Oracle Eloqua’s intensive report, Defining the Modern Marketer: From Real to Ideal, has highlighted several key areas on which marketing decision-makers need to focus – and a surprising lack of ego on the part of Modern Marketers themselves . . .
Real World vs. Ideal World
Modern Marketers revealed that they feel they’re underperforming when comparing themselves to the five core competencies driving the function of the ‘ideal marketer’:
Actual Ideal
Marketing technology6% vs. 13%
Analytics8% vs. 15%
Conversion11% vs. 19%
Engagement15% vs. 24%
Targeting19% vs. 29%
Moving with the Times
But Modern Marketers should give themselves some credit – after all, it’ll be down to their stellar efforts that:
60% of marketers say their companies are now adopting and integrating Modern Marketing practices in 2013 . . .
compared to
. . . just 15% in 2011.
Top Five Biggest Changes to Modern Marketing
What do Modern Marketers believe have been the most transformative factors in marketing?
No. 1Ability to track marketing ROI due to technology (74%)
No. 2Use of social media in marketing (61%)
No. 3Maturation of demand generation and lead nurturing (44%)
No. 4Shift of power from the brand to the customer (37%)
No. 5Fragmentation of media (28%)
The Three Pillars of marketing Success
Marketers place three factors above all others when seeking evidence of how successful their marketing has been:
Marketing ROI 34%
Marketing-influenced sales 21%
Conversion rate 20%
Top to Bottom: the Digital Marketing Landscape Defined
What Modern Marketers believe are the most and least important digital marketing activities:
From top . . .
Email 58%
PR, blogging, customer case studies 44%
Social media 41%
. . . to bottom
Custom publishing 6%
Affiliate marketing 3%
Other/Mobile3%
The Top Three Challenges Facing Marketers
Has lack of investment through the recession caused the problems marketers see today? Here’s what marketers said their top challenges are:
The need to achieve faster and more relevant touch points in the market48%
Difficulty measuring ROI38%
Increased difficulty to making offer and timing of message specific to customer32%
A helping hand? Or a hindrance?
With so many emerging challenges, Modern Marketers are increasingly turning to third-party suppliers to aid with their marketing campaigns – but overall satisfaction ratings with such providers are only rated at an average . . .
5.8 out of 10.
Remember…
Creative skills and knowledge of marketing technology are of equal importance in the modern marketplace.
Email is considered to be the most important digital marketing activity and the need for speed and relevance are the greatest challenges.
Content-rich marketing tactics such as white papers and webcasts are essential for lead generation and lead nurturing.
Modern Marketers believe they should ‒ and could ‒ be doing better.
To find out more about what makes the Ideal Modern Marketer, and the obstacles marketers face in trying to fulfil that role, click here for a free download of the full results of the report: Defining the Modern Marketer: From Real to Ideal
