FORBES INSIGHTS RESEARCH REPORT ON THE FUTURE OF MARKETING Marketing Operations is the Key to Success In association with:
FORBES INSIGHTS RESEARCH REPORT ON THE
FUTURE OF MARKETING
Marketing Operations is the Key to Success
In association with:
aprimo.com 2
A Letter from Leadership
In 2016, Aprimo (formerly Teradata Marketing Applications) and Forbes teamed up to survey global marketing leaders about the future of marketing. What we determined from our survey results was this: marketers who will succeed in 2017 and beyond are those who embrace and adopt the discipline of Marketing Operations.
Why? Because innovation combined with Marketing Operations frees marketers to do what they do best—perform smart marketing. And that means more content in the market that’s strategically aligned to each customer journey.
Marketers who have an infrastructure that allows them to remain agile—and enables them to respond to a rapidly changing global market—are the ones who will develop meaningful customer connections. And that, ultimately, results in creating loyal, lifelong brand advocates.
This report highlights the benefits of automating marketing to enable agility. Here’s to creating smarter marketing in 2017!
All the best,
John Stammen Aprimo CEO
Contents
Executive Overview .................................................3
Survey Demographics .............................................4
What Is Marketing Agility? .....................................5
The Current State of Agile Marketing .................6
The Key to Success .................................................. 7
How Organisations Are Planning to Increase Marketing Agility ................................................... 9
What’s Next for Marketers? .................................10
The Future: Mind the Gap .................................... 11
Forbes Research Report
3aprimo.com
Executive Overview
Forbes Research Report
Consumers today want to associate more with the brand than with other, less interesting elements of the company. Some even invest in organisations simply because they have solid, globally recognisable brands.
Today’s consumers control their individual brand experience.
Before consumers even think about having a “live” conversation with a company representative, they have typically engaged in conversations across multiple channels by reading product and/or service content and interacting online.
From distribution channels to payment methods to interactions, consumers want and expect a seamless brand experience. But with today’s explosion of channels and customer touchpoints, creating a positive brand experience is harder to achieve—and manage—than ever before.
So what does that mean for modern marketers?
In a digital first world, it means marketers are under an exponentially heightened pressure to increase speed-to-market and effectiveness windows to meet consumer demands.
Consistently. On time. Every time. At every hour of the day.
The consumer relationship with an organisation’s brand is something far more complex than it was a decade ago. In the past, a company’s brand was a by-product of the core business (e.g., Ford: Quality is Job One), but today, a brand is a living thing—one that is continuously being created in parallel with the company itself, and one that has intrinsic value that draws people directly to it.
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Survey Demographics
The combined Forbes and Aprimo study honed in on the current —and future—state of marketing, as well as the agility required to keep pace with the demands of today's consumer. The survey spanned multiple geographies, numerous industries, and was completed by a variety of marketing leaders.
The results reveal that although there is still ample opportunity for improvement, organisations are trending toward adopting more agile marketing processes to meet, respond to, and exceed consumer expectations.
Geographies
Industries
Organisational Level
USMiddle East or Africa
Europe Asia
Financial Services
Senior Executive
Vice President
Director
Manager
Other
Healthcare & Medicine
Insurance Retail Technology
Forbes Research Report
33%33% 32%
1%
15%
31%
13%
1%
30%25%
12%
14%
15%
16%
By Achieving True Marketing Agility
With the following definition of marketing agility in mind, survey participants were asked how they measure success:
Marketing agility is about aligning and adjusting marketing processes in a way that meets the demands of when, where, and how a consumer wants to engage.
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A flexible, intelligent Marketing Operations platform brings order to marketing chaos by adapting to consumer needs while simultaneously maintaining best practices.
Forbes Research ReportForbes Research Report
37%
30%
27%
24%
Efficiency (faster speed-to-market)
On-time completion of marketing projects
Customer focus (increased customer response)
Flexible approach to changing customer needs
According to the survey, marketers measure success by their ability to succeed in the following areas:
How Do Marketers Measure Success?
of those surveyed are exploring ways to implement marketing workflow management.43%
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Forbes Research Report
74%
29%
45%
So how agile do marketers consider themselves today?
74% of respondents cite “agility of Marketing Operations” as a current marketing challenge, but additional survey data proves that organisations
are ready and willing to improve their marketing
agility, especially as budgets and support for agility increase.
29% of respondents “strongly agree” that their
company fully embraces marketing agility.
45% of survey respondents say
“technology” is the most critical factor contributing to the
success of their organisation’s agile
marketing efforts, while 33% report that
“process/organisation” is the most critical factor.
The Current State of Agile Marketing
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Forbes Research Report
Modern marketers are learning the customer journey as customers themselves are experiencing their own journey. In the past, marketers made bold predictions, such as: If I discount, they will buy based on instinct.
Today’s environment is much more nuanced and complex. Marketers must be able to measure their success based on learnings instead of instincts.
The Key to Success
Steps must be taken to ensure process and measurement are enabled. The best way to achieve this is to implement the right kind of agile technology that supports on-going consumer examination and education—a platform that “recognises” and builds upon past successes to create future wins.
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1 Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016, Understanding the New Martech Buyer Journey Whitepaper June 2015; http://www.walkersands.com/New-Martech-Buyer-Journey.
Now more than ever, Marketing Operations is essential to successful modern marketing, as dictated by today's highly complex and multifaceted environment.
Unfortunately, more than 51% of marketers say their companies are among the last to adopt the technology that makes marketing agility possible.1
Only 23% of respondents currently consider themselves “highly successful” in using agile marketing to deliver relevant, individualised customer communications. All respondents indicate these as the top areas in which they've had success.
Feel like you’re getting left behind? Don’t worry… many organisations are still in the midst of implementing a Marketing Operations solution to help them bridge the gap.
27%
20%
26%
18%
22%
9%
26%
23%
28%
21%
20%
16%
11 %
Forbes Research Report
Technology that automates Marketing Operations makes marketers more nimble and agile… and ultimately, more successful.
Faster shifts of marketing spend
More efficient marketing iterations
Increased real-time customer experience
Higher marketing metrics and KPIs
Fewer layers of marketing approval
Transparency of marketing spend
Faster speed-to-market
Increased customer response
Marketing projects completed on time
Marketing projects completed on budget
Flexible approach to changing customer needs
Increased accountability across the marketing function
Increased marketing collaboration
How Organisations Are Planning to Increase Marketing Agility
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43%
38%
36%
32%
32%
24%
43%
42%
Forbes Research Report
Although stand-up meetings can be beneficial to certain processes, they are not a marketing agility panacea. In fact, without the right technology and infrastructure in place, they can create more problems than they solve. Likewise, hiring new talent can bring insight and depth to an organisation, but without the right processes in place, high turnover and quality control issues often result.
Implementing marketing plan and spend management
Hiring new talent
Implementing marketing workflow management
Implementing content production management
Ensuring content compliance
Implementing a flatter organisation
Engaging a third party
Creating stand-up meetings
Technology
Process/organisation
Company culture
Budget
45%
5%
17%
33%
The factors considered most critical for agile marketing success are:
Although agile marketing presents many challenges, it also offers unprecedented opportunities to connect more strongly with individuals.
47%
37%
32%
27%
27%
26%
23%
17%
14%
14%
12%
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What’s Next for Marketers?
Forbes Research Report
Too much organisational bureaucracy
Difficulty proving the ROI of agile marketing
Employees are not empowered to make decisions
Difficulty showing how agile marketing leads to business outcomes
Operating in a siloed/hierarchical organisation
Budgetary issues
Lack of vision from top management
Not having the right technologies
Not having enough IT talent
Not having enough marketing department talent
Difficulty choosing the right third party
Interestingly enough, some of the top marketing challenges address the need to prove ROI, attribute business outcomes to agility, and boost budgets. On the flip side of these issues, Hubspot’s State of Inbound 2016 Report reveals that marketers who are able to calculate ROI are 1.6 times more likely to receive higher budgets.
Overall, only 28% of respondents "completely agree" that their organisation's current corporate culture, technology, processes, and budget support agile marketing. (And unfortunately, 3% report no support for agile marketing.)
31% say a year from now, they’ll still be working toward becoming more agile, while another 31% says their progress will depend on resource availability.
Marketers cite their top agile marketing challenges as:
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The Future: Mind the Gap
Ch
ann
el C
om
ple
xity
Content
Resource Capacity
The Marketing
Operational Gap
Digita
l Firs
t Mar
keti
ng
Traditional m
arketing
Forbes Research Report
Marketing moves fast. But agile marketers move faster.
Automating Marketing Operations is the future of marketing. And implementing the right technology can help marketers regain control of their marketing. Not only is it smart—but it’s vital—for marketers to mind the gap between traditional and automated marketing.
By establishing best practices and a methodology for continuous learning, smarter marketers hold the key to current and future success in an ever-evolving marketing landscape.
Aprimo and the Aprimo logo are registered trademarks of Aprimo LLC and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and worldwide. Aprimo continually improves products as new technologies and components become available. Aprimo, therefore, reserves the right to change specifications without prior notice. All features, functions, and operations described herein may not be marketed in all parts of the world. Consult your Aprimo representative or Aprimo.com for more information.
aprimo.com
Aprimo is a category-leading marketing operations
platform that frees marketers to focus on smart
marketing by managing the five essentials: plan,
spend, create, distribute, and perform. Aprimo’s
comprehensive suite improves time-to-market
and maximises a company’s marketing investment
to drive revenue. Aprimo is head-quartered in
Chicago, with global R&D and customer support
in Indianapolis, and international operations based
in London.
For more information, visit www.aprimo.com.
About AprimoForbes Insights is the strategic research and thought
leadership practice of Forbes Media, a global media,
branding and technology company whose combined
platforms reach nearly 75 million business decision
makers worldwide on a monthly basis. By leveraging
proprietary databases of senior-level executives in
the Forbes community, Forbes Insights conducts
research on a wide range of topics to position brands
as thought leaders and drive stakeholder engagement.
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About Forbes Insights