It’s a brave, but still scary new world out there for marketers. Despite the huge advancements in technology, (especially data and analytics) most marketers are still insecure about their digital expertise, says Adobe’s latest survey.
Adobe’s study, titled “Digital Roadblock: Marketers struggle to reinvent themselves” surveyed 1000 marketing professional in the US, and the results were released at the company’s annual Digital Marketing Summit in Utah yesterday.
Here are some of the most interesting stats from the report:
– While 40% marketers stated that they want to reinvent themselves, only 14% of those marketers actually know how to go about it, highlighting the need for greater education and awareness of digital tools and strategies. However respondents cited lack of training in new marketing skills (30%) and organizational inability to adapt (30%) among the top obstacles to becoming the marketers they aspire to be.
“The shift to digital requires new technology, new approaches and, in many cases, entirely new roles for marketers,” said Ann Lewnes, chief marketing officer for Adobe. “The good news is that marketers see the change in front of them, and understand they need to embrace data, focus on creating personalized experiences and work across their social, Web and mobile channels. They just need to take the plunge.”
– Everyone recognizes that big data is important, 76% of marketers agreed for the need to be more data-focused by nearly half of them said they relied on “trusting my gut” to guide their decisions for allocating marketing spend.
– The ROI on it may still be flimsy, but everyone’s focusing big on social media. 61% of marketers see social media as the most critical area of focus 12 months from now, followed closely by mobile at 51%. print (9%) and TV (7%) ranked last.
– As a result, here are the most wanted people for marketing departments: Digital/social marketer (47%), data analyst (38%), creative services (38%) and mobile marketer (36%.)
“CEOs expect their CMOs to be leaders in digital business innovation and growth, and no one has a better seat at the intersection of ‘digital’ and ‘customers’ than marketers. So marketers must act now to transform themselves and their organizations,” said Yvonne Genovese, managing vice president, Marketing Leaders Research, Gartner. “This starts with embracing the business of digital marketing and the technology that supports their business objectives. They also need to grasp the new data – all focused on customers and the results of digital marketing efforts. If they don’t, they risk seeing someone else step in to lead digital.”
