Fortunately for marketers, it was a great year for marketing automation (MA).

Some of the highlights of 2016: approximately 55% of B2B companies are now using marketing automation; 91% of the most successful users agree that marketing automation is "very important" to the overall success of their marketing across channels; and the Pardot Engagement Studio and the Eloqua Program Canvas were released, leading to the next generation of MA.

What can we expect to see in 2017? If 2016 was anything to go by, we marketers should be excited about marketing automation in the year ahead...

1. It's the year of the customer, and retention is key

Technology has become the world's biggest business enabler, and it's made it easier for new companies to emerge and established companies to expand. The resulting competition is fierce, but it's great for users and consumers, because the available options are vast.

2017 is going to be a huge year for customer retention as companies fight for attention in an increasingly crowded market. Users and consumers are going to have a lot of choice, and they know it.

Companies will need to improve their customer service and tailor their marketing efforts so that they offer personalized experiences. Mobile phone providers have been doing it for years, and they're good at it. Have you ever tried to switch providers? They'll slam-dunk a ridiculous deal right in front of you just to keep you. More and more industries/sectors will be resorting to similar approaches.

And companies will realize that marketing automation is a fundamental part of their broader marketing strategies. Adoption of marketing automation best-practices will increase and budgets will be geared toward improving their current MA setup. In the context of the customer journey, marketing spend will be spread out over time, increasing toward the tail end of the customer journey—focusing on customer retention, upsell, and advocacy.

2. Customer advocacy is the long-term goal

It's one thing to retain customers, but converting them into evangelists makes them much more profitable. If you can build a strong community of customers who love talking about your brand, you'll do well. Apple has absolutely nailed this one. Why do people get so excited to tell friends about the new iPhones that's coming out? The company has earned advocacy, and because of that it's dominant in the market.

3. A new type of marketing team is arriving

Hiring specialists make sense. You need an SEO specialist to help you rank on Google, content specialists to maintain your position as a thought leader, email marketers to enhance deliverability, and so on.

However, that might not always be the optimal approach. You'll often find that your designers, for example, will need to understand not only the more technical aspects of marketing, such as responsive design, UX/UI, video, and even dynamic content, but also the reasons they're doing it and how they tie in with overall marketing automation strategy and best-practices.

A marketing team that thinks more strategically and is mindful of the customer journey is a team that will succeed. What stage of the buying cycle is the prospect/customer that you're targeting? How does that affect what you're doing? What systems are involved with each interaction? Should you be changing your approach to suit your current automation setup or vice versa? Those are the questions that will be commonplace in 2017.