Has the pandemic turned marketers into superheroes? ‍ ♂️? ‍ ♀️

Five important findings from the business world!

The Asian market in marketing has grown a lot in the last year and a half. Customers dictate trends, and marketers carry companies on the pitfalls of creating strategies that adapt to their needs.

Salesforce also analyzed the results of the State of Marketing research this year, and the main findings were recently released on his blog. The research involved more than 8,200 marketing experts from 37 countries. Eighty-four percent of respondents said the digital needs of customers are clearly shaping their strategy today, which has significantly increased the appreciation of digital marketers. 77 percent of marketers surveyed feel that their work adds more value to the company today than it did a year ago. An important change is that 82 percent of marketers say companies are now much more open to telecommuting than they were before the pandemic, while 69 percent of survey participants say that collaboration, working together, is much harder.

Here are the top five findings from this year's State of Marketing report!

1. Above all, the quality of communication is more important

The pandemic has proven that teleworking is not from the devil. Companies are increasingly open to such forms of employment, as there are many jobs that do not or do not necessarily require a permanent personal presence in the workplace. However, there is no doubt about it, and the results of the research prove that communication and cooperation can easily suffer due to the physical distance of the collaborators. Many of the marketers we interviewed felt or feel that they had lost touch with their colleagues. Physical encounters on a daily basis were triggered by the use of various video conferencing and messaging platforms.

Digital communication has changed not only the quality of working together, but also the customer experience. In the wake of the pandemic lockdowns, 78 percent of marketing organizations have developed and applied new workplace collaboration technology to maintain business continuity.

The drastic transformation of marketing strategies and implementation processes requires, even in the short term, the renewal of methods aimed at measuring effectiveness. According to research, only 31 percent of marketers today are satisfied with the way their company measures marketing ROI and performance. All in all, changes that take place quickly make many feel insecure and unprepared in their work. Now, with the pressure of the pandemic easing, it's time to look at how we can improve our company's digital processes to better serve customers, drive internal operations and further expansion.

2. Innovation and flexibility guarantee success

The results of the research revealed that since the beginning of the pandemic, 60 percent of interactions are already taking place digitally, compared to 42 percent before the pandemic. Necessity breaks the law, and the crisis has forced everyone to step out of the usual framework overnight. Suddenly, new technologies, new marketing tools and channels appeared on the market, even solutions such as podcasts or streaming, which were previously seen as a kind of marketing fad by most professionals, became widespread.

According to Tariq Hassan (CMO of Petco), quoted in the blog post, the speed of change has propelled the profession towards an unprecedented level of marketing innovation over the past year.

“We tried a lot of new things, gained hard experiences, got up after one fall and kept working,” Hassan said. He added: “It's amazing to think about how far we've come in terms of digital solutions and experiences in such a short period of time. We are constantly inspired by the needs of our customers and partners. ”

The report finds that innovation and flexibility are the two main characteristics that distinguish professionals who perform well during the crisis from those who lag behind. 48% of underperforming marketers — who are moderately or less satisfied with their overall performance and results — say they struggle with reality to innovate marketing strategies and technologies within the company. Among those who perform well, this rate is only 31 percent.

3. More data does not necessarily mean better data

Each year, the research focuses on how the marketing profession relates to data-driven decision making. According to the latest analysis, marketers plan to use an average of 75 percent more data sources by 2022 than they did in 2020. While it is clear that they see the future in this, it is a particular contradiction that only 33 percent are satisfied with the way they are currently able to use data to achieve more relevant user reach and enhance the customer experience. There is also a fundamental difference between the good and the underperformers: while 47 percent of the members of the former group, only 8 percent of the latter were completely satisfied with the way data is handled within the organization.

The State of Marketing report clearly states that the more data sources available today, mainly through the sudden digitalization, do not necessarily mean richer insights into the purchasing and consumption habits of customers. Marketers feel that the quality of the data leaves much to be desired. However, there is no question that marketing strategy design is increasingly data-driven, so improving our data collection and analysis practices is an essential investment for long-term success.

4. Focus on the customer: ABM is spreading

Already last year's report found that the importance and popularity of account-based marketing (ABM) solutions within the profession is growing. Already this year, 79 percent of marketers working in the B2B sector said they use some ABM platform in their work. Knowing the market, this may not be so surprising, as B2B customers now expect the same level of service and personal customer experience that B2C consumers have enjoyed for decades. This demand only intensified during the pandemic, when decision makers from companies interested in the B2B sector were forced into the digital space themselves.

Commenting on the report's findings, Heather Malenshek, head of Land O'Lakes, said that, of course, integrating ABM platforms into a company's day-to-day operations involves a large investment of time and resources, but their returns are very high. “At first, it takes a lot of energy to coordinate the work of marketing, sales and the development teams that run ABM, but we found that it's definitely worth it because of the strengthening of customer relationships,” Malenshek said.

5. We can stay ahead of the market through continuous learning

Marketing — regardless of the pandemic — is an area of business where there is continuous renewal, so it is imperative that employees are open to learning and learning new things. Surprisingly, only 44 percent of the participants in the survey were satisfied with the training available to them within the organization or provided by the company. The problem is particularly acute in marketing data analytics education: only 39 percent of companies have been given the opportunity to learn new analytics skills.

And the profession agrees that if employees have the right skills and knowledge, the company will be able to respond effectively to dynamic market conditions and localize new solutions to better serve the needs of customers.

“Adapting to rapid changes in market conditions is key,” stressed Guillermo Plasencia, co-founder of JoinMyTrip.com, seeing the results of the research. As he put it, 2021 is also a year of transition and opportunity at the same time. He added: “By focusing on technology, content and training people at the same time, regardless of whether the pandemic continues, we can be three steps ahead of the market, and this is key in the digital age. ”

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