For many marketers and creatives, 2023 was a bit of a “lost year” in terms of growth and productivity.
Speaking anecdotally, many friends and colleagues lamented that the year was leaner than expected, thanks to inflation and the cost of living crisis contributing to lower advertising budgets.
Like Marshall McLuhan says, we speed into the future looking at the rearview mirror. After reviewing Hubspot and Salesforce State of Marketing 2024 reports, here is an overview of what marketing firms are doing in the face of new opportunities - and threats - from artificial intelligence and regulatory sharks circling around third-party data collection and social media such as TikTok.
What is the state of marketing in 2024?
PERSONALISATION IS KING
Sure, content is king - but personalisation is even better. According to Hubspot, “87% of marketers plan to continue or increase their investment in mobile messaging through channels like SMS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.” That means constant engagement with customers using these channels, powered by Generative AI chatbots. 96% of marketers say personalization leads to repeat business, and 94% say it increases sales.
Their research also shows that it has an over 120x return on investment, on average. Hubspot also found that 55% of businesses predict that by 2024, most people will turn to chatbots over search engines for answers.
According to a Kibo survey, personalising the entire customer experience led to 3x ROI than forgoing personalisation. Salesforce says that 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. Of course, this will need an end-to-end strategy at the top and bottom of funnels to implement with any measure of success.
Imperator Email INVICTUS
If personalised messaging through various channels is the king, then email is the Imperator Romanum, the God-Emperor to rule over them all. Salesforce says that 84% of marketers send commercial or engagement messages over email, and Hubspot says that it’s tied for second place in terms of greatest ROI overall ($36 for each $1 spent). It accounts for 80% of all outbound marketing messaging, Salesforce says.
One in three marketers reports using email and 87% plan to maintain or increase their investment in 2024 though email marketers will need to adapt to emerging technologies and trends such as including targeted personalisation, personalised images, directions to the nearest retail outlet, social feeds, and social media links.
Scrollable Video - the seo killer?
We live in the age of the short-form video - Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. According to Hubspot, “marketers are doubling down on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to address younger audiences going right to social video platforms to search and engage with brands, even more so than search engines.” 50% say they will be using TikTok this year - and hopefully the US Government doesn’t set a dangerous precedent by banning it outright.
Aja Frost, Director of Global Growth at HubSpot says, “use social listening tools to understand which low, medium-, and high-intent questions prospects and customers are asking, then work with the Social Media team to create content answering those questions — or, even more powerfully, enabling brand advocates to answer it for them.”
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C is Not for Cookie - Third-Party Data
As Google seeks to phase-out third-party cookies and data collection, marketers need to walk the privacy versus personalisation tightrope ever more carefully. First-party data collected via opt-in (such as an email list) is the most powerful kind of data - as it directly captures and fuels the personalisation mentioned earlier. That’s not to say a complete view of a customer is a given either: 2021 Gartner® Cross-Functional Customer Data Survey, 14% of organisations achieve a 360-degree view of their customer, and of those 14%, 44% said it’s in a customer data platform.
75% of marketers are still investing in third-party data, 68% say they have managed to fully define their strategy to shift away from gathering this information.
AI is a co-pilot, not autopilot
AI hasn’t led to marketing being automated completely - but it has shown its usefulness in reducing administrative tasks through automation for marketers. Hubspot says marketers are saving three hours per piece of content and two and a half hours per day overall. Interestingly, only 6% say they use Generative AI to write their content for them; 45% says it helps with idea generation and inspiration, and 31% they use it to create outlines. 81% of marketers say that leveraging generative AI enhances their roles.
Salesforce says 68%% of marketers have a fully defined AI strategy, up from 60% in 2021 and 57% in 2020. The top three ways marketing organisations use AI is to automate customer interactions (90%), automate data integration (89%), and personalise the customer journey across channels (88%).
Most marketers say it’s the number one tool for research, with apps like Albus assisting with in-depth and tangential research into various topics. Of course, as AI isn’t perfect, we must always trust but verify.
What’s Next?
With AI speeding up the cycle between marketing and sales, it’s likely that further automation will further blur the distinctions between the two, especially with targeted and opt-in personalisation. Can you argue with an AI generated image of you wearing a dashing pair of sunglasses and is 40% off for your birthday? Only time will tell.
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