Digital marketing category "redundant" as online spend hits tipping point

The marketing software solutions provider noted that in 2016, the term “digital marketing” borders on redundancy as digital accounts for an ever-growing share of marketers’ activities, channels, and budgets.

This year marks a tipping point, with marketers spending more than two-thirds (70 percent) of their total budget on digital marketing channels.

Over a 10-year span, from 2011 to 2021, the company is forecasting 21 percent growth in digital marketing spending.

The company’s 2016 State of Marketing Report also found marketers are increasingly focused on customer satisfaction and customer engagement as their top measures for success.

High-performing marketers are creating journeys for customers, with 65 percent saying they’ve adopted a customer journey strategy and 88 percent saying it’s critical to their marketing success.

Based on a survey of nearly 4,000 marketers globally, the two markets from the Asia Pacific region included in the study were Japan (400 respondents) and Australia (326 respondents).

Brand awareness tops priorities for marketing leaders in Australia, with revenue growth being the first measure of success alongside budget constraints as the biggest challenge.

In Japan, brand awareness was also a top priority for marketing leaders, however customer satisfaction was listed as the most important measure of success with building deeper relationships with customers cited as the biggest challenge.

Scott McCorkle, CEO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud at Salesforce said that the rise of the connected customer is forcing marketing to evolve from delivering outbound campaigns to managing personalised experiences that engage the customer from day one and guides them through a seamless journey with the brand.

“The results of our research show that high-performing marketers that change their mind-sets, tactics and technology to embrace a customer journey strategy will reap the benefits,” he added.

Globally, the study also found that digital marketing ROI is on the rise, with marketers are reporting increased ROI with email, mobile and social marketing.

• Among marketers who use email as part of their marketing strategy, 80 percent agree email is core to their business. Nearly half (49 percent) of those marketers say it is directly linked to their business’ primary revenue source, a 140 percent year-over-year (YoY) increase from the 2015 State of Marketing Report. Additionally, 79 percent of marketers say email generates ROI, a 48 percent YoY increase.   
• In addition, 75 percent of marketers who use social as part of their marketing strategy report social is generating ROI, a 166 percent increase YoY.
• Facebook is the most effective social channel according to high-performing marketing teams, followed by Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Instagram.
• Mobile marketing adoption has risen significantly, including location-based mobile tracking (149 percent increase), mobile push notifications (145 percent increase), mobile text messaging (111 percent increase) and mobile applications (98 percent increase). Additionally, 77 percent of marketers who use mobile as part of their marketing strategy say mobile actively generates ROI, a 147 percent increase YoY.

In addition, the study found that marketers are taking ownership of the customer journey, and their ability to integrate digital marketing channels will determine their performance.

• Among high-performing marketing teams that have integrated their digital marketing channels -- such as email, mobile and social -- at least 95 percent rate the integrations as very effective or effective.
• Nearly two-thirds of high performing marketing teams surveyed (63 percent) have integrated their social media activity into their overall marketing strategy, compared to only 20 percent of underperformers.
• Nearly two-thirds of high-performing marketing teams surveyed (64 percent) have also integrated their email marketing activity with their overall marketing strategy, compared to 19 percent of underperformers.
• The majority of high-performing marketing teams surveyed (60 percent) have integrated their mobile marketing activity into their overall marketing strategy, compared to 12 percent of underperformers.
• In addition, 81 percent of high-performing marketing teams surveyed align their mobile campaigns to email campaigns, compared to 46 percent of under-performing marketers.
• Nearly two-thirds of marketers surveyed (65 percent) are increasing budgets for advertising on social platforms in 2016, making it the third largest area for increased investment behind social media marketing and social media engagement.