state of digital marketing -...

2016

State of Digital MarketingBenchmark for Success

20162016016

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Introduction

Demographics

Segmenting Successful Strategies

Most Significant Barriers to Success

Importance of Strategic Goals

Competitive Comparison

Tactical Effectiveness

How Marketing Effectiveness is Changing

Tactical Difficulty

Executional Resources Used

Comparing Tactical Factors Strategically

Conclusion

Adestra

Table of Contents

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Introduction

Faced with an increasingly complex and constantly shifting digital marketing landscape, many companies are struggling for success. But what about those that are successful? What are they doing to enable them to stand out from the crowd?

To find out, Adestra fielded a survey to more than 50,000 marketing professionals. Of those, 275 were interviewed to produce this 2016 State of Digital Marketing Benchmarks for Success report. Our research exclusively represents the opinions of the marketers that are getting it right and overcoming barriers to achieving their digital marketing goals. We thank them for sharing their valuable insights with us and you.

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DemographicsThe following demographics are represented in this report:

30%Owner/ Partner/ CXO

56%VP/ Director/ Manager

14%Non-Management

Role in the Company

68%B2B

16%B2C

16%B2B and B2C Equally

Primary Marketing Channel

25%More than 500

28%50 to 500

47%Fewer than 50

Number of Employees in Company






03

Segmenting Successful Strategies

It's disheartening that only 12 percent of marketers said they’re “very successful” at segmenting. But what’s even more alarming is that 69 percent of marketers said they are “somewhat successful.”

As an industry we need to be strategic rather than tactical in order to be successful. Yes, tactics might be easier to come by — and the answers to our survey certainly reflect this — but it is strategy that makes a difference. Putting a well-defined strategy in place separates the winners from the losers.

In order to overcome this, our strongest recommendation for marketers is to set up a strategy day — not a lunch meeting, not a morning, but a whole day and preferably off-site — at the start of the fiscal year to define what you want to accomplish. This will assist you in making strategic change happen, as opposed to just taking a tactical look at how to get things done.

If you really want to grow past that 69 percent “somewhat successful” rate, you have to focus on strategy first, and tactics second. Think “why” instead of “how.” What are you trying to accomplish overall? That’s your strategy. How will you get there? Those are your tactics.

The most successful companies we’ve ever seen in any marketing group are the ones that focus on the strategy first for any challenge. Marketers will probably say they don’t have the time, money, or resources to take a day off from the grind, but that’s no excuse. Everybody has time, money, and resource challenges. Find a way!

Unsuccessful19%

VerySuccessful

12%

How SUCCESSFUL are you at segmenting yourdigital marketing strategy to achieve important goals?

SomewhatSuccessful

69%






04

Most Significant Barriers to Success

Once again, marketers are blaming that age-old challenge: “inadequate marketing budget,” also called “time, money, and resources.”

Yes, lack of budget has been a big challenge for nearly half the marketers in this study, but another is achieving a greater understanding of what is really going on and a deeper level of insight and analysis. Big data can change this and can give marketers the more granular-level perspective they are after.

Of course, the proliferation of data in recent years can pose a usability challenge too, but working with the right technology partner can help you cut through the noise and obtain the insights that you’re after.

The second greatest challenge for marketers in this study is a “lack of internal skills and training.” This is understandable because keeping up with the pace of change can be mind-numbing. Facebook this, Snapchat that. A new start-up company introduces another disruptive technology, and then broadcasts it all on Periscope. It’s a challenge for even the greatest marketers amongst us.

Inadequatemarketing budget

Lack of internalskills/training

Inadequateanalytics/reporting

Inability tomeasure ROI

Lack of aneffective strategy

Inadequatedata/lead quality

Lack ofmarketing technology

46%

36%

34%

34%

29%

28%

28%

What are the MOST SIGNIFICANT BARRIERS to digital marketing success?






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What can marketers do to try to overcome this?

1. Develop a reading list.

Make time at the start of your day — devote an hour, or half an hour — to reading two or three industry websites focused on both your individual vertical and the broader vertical, such as email marketing (individual) and digital marketing (broader).

Call on your email service provider (ESP) or other tech partners. Many of them have helpful blogs, case studies, best-practice guides, and other educational info. Ask them for the help you need or answers to your questions. Remember that they succeed when you succeed so they’re usually more than willing to advise you on emerging technology or what's new in the marketplace.

2. Experiment with new things.

Try new apps on your phone. We're talking mainly about marketing-focused apps like Snapchat, WeChat, WhatsApp, and other communication channels. But, even Pokémon GO can give you some marketing insight. Play with them, figure them out, and see if your program could use them.






06

Importance of Strategic Goals

These results have remained consistent over time, because marketing has always been about generating leads, increasing conversions and raising brand awareness. While historically, “leads” have usually been associated with the usiness-to-business (B2B) arena, business-to-consumer (B2C) companies should pay attention to this too. Of course conversions are never guaranteed and pushing a consumer down the funnel is something that still needs to be worked on, but incorporating the goal of lead generation into all ways of thinking is beneficial to any type of marketer. It’s good to see discussions about sales attribution on the radar (18 percent say it is among their top goals).

