Agility, trust and personalization are marketing watchwords for this year according to the Digital Trends Report 2022released by Adobe Experience Cloud. The survey, conducted in conjunction with eConsultancy, surveyed nearly 10,000 marketing and IT professionals, executives, consultants and leaders to understand where they will focus efforts to stay competitive in 2022.
“Among the main trends is the change in the behavior of digital consumers, a factor that has provoked the digital transformation in marketing as never seen before”, says Douglas Montalvao, Director of Solutions and Customer Success at Adobe for Latin America.
Of the executives surveyed, 87% believe that customer expectations have been digitally redone and that the company’s success is defined by its ability to respond to change. This can be proven by the new way of doing business: 75% of companies report an increase in the use of digital channels by customers.
The study also reveals that more than 50% of executives have increased their investments in platforms that empower teams to serve customers in today’s complex omnichannel environment. “In fact, technologies aimed at creating better user experiences are among their top spending priorities for 2022,” he explains.
Earning the customer’s trust
The executive points out that the relationship between brands and their consumers is fragile, after all, each data collected carries the expectation that they will provide valuable experiences while protecting information. People want simplicity, transparency and trust.
“Leading companies understand that, with their current systems, they can’t manually manage data responsibly at the scale needed,” he says. “That’s why they are investing in platforms that allow them to unify and enable their data, while enforcing powerful governance across audiences, channels, and regions.”
Unlocking new levels of agility
The survey also reveals that leading companies have built agility into their day-to-day practices, with 92% of executives saying their level of agility will determine their success as a marketing organization. Another 65% of marketing leaders rate their speed of getting and acting on customer insights as strong or very strong. On the other hand, only 5% of laggards say they can gather these insights quickly.
Leaders also know that to improve the customer experience, they must reduce friction in the way employees connect and work. Respondents ranked the lack of integration between technology systems, workflow issues, and lack of digital skills as the top internal barriers to delivering great customer experiences. In response, 59% of digital leaders are investing in talent and training to make their teams more productive.
Greater collaboration between IT and marketing
“As customer behaviors continue to change at breakneck speed, CMOs and CIOs must collaborate even more to combine customer experience and digital strategies with new levels of creativity and innovation,” he says. The study showed that 83% of executives agree that marketing and IT have a shared vision.
Personalized experiences x reach of millions
Finally, there is agreement among digital leaders that personalization at scale is their top duty for 2022 and that they need a combination of integrated data, insights-driven analytics and marketing automation to achieve the goal. Nearly 60% of executives rate data and insights as their top technology priority for the next year.
Already 37% of marketing and IT professionals admit that the biggest barrier preventing a great customer experience is the lack of integration between their technology systems, so breaking silos is a strong trend in business.
“We now have the ability to do a lot with real-time personalization through content, analytics, automation – and increasingly AI – that will open up new opportunities for brands to differentiate and connect with customers,” concludes Montalvao.
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