Marketers will seize the customer experience by 2020: Study
About 86 per cent of marketers say they will own the end-to-end customer experience by 2020, according to a study of nearly 500 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing executives from around the world conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on behalf of Marketo, Inc.
To accomplish this, the report found that marketing leaders must have a single view of the customer that allows them to engage in two-way, personalised conversations across technologies, locations, and physical objects.
This is the second year that Marketo has commissioned this survey, which builds upon the 2015 finding that marketers feel their organisations need to undergo a dramatic shift to keep up with increasing technological and consumer demands. The 2016 report titled, “The Path to 2020: Marketers Seize the Customer Experience,” takes an in-depth look at how buyers engage with brands today and the impact that will have on how marketers reach them through 2020.
A Myriad of Channels
Marketers are increasingly using digital channels to build closer customer relationships. Globally there is an increase in the importance of mobile web and apps, but the report highlighted a number of regional differences for other digital channels. In Australia, for example, 77 per cent of marketers see email as their number one channel, compared to just 47 per cent of European marketers. Social media, the lead channel in New Zealand, ranks third in Australia.
“Technology’s rapid evolution allows customers to engage with brands across myriad new channels in real time, translating to billions of marketing-driven touch points. With 86 per cent of CMOs and other marketing leaders of the mind that they will own the customer experience by 2020, it is essential that organisations maintain a singular, comprehensive view of their customers. This is the key to building enduring customer relationships and ultimately successful brands,” said Sanjay Dholakia, chief marketing officer, Marketo.
The marketing complexity is growing: More than half of respondents believe the accelerating pace of technological change, mobile lifestyles, and an explosion of potential marketing channels via the Internet of Things (IoT) will change the field the most by 2020. This is driven by the billions of possible interactions these channels will create between a company and its customers.
The strength of mass media is declining: By 2020, marketers expect they will increasingly interact directly with their customers through technology and personalisation as opposed to indirectly through media and advertising.
The top marketing channels are those that can be personalised: Globally, the top channels to the customer in 2020 will be social media (63 per cent of respondents), the World Wide Web (53 per cent), mobile apps (47 per cent), and mobile web (46 per cent).
The study also shows that marketing will no longer be just about acquisition, although it remains more of a focus in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) than the rest of the world (53 per cent for ANZ vs 42 per cent for ROW). ANZ marketers are also less focused on bringing new skills into their marketing departments (13 per cent for ANZ vs 20 per cent ROW). These differences will narrow by 2020, but ANZ will remain behind when it comes to focusing on pioneering new and emerging technology to engage audiences. Only 29 per cent of ANZ marketers expect to see this as a strategic priority, compared to 40 per cent in the rest of the world (ROW).
“The study hints that we are slower to adopt to some of these changes. Australia and New Zealand are both relatively small, yet lucrative markets. It makes sense to focus on building a strong bond with your existing customers to leverage greater value. We need to move-on from a pure focus on acquisitions and embrace technology that will help build better brand relationships. This report should be a warning bell for the local industry,” says Greg Taylor, Marketo’s Managing Director in Sydney.
Another trend highlighted in the study was that customer experience drives brand equity. Raising customer loyalty and better brand perception are the two top benefits (both 53 per cent) marketers aim to realise through a more positive customer experience.
The report highlights that innovation will focus on small screens and no screens: Mobile devices and networks (59 per cent), personalisation technologies (45 per cent), and IoT (39 per cent) are the three technology-specific trends that will have the biggest impact on marketing organisations by 2020.
Marketers’ influence is growing, according to the study. Eighty-seven per cent of marketers believe their departments will exercise significant influence over business strategy by 2020, with 78 per cent expecting to have the same influence over company technology decisions.
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