Increase leadgeneration

Increaseconversion rate

Improve brandawareness

Increasemeasurable ROI

Improve data/leadquality

Increasewebsite traffic

Increase salesattribution

57%

47%

44%

43%

40%

28%

18%

What are the MOST IMPORTANT GOALS of a digital marketing strategy?






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Commentary about attribution has grown because of the access to data that we do have. We have come to realize that last-click attribution is an inaccurate and misleading way to measure success.

Data analysis shows attribution is all about tracking conversions across multiple channels, not a single channel. It’s the amalgamation of all channels that contribute to an action.

Sometimes one channel does make you buy, but most often it is influenced. Email may be the trigger for a purchase, but other influencers include the product’s brand equity, past purchase history with that company, the website experience, and the customer’s trust in the brand.

As marketers begin to understand the data showing the shared sources of a sale, we’ll see more accurate sale attribution.






08

Competitive Comparison

This chart reveals a puzzling disconnect. When we asked marketers to compare their digital marketing program to their competitors, a healthy 56 percent felt good enough to rate their efforts as “somewhat superior.” An even more confident 13 percent picked “extremely superior.”

But back on Page 3, we reported that 69 percent of marketers said they were “somewhat successful.” This seems somewhat ironic — an acknowledgement that their marketing program may not be up to scratch, yet they’re still ahead of everyone else. Perhaps these marketers recognize that even though they haven’t achieved everything they set out to do, they still see the potential of doing more.

That speaks to the need to spend time on developing strategies to identify and accomplish what is necessary to get over the hump from “somewhat superior” to “extremely superior.” Ready to schedule your strategy-planning retreat?

... spend time on developing strategies to identify and accomplish what is necessary to get over the hump... to EXTREMELY SUPERIOR.

Which best describes the STATE OF DIGITAL MARKETING in yourorganization compared to its competitors?

56%

13%

29%

1%

Extremelysuperior

Somewhatsuperior

Somewhatinferior

Extremelyinferior






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Tactical Effectiveness

Is anybody surprised that email comes out on top as the most effective tactic in a marketer’s toolbox? These results confirm the importance of getting email right in your digital marketing strategy.

But email is important to recipients as well as the channel owners. Adestra’s 2016 Consumer Adoption and Usage Study found more than seven in 10 consumers in all age groups, from teens to baby boomers, prefer to get messages from brands via email over any other channel, including direct mail, SMS, and mobile apps.

Taken together, the results of both studies reinforce that email is both effective for marketers and also preferred by consumers. Everybody always claims email is great, but it is validating to see two independent studies confirm it.

Email

Website

SEO

Social media

Paid search

Mobile

Display ads

61%

59%

49%

42%

35%

14%

11%

What are the MOST EFFECTIVE TACTICS used?






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How Marketing Effectiveness is Changing

This chart demonstrates that digital marketing is incredibly effective. It also points to education and learning as the second greatest challenge that marketers face.

Enterprise companies are using digital marketing effectively to track results and to know what they need to accomplish. If there’s something that you don’t understand, educate yourself to learn what you can do to make your marketing more effective. Call on your ESP and tech partners to find out what you’re not doing now and what you could change to achieve your goals.

There is a big difference between not understanding something and digital marketing effectiveness “increasing marginally,” so make sure you don’t get caught up between the two.

60%

8%

0%

32%

Effectivenessis increasingsignificantly

Effectivenessis increasingmarginally

Effectivenessis decreasing

marginally

Effectivenessis decreasingsignificantly

To what extent is digital marketing EFFECTIVENESS CHANGING?





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Tactical Difficulty

It is not surprising that search engine optimization (SEO) ranked as one of the most difficult tactics to execute.

For marketers, SEO is the black box of technology. They don’t understand how it works. How do you create a good strategy if you don’t know how it works? You hire people who know what they’re doing.

Social media and mobile tactics also score high on difficulty in this assessment. This is likely due to marketers attempting to force the channel to behave like other channels and getting frustrated when the results don't match the effort.

When social media began to take off a few years ago, marketers started treating this two-way channel like a promotional one — all talking, no listening or responding. Today some treat it like a customer service channel, yet they don’t pay enough attention, and complaints go unanswered.

Social media

SEO

Mobile

Paid search

Email

Display ads

Website

48%

44%

38%

28%

23%

21%

17%

What are the MOST DIFFICULT TACTICS to execute?


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Another problem: The boss sees someone with a cool app and then tells the marketing team, “I want one of those!” So, a marketer starts using a tactic without thinking out where it will fit in the long-term strategy. No wonder it’s frustrating.

