2015 Salesforce State Of Marketing Report in Summary

What will 2015 look like in the world of marketing? The results from the 2015 Salesforce State of Marketing Report gives us a pretty clear idea what marketers around the globe have up their sleeves. For one, we now know that 84% of marketers are planning to maintain or increase investments in marketing and technology throughout 2015. The areas that will see the greatest increase in spending include CRM tools, marketing analytics and mobile applications. But that’s far from all this year’s report reveals. Here are 6 key points from the 2015 State of Marketing Report.

What Is The Salesforce 2015 State Of Marketing Report?

Salesforce gains insight from over 5,000 marketers around the globe, finding out which areas have earned businesses the greatest bang for their buck, as well as what marketers plan to invest in within the coming months.

These reports are so telling as they identify the top priorities your competition plans to employ… forever begging the question: are you prepared to keep up?

Find out if you are prepared by checking out these 6 key take away points from the 2015 report:

1. It’s All About The Customer Journey… Personalize, Personalize, Personalize!

This year’s report highlights the true importance of the “customer journey,” or the personalized experience your customers receive when using your business. Wondering how to improve your customer’s journey? Marketing experts report that the most efficient avenues to do so include mobile apps, marketing analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) tools.

There are countless ways you can do research and learn more about your target audience including the use of CRM tools and marketing analytics. These well-tracked tools grant you a wealth of knowledge from which you can create personalized marketing that literally speaks to your intended audience. This personalization really counts, as it is one of the key things people are looking for in today’s tech-crazy world.

In order for a customer to enjoy a smooth journey all components of marketing need to be properly interlaced and working together. According to Scott McCorkle, CEO, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, “It is more important than ever to connect with each person interacting with your brand, and personalize journeys based on their actions and preferences. Our 2015 State of Marketing report shows that this will be the year that businesses connect the dots accordingly and implement a truly multi-channel approach to personalize each customer’s engagement.”

2. Marketers Plan To Spend More On Social Media

According to the 2015 report, another area marketers plan to increase spending is social media marketing. 64% of marketers see social media as a critical component for getting products and services to click with the masses. In 2014, only 25% of marketers said they planned to increase spending on social media. This year’s report sees a huge leap up from that, with 70% of marketers planning to increase spending on social media advertising.

3. Almost Everyone Is Investing In Mobile

71% of marketers say that mobile is integral to their overall marketing plan. That being said, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that marketers plan to spend more than ever converting to mobile this year. Most people consume online content using a mobile device. This means if your site is not responsive to mobile you are excluding a whole segment of your target audience. Plus, Google is busy working to filter out non-responsive sites all together from mobile-based searches.

In other words, going mobile is a must; it’s the way of the future. Marketers clearly see the affects of this as they plan to jump-start spending this year on integrating products and web services for mobile.

68% of marketers have already added mobile integration to their overall strategies. That number is up from 48% of marketers who already added mobile to their list of strategies last year. These numbers are only expected to grow as mobile continues to dominate desktop computers. Case and point: 58% of marketing firms now have an entire team dedicated to mobile marketing, that’s up from only 32% in the 2014 report.

These numbers prove how important it is to make sure your own mobile campaign is strong enough to stand up to the competition. Mobile isn’t just another way to advertise; it’s what customers want. Mobile friendly platforms show that a brand is relevant and accessible, something customers are actively on the hunt for. Costumers get what they want because they pay for it. If you fail to provide your customers with the mobile access they covet, your competition will gladly step in and do so for you.

4. Email Campaigns Remain Strong

73% of those surveyed cite email as a core part of their successful marketing tactics. Perhaps that has something to do with the high ROI most marketers generate through email. 92% of marketers report a healthy return on investment for email campaigns. In regards to measuring the effectiveness of an email campaign, 43% rely on conversion rate and 47% rely on click-through rates in order to judge performance. (Read more)

5. Top Five Areas Of Marketing To Receive An Upgrade In Spending

Where do you plan to increase spending in the coming year? Marketers plan to increase spending the most for the following 5 areas:

Social media advertising (70%)
Social media marketing (70%)
Social media engagement (67%)
Location based mobile tracking (67%)
Mobile applications (66%)

(Reference)

6. Common Tactics Used To Uncover Campaign Success Rates

One marketing campaign has numerous segments to keep track of; there is email, social media, your website and so forth. By quickly identifying the winners and the losers, you can continually improve upon your campaign.

How do you measure the success of your campaign? In 2015 marketers plan to employ the following tactics to measure marketing success: