84% consumers say experience as important as products & services: Salesforce report

EE News Desk Dec 23, 2020

At the start of the year, Salesforce collected data from marketing leaders across the globe for the sixth edition of its ‘State of Marketing’ report. 2020 was a challenging year for marketers who looked at new ways to engage with the consumer in the new normal. With the standards of customer engagement shifting, marketers are on the forefront of innovation. Now, as the economy rebounds and the overall sentiment picks up, the insights garnered in the ‘State of Marketing’ report remain relevant. The report highlights the major trends for marketers to keep in mind as they seek to understand the customer journey and then engage with the customer at every touchpoint of this journey with memorable experiences. The key values that will remain critical as marketers and their businesses recover are:

Relentless focus on customer experience
Unwavering commitment to helpfulness, relevancy, and trustworthiness
Continuous pursuit of innovation

For this edition of the report, Salesforce Research surveyed nearly 7,000 marketing leaders worldwide.

Customer Experience and Innovation Put Marketers Under Pressure

A key insight that the report focuses is customer experience. As marketers re-strategize their marketing plans in the new normal, customer experience and engagement is both a priority and the biggest challenge.

The report states that as companies look to connect and build trust in uncertain times, customer experience has become more important than ever. In fact, 84% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services — up from 80% in 2018.

Marketing Transformation Takes On New Urgency

The expectations and behaviours of consumers, businesses, and society at large are shifting with unprecedented speed and magnitude. Marketers are under tremendous pressure to overhaul their organizational models and use of technology to provide differentiated, digital-first customer engagement.

Marketers are increasingly turning to an array of digital tools and platforms to engage customers at precisely the right moment, on the right channel. AI, Social Tools, and Analytics are most primed for expanded roles.

Customer Data Sets the Stage for Empathetic Marketing

As customers navigate a series of “new normals,” personalized, empathetic engagement has never been more important. Delivering messages and offers that resonate with an individual’s unique needs and expectations requires deep insights. Marketers are shifting how they source and manage customer data and ramping up use of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) that help them make the most of it. Marketers report a 186% increase in AI adoption since 2018.

The median number of data sources used by marketers has steadily increased from 8 in 2019, to 10 in 2020 and this is expected to rise to 12 in 2021. Today, marketers are turning to even more complex combinations of data management technologies to build a cohesive understanding of their customers and marketers continue their search for the right Data Management Solution. In fact, the average number of data management tools used in 2018 was 3 and in 2020, the number doubled to 6.

Once data is sourced, integrated, and managed, it’s time for it to go to work. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the rising star in this effort, with a whopping 84% of marketers reporting its use — up from 29% in 2018.

Marketers Double Down on Business Value

As businesses shift from crisis triage to recovery and adaptation, marketers have a unique opportunity to turn trusted customer relationships into business value. Marketers increasingly track metrics like customer satisfaction, digital engagement, and lifetime customer value (LTV) to gain a holistic picture of what’s working and what isn’t across the customer journey. B2B marketers have a particularly strong role in business growth through account-based marketing (ABM). 92% percent of B2B marketers have an ABM program.

The Next Decade of Marketing Innovation

Looking ahead, marketers expect the next 10 years to bring transformational impacts from new technologies and societal developments.From a technological standpoint, marketers expect 5G wireless networks to have the greatest impact on their work over the next decade. However, nothing more is anticipated than the new customers and prospects brought online as digital life permeates the global population even more than now.

Key Takeaways From‘State of Marketing Report

84% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services — up from 80% in 2018
Innovation is marketing leaders’ number one priority
69% of marketers say traditional marketing roles limit customer engagement — up from 37% in 2018
69% of customers expect connected experiences
63% of marketers use the same CRM system as sales and service departments
AI, Social Tools, and Analytics are most primed for expanded roles
54% of customers say they get annoyed if they are targeted with an ad for something they’ve already bought
Marketers report a 186% increase in AI adoption since 2018
78% of marketers describe their customer engagement as data-driven
92%of B2B marketers have an ABM program.
Technology, legislation, and societal shifts set to further transform marketing