When you want to launch a new channel, you first have to assess it and the characteristics that set it apart from others. Forget what you know about other channels. The voice for social channels such as Facebook or Twitter is very different from the voice in your emails or on your website.

Pick the channels that you believe are the best for your brand. Keep learning. You might have a lot of teen and millennial customers who are on Snapchat, but does that mean your company must be on Snapchat? Not necessarily, unless your brand and your voice fit in with your Snapchat users’ expectations.


13

Executional Resources Used

Just over two-thirds of respondents use a combination of in-house and outsourced talent. This points to an improving economy, because companies tend to outsource in an up economy.

Although working with outside talent takes resources and coordination, it has a plus for your company. You can drive your program forward if you can bring in people who have abilities your current staff doesn't have, without having to add to your permanent staff.

For companies who are part of the 60 percent (Page ) that told us that they are seeing only marginal improvement in their marketing effectiveness, bringing in outside talent can help jump-start innovation.

Put together a request for proposal (RFP) that specifies what you need help with and run it past several well-known agencies that understand your marketing niche. Find one whose culture meshes with your own team’s.

If you don’t have an executive team that will let you do that, try to work with an agency to help you make the case. Good agencies have worked with enough executives and overcome enough objections that they can work with you to make the case.

In-houseResources Only

26%

Combinationof Outsourcedand In-house

Resources67%

Outsourcedto a

Specialist7%

Which best describes the RESOURCES USEDto execute digital marketing tactics?






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Comparing Tactical Factors Strategically

The chart below matches up the tactics that are most effective with those that marketers say are the hardest to manage. Email and websites rank high on effectiveness and low on difficulty, which shouldn’t be too surprising. Mobile, on the other hand, is rated less effective and harder to do than other channels.

This raises an interesting possibility: Are we overthinking mobile but under-thinking email?

Executing email tactics is easy, but working up an effective email strategy for those tactics is hard. Playing with shiny new tech toys is fun; incorporating data and useful technology to drive better results is hard.

How tactical effectiveness compares to executional difficulty.

Email

Most Effective Tactics Most Difficult Tactics

Website

SEO

Social media

Paid search

Mobile

Display ads

61%

23%

59%

17%

49%

44%

42%

48%

35%

28%

14%

38%

11%

21%






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Maybe email is easy because we’ve mastered every aspect of it. Or, because we stopped looking for innovations and improvements.

Doing email right — optimizing and personalizing messages, choosing and using the right metrics, learning through testing, attributing email’s contributions accurately, making email so essential to our customers’ lives that they can‘t live without it — is more difficult than some marketers realize.

We’ve spent a lot of time over the years trying to make email easy. Maybe it’s time to challenge ourselves to think harder and aim higher — to think about soaring instead of surviving.


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ConclusionThe state of digital marketing changes every day. Emerging technologies offer us new possibilities but also raise the stakes for marketing success. New laws that govern commercial speech challenge us to comply, now that we market on a global scale. As always, we have to recognize, honor and exceed the expectations of our customers.

The world in which we market now is very different from what it was just a couple of years ago. That makes it more important than ever to work harder to educate ourselves:

• Take time every day to read up on what’s happening with digital marketing in general and email marketing in particular.

• Consult your email service provider and other technology partners for their expertise and advice. Each of them has a stake in your success.

Don‘t let the perennial challenges of inadequate time, money or training become excuses for not raising your marketing success bar:

• Your technology partners can help you close your education gap. • Work with outsourced agencies to fill in resource and knowledge gaps. • Put strategy first, and then work out tactics that support it. This can make your

marketing program more effective and lead to increased money for new marketing initiatives.





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Marketers’ attitudes about email also indicate it might be time to rethink their approaches to this channel. Although they say email is their easiest and most effective channel, this can be a sign that they’re not trying new things that would improve their results and increase effectiveness.

Trying something new is hard — developing a strategy and finding the time, money and expertise to make it happen. But we can rise to the challenge when we do research, try new technology, and always, always, do whatever we can to make ourselves smarter.






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Adestra is a leading provider of one-to-one email and lifecycle marketing solutions for global and growing brands.

The company’s proprietary email platform provides a powerful infrastructure for marketing automation and contextual messaging, helping marketers communicate more effectively with their customers and subscribers. Its flexible structure and open integration architecture allows businesses to connect disparate technology platforms to create a seamless customer journey.

Along with a best-of-breed platform that drives customer engagement and boosts ROI, Adestra was founded on the principle that marketing success takes more than technology, which is why customer service is at the heart of its business. The company was a winner of the 2014 Customer Focus Award from the Institute of Customer Service, and continues to maintain one of the highest customer retention rates in the industry. It is trusted by top companies including UBM, FranklinCovey, Condé Nast Digital Limited, and The London Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Established in 2004, Adestra has offices in Oxford and London, U.K., Dallas and New York, U.S., and Sydney, Australia. For more information, please visit adestra.com.

Contact us: 1-855-835-0471

[email protected]


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