Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?
- Trust in brands is a key component of loyalty, but is hard won and easily lost. While consumers don’t always trust in brands to do the right thing, it is important for them to trust the information they’re being provided, according to research from Qualtrics. In surveying consumers around the world and asking them their priorities when interacting with companies, a leading 61% said that their priority was to trust the information provided by those companies. The good news is that research has found that consumers tend to be more trusting than distrusting of information provided by brands, so there shouldn’t be too much skepticism on the part of consumers. Beyond trust in the information provided, consumers are also looking to complete interactions quickly and for convenience when interacting with companies, according to the survey’s results. Communication is a key priority for consumers, who cited communication problems as a close second among their reasons for poor experiences, just behind service delivery issues.
- Marketing leaders agree that excellence in digital customer experience (CX) is critical to business survival. But what factors drive it forward, and where do marketers need to up their game? A report from Sitecore examines the pillars behind winning digital experiences. Based on a survey of 625 leading marketers across the US, UK and Australia, the study delves into 15 drivers of the digital experience (DX), which are organized into 5 pillars: Technology, Strategy, Content, Intelligence, and Optimization. Of the 5 pillars identified, Technology is considered the one with the highest priority in the year ahead. Indeed, some 29% share of respondents chose it over the others as their top focus. Strategy is the pillar with the next-highest focus of the 5 in the year ahead: 23% share of respondents chose it as their top priority for digital experience. Next up is content, which about 1 in 6 (16% of) marketers report to be their most prioritized pillar in the year ahead. As with Content, about one-sixth (16%) of respondents chose Intelligence as the pillar that they would most prioritize in the year ahead. Finally, Optimization is rated the most important pillar in the year ahead for 16% share of marketers, on par with Content and Intelligence.
- Marketers have long been focused on engagement when working with influencers and have prioritized working with influencers that have smaller follower sizes, as these “nano” and “micro” influencers have typically had higher engagement rates. However, there appears to be a shift in thinking: study results from Linqia indicate that enterprise marketers now rank reach as their top influencer marketing success metric, and are shifting towards influencers with larger follower sizes. This year, when the more than 200 enterprise marketers who work with influencers were asked their top 3 measures of success for these programs, a leading 50% pointed to reach (CPM). That nudged this metric ahead of engagement rate, which dropped from 69% citing it last year to just 48% this year. Close behind was conversions (sign-ups, downloads, etc.), up to 46% from 35% last year. Concurrently, the types of influencers that marketers are looking to work with is changing. Macro influencers (100-500K followers) remained in the top spot, cited by 68%, ahead of last year’s leader, Micro influencers (5-100K followers; 62%). Notably, though, both are cited by fewer respondents this year than last, as is the case for Nano influencers (up to 5K followers), for which only 28% seek partnerships this year, down from 37% last year. While those have declined, there’s a growing desire to partner with influencers with larger follower sizes. This year 40% want to work with Celebrity influencers (5M+ followers), up a third from 30% last year. Likewise, there’s been a sizable increase in the portion of marketers who want to work with Mega influencers (500K-5M followers), with 60% saying that’s the case this year, up a quarter from 48% last year.
- CMOs are feeling increasing pressure from CFOs to prove the value of marketing, research has shown. As it stands, a recent survey from Gartner reveals that, according to senior marketers, CFOs are more skeptical of marketing’s value at their company than any other individual or group. In surveying 378 senior marketers, Gartner found a leading 40% citing CFOs as being within the top 3 executives most skeptical of marketing’s value, just ahead of the 39% who pointed to CEOs. When asked which individual or group is the single most skeptical, almost one-fifth (19%) indicated that it’s the CFO, ahead of the 17% who pointed the finger at CEOs. Only about half (52%) of the CMOs and senior marketing leaders surveyed reported being successful in proving the value of marketing and receiving credit for helping meet enterprise objectives. A key problem continues to be measurement, and this survey notes that those who communicate marketing’s value through a “long-term, holistic view” report more success than others. Luckily, this is the most common approach to measurement: among the 41% of respondents using it, more than two-thirds say they’ve had success in proving the value of marketing and receiving credit for their contributions to the business. According to the analysis, it’s also important for marketing leaders to use three types of metrics: relationship metrics (such as CLV and CAC), return on transactional metrics (such as ROAS and ROI), and operational metrics (including stakeholder satisfaction with deliverables and productivity of marketing resource). Finally, those marketers who reported regular meetings with high-ranking marketing analytics leadership were twice as likely as those who did not (62% and 30%, respectively) to prove marketing’s value and get credit for their contributions.
