One of the more effective ways to become the best is to learn from the best. What did various people in various industries, various companies in various regions, do to vault themselves into such elite company?
The 2016 State of Marketing Report, an annual report in its third year from Salesforce, is an in-depth industry research project that provides a number of insights for marketers, as well as a deep look at marketing trends. If you want to become a high-performing marketer, you can’t find a better place to start than the State of Marketing Report.
Salesforce conducted surveys with thousands of companies, categorized according to performance level, and recorded its findings. The report details the statistics derived from the survey results (even sorting the survey results by country, one of the coolest features of the report), as well as the major themes highlighted within the data.
So, do you want to be the best? Well, you’ve been given a prime opportunity to learn from marketing’s best and brightest right here.
With that in mind, here are three major themes outlined in the State of Marketing Report that top marketing teams are doing to stand out every day.
1. Top Marketing Teams Win with a Customer Journey Strategy
For the second year in a row, Salesforce found in a survey of industry experts that the top indicator of marketing success is customer satisfaction. It is extremely important to fulfill the demands of customers every time they interact with you – in fact, your success as a marketer often hinges on it.
Well, if customer satisfaction is the best indicator of success in marketing, how can you make sure your customers are actually satisfied?
The answer (in part): committing to a “customer’s journey” strategy.
The State of Marketing Report shows that high-performing marketing teams are 8.8 times more likely to strongly agree with the fact that their team has adopted a customer’s journey strategy as part of the greater marketing plan. Additionally, 88% of high-performance teams say that their customer journey strategy is critical to their overall level of success.
Source: 2016 State of Marketing Report
2. Top Marketing Teams are Integrating the Customer Experience
Tasks get accomplished quicker when teams work together more efficiently, right? It holds true in sports, and it certainly holds true in the business world.
In order to be as successful as you can be, it is essential that all departments within your company work together to integrate customer experience.
“A unified customer experience across channels and touchpoints — whether marketing, sales, service, or even product — is more important than ever.” – Salesforce, 2016 State of Marketing
When top teams integrate their marketing, sales, IT, service, and product teams to fully commit to an integrated customer experience, good things happen. High-performing marketing teams are 34.4 times more likely to be excellent at creating personalized omni-channel customer experiences across all business units.
Source: 2016 State of Marketing Report
What’s the result of said integration? It creates a single view of the customer, and it breaks down barriers that different work channels can sometimes present. According to Salesforce, a unified customer experience is more important than ever, because in the eyes of the customer, companies that are achieving this unification have a jump on the competition.
3. Top Marketing Teams Get Smart with Tech Adoption
There’s an old saying that you have to spend money to make money. Investment, though it may bring about short-term deficits, generally pays off (literally) with big returns in the long run. The companies that are willing to shell out some cash for tools that will help them succeed down the road are the ones who most often achieve that success.
Tools and tech help companies to keep pace with a dynamic marketing industry and support smarter marketing communications, according to the State of Marketing Report.
Source: 2016 State of Marketing Report
Salesforce found that high-performing marketing teams were 2.8 times more likely to substantially increase their spending on marketing tools and technology. Spending on marketing tech isn’t limited to just the top teams, either – over 65% of marketing teams indicated they expected to increase tech spending in the next two years.
Though already clearly influential, the marketing technology industry is projected to grow even larger in the years to come. Don’t get left in the dust while your competition takes advantage of all of the marketing technology out there.
Supercharge Your Marketing
If you want to join the companies that Salesforce recognizes as the highest performing, hard work is the only thing that will get you there. Following the tips outlined in the State of Marketing Report, however, will get you pointed in the right direction.
The key to crushing it with your marketing is to have a forward-thinking mindset. What trends, insights, and strategies will convert – not only in the next few months, but in the next few years?
Keep an ear to the ground to stay updated with all the happenings in the marketing world. Reports like these can only help you rise to the top.