98% of Marketers Measure Success Based on Data Privacy Changes

It’s an exciting time to be a marketer. Customers are increasingly engaging online through new innovative formats. Disruptive trends and technology continuously shake up the virtual landscape. Through it all, marketers have been at the forefront of digital transformation, adapting to meet the challenges and opportunities of a changing business landscape.

In this digital-first era, marketing’s responsibility has evolved around two critical roles: the stewards of customer relationships and the engine fueling growth. Eighty percent of marketers say their organisation leads customer experience initiatives across the business, while 94% of marketers globally view the marketing function as critical for driving growth — up from 87% last year.

In our latest marketing research, the third edition of the Marketing Intelligence Report, we surveyed more than 2,500 marketing decision makers around the world to uncover how marketers are using data for growth and customer experiences. Plus, we discover how marketers are adapting to a privacy-focused data ecosystem and the trends shaping cross-channel marketing.

Let’s take a look at some of the key findings. You can download the whole marketing report here.

1. Those in marketing report that proving impact is crucial

Today’s marketer has a dual mandate: growing revenue and nurturing customer relationships. This is reflected in how marketers define success. In Singapore, the top three metrics for defining success are: 

1. Customer acquisition
2. Brand awareness
3. Conversions, or desired action

Fewer than two in five marketers around the world report that they feel completely successful in evaluating any of these metrics definitively. When asked to name the challenges they face in evaluating performance, marketers in Singapore named the following:

1. Manual data integration processes
2. Siloed data
3. Alignment across teams on measurement and reporting

2. Privacy changes have led to shifts in marketing strategies and investments

Over the past few years, data privacy regulations — such as GDPR, Apple Mail Privacy Protection, and Google’s deprecation of the third-party cookie — have encouraged marketers to adopt a consumer-first, consent-based approach to data collection. At the same time, marketers are feeling downstream effects in their analytics as popular performance metrics like email opens are now less relevant as privacy policies preventing tracking are implemented. In fact, 98% of marketers in Singapore agree that recent data privacy changes have fundamentally changed how they measure marketing performance.

Marketers are relying on technology to ensure they can continue to measure performance, understand their customers, and provide them with individualised experiences. In Singapore:

• 92% of marketers plan to either increase or maintain investments in marketing analytics
• 91% of marketers plan to either increase or maintain investments in customer data platforms
• 96% of marketers plan to either increase or maintain investments in real-time interaction and personalisation

Speaking of investments, more than half of marketers around the world have increased their investment in paid social, mobile marketing, and web experiences — places where customers shop and do business online. This comes as no surprise as 58% of consumers expect to do more online shopping after the pandemic than before, and 80% of business buyers expect to conduct more business online.

3. Data quality is paramount — but not universally accounted for

Regardless of their objectives, marketers need dependable data to demonstrate the value of their programs and drive outcomes. Nearly four in five marketers around the world say data quality is key to driving marketing-led growth and customer experiences.

Though marketers globally are investing in analytics technology, only 51% of marketing teams currently have employees dedicated to analytics, according to the marketing report.

As with all challenges, there’s room for opportunity. It’s time for organisations to use AI and automation to accelerate manual data integration and analytics processes, and free up marketing resources for more strategic, creative work.

4. Data-driven marketing cultures require a centralised view

Without a clear, holistic view of data, it’s hard to give meaning to data-driven marketing efforts. Our marketing report found 99% of marketers in Singapore emphasise the importance of having a complete, centralised view of all cross-channel marketing. Yet, 68% still evaluate the performance of their cross-channel marketing in silos, leaving plenty of room for improvement and integration.

Not only do marketers need to integrate data across business units and sources, they also need to share it to generate value, foster team-wide collaboration, and connect marketing to business outcomes. With data unified in one place, marketers are positioned to lead growth in their organisations and engage their customers.