According to a study released by Adobe, while two out of every five (40%) marketers said they desire to reinvent themselves, only 14% of those marketers know how to achieve it. Based on a poll of more than 1,000 marketing professionals in the U.S., the report Digital Roadblock: Marketers' Battle to Reinvent Themselves provides new insights into the attitudes and beliefs of marketers as they struggle to redefine their roles and broaden their skill sets. The findings are being presented today at the 12th annual Adobe Digital Marketing Summit, which draws over 5,000 marketing professionals.
The fact that 81% of marketers who taking digital marketing course Malaysia predict their position will change within the next three years and 64% expect their function to change within the next year highlights the profession's rapid development. The road to reinvention, however, is still tricky. According to respondents, the most significant barriers to becoming the marketers respondents wish to be are organisational incapacity to adapt (30%) and a lack of training in new marketing abilities (30%).
Risk aversion is preventing marketers.
When asked how they would like to see themselves in a year, 54% of marketers said they would take more chances, and 45% said they would like to take more risks. Marketers often play it safe when adopting new technology; 65% said they feel more at ease when it becomes widely used.
The results also showed a difference in marketing efforts between businesses that devote more than 25% of their marketing budgets to online campaigns and those that commit less than 10%. Compared to marketers at low digital spend organisations (67%), those in high digital spend companies are more inclined to feel (82%) that they must reinvent themselves to succeed. Marketers from high-performing organisations* are three times more likely (23%) than low-performing companies (8%) to claim they know how to reinvent themselves.
The transition to digital calls for new technologies, fresh strategies, and frequently totally new roles for marketers. The good news is that marketers are aware of the changes and realise they must embrace data, concentrate on personalising experiences, and collaborate across social, web, and mobile channels. They need to dive in.
Data Is Considered Important, But Isn't Always Used
A majority of marketers (76%) agreed that in order to succeed, companies must become more data-focused, yet 49% said they rely on their "gut feelings" to decide where to allocate their marketing dollars. 72 percent of marketers concur that demonstrating a return on investment in marketing is essential to their long-term success.
Sixty-nine percent of marketers feel that embracing "hyper personalisation" is necessary, and seventy-four percent claim that acquiring and using data to educate and drive marketing efforts is the new reality (i.e., using data to provide the right products, services and content at the right time). However, only 39% of marketers claim to have shaped their marketing strategy using customer data and behaviour patterns over the past 12 months; 45% want to employ more consumer data and behaviour over the following 12 months.
Seventy-four percent of marketers assert that obtaining and using data to inform and guide marketing operations is the new reality, and 69 percent believe that embracing "hyper personalization" is essential (i.e., using data to provide the right products, services and content at the right time). However, only 39% of marketers assert that they used consumer data and behaviour patterns to shape their marketing strategy over the previous 12 months; 45% want to use more consumer data and behaviour over the ensuing 12 months.
Priorities for Mobile, Multi-Channel, and Personalization Growing
69% of marketers concur that mobile is a crucial component to master. Regarding media platforms and types, 61% of marketers believe that social media will be the most important area of attention in the next 12 months, closely followed by mobile at 51%. TV (7%) and print (9%) came last. More than half of marketers said they were engaging with customers directly via email (51%) and digital analytics (51%) than in 2013, and 63% said they were conducting more social marketing than in 2013.
These considerations are causing marketing businesses to pivot toward investing more in digital expertise. The top professions that companies need to invest in over the next 12 months, according to marketers, are mobile marketer (36%), data analyst (38%), creative services (38%) and digital/social marketer (47%).
The ability to work better across channels came out on top (21%), followed by the ability to measure and learn from campaign effectiveness (16%), according to the survey, which also sheds light on the specific behaviour that marketers believe will have the most significant single impact on their effectiveness.
Personalisation came out on top when people were asked to identify one capability that will be most crucial to their company's marketing as we advance. In comparison to 53% of mediocre or low-performing businesses, 63% of high-performing ones claim to be entirely or highly focused on personalising client experiences.
This article is posted on Fortune.
