Salesforce’s ‘State of Marketing Report – Insights and Trends from Global Marketing Leaders‘ explores how:
- Customer experience continues to reshape the marketer’s mindset
- Shifting priorities are sparking organizational changes
- Technology, particularly AI, is raising the bar for efficiency and personalisation
Throughout the State of Marketing report, high-performing marketing leaders are defined as those who are extremely satisfied with the current outcomes realised as a direct result of their company’s marketing investment, as well as their overall marketing performance compared to their competitors.
Chapter titles for the report include:
- Marketers Move to Evolve Journeys, but Data Woes Linger
- Shifting Priorities Spark Organizational Change
- Marketing Tech Makes Waves
- Marketing Embraces the AI Revolution
- Last Look: What Makes Top Marketers Tick
- Country Profiles
Today’s companies compete on the basis of customer experience — and marketers feel called to lead the charge. But what does it take to deliver a well-executed customer experience? A majority agree this is the endgame, but progress toward that goal runs the gamut.
Here’s four key takeaways, from the State of Marketing Report, on how emerging marketing channels, organisational changes, and technologies are disrupting the status quo.
- Marketers Move to Evolve Journeys, but Data Woes Linger – On the path to delivering connected customer experiences, marketers continue to wrestle with gaining a single view of the customer and leveraging data from different sources. The difficulty of gaining this single customer view is compounded by elevated customer expectations and the tremendous growth of newer marketing channels. While high-performing teams are better at coordinating marketing across channels, a majority fail to evolve their message from one channel to the next
- Shifting Priorities Spark Organizational Change – With the rising flood of available customer data, companies are rethinking everything from job roles to how marketing functions in the broader organization. From account-based marketing to closer alignment with customer service, top marketers are change agents staying ahead of the curve
- Marketing Tech Makes Waves – Marketers expect that usage of marketing technologies — from IoT/connected devices to lead scoring tools — will skyrocket over the next two years. High-performers tend to be heavier tech users, with most reporting that their current tech stack aids collaboration, increases productivity, and drives a more cohesive view of customer data. Top teams also cite data management platforms as the most essential tool for 1-to-1 marketing across every touchpoint
- Marketing Embraces the AI Revolution – Artificial intelligence (AI) is the leading technology where marketers expect the most growth in the next two years. Internally, marketers view AI as a means of creating more efficiency in their operations. For customers, most marketers see it as a way to get more from their data and ramp up personalization without burdening their teams
