Report: Marketing-led growth top priority for marketers

Australian marketers have almost universally shifted their priorities to focus on marketing-led growth, marketing efficiency and improving ROI, according to a new report.

The Data, Growth and the New Marketing Mandate, the first Asia-Pacific Marketing Intelligence Report produced by Salesforce Datorama in partnership with marketing research agency, The Leading Edge, examines how over 1000 marketers across APAC (285 across Australia and New Zealand) are integrating their marketing data to measure impact and business growth. Along with sheding light on the rapidly evolving growth mandate for marketers across the region, it unveils the top challenges they face. 

 “Marketers are seeing their role evolve as they are responsible for propelling business-wide outcomes. As they become increasingly accountable for operationalising growth mandates across the entire organisation, they need to embrace a data-driven culture and modernise their approach to unifying marketing data and measuring performance,” said Salesforce Datorama senior director product marketing, Jay Wilder. 

However, some of the biggest barriers marketers face in driving growth revolve around data. The report found data mismanagement, lack of a unified view of performance and lack of real-time insights as the top three challenges for respondents.

An although 86 per cent of A/NZ marketers see the importance of a complete view of cross-channel marketing, they face a number of roadblocks when it comes to integrating their data for that holistic view, according to the report. It has found 69 per cent of marketers still integrate data manually to an extent and 69 per cent of those surveyed spend a week or more on harmonising data from disparate channels, for reporting and analytics.  

Yet data integration and management are not the only challenges marketers face. The study reveals room for improvement when it comes to data analysis and optimisation, with 73 per cent of marketers not having access to real-time insights, early half experiencing misalignment across teams on measurement and reporting, and a third find sharing and collaborating on data analysis a challenge. 

In terms of their data journey, prompted by the shift in priorities to focus on business growth, marketers are making progress as they move forward. The report finds there is growing support from senior leaders for a stronger uptake of data-driven marketing (61 per cent), as well as investments in marketing analytics technology (62 per cent) and alignment on the KPIs that matter the most (62 per cent).  

“A successful growth marketing strategy requires the strategic alignment of people, processes and technologies. This will allow marketers to continue advancing their data and analytics capabilities to power the most effective engagements with the digital customer and drive business impact,” said Wilder.  

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