BY Kathy Crosett
Fifty-seven percent of digital marketers call themselves best in class. Despite feeling confident in their abilities to handle all things digital, these businesses admit to facing big challenges. The 2018 Digital Marketing Plans for Best-In-Class Success report from Adestra reveals where digital marketing services providers will find opportunity.
Like any marketer, a best-in-class operator wants marketing efforts to generate leads (48%) and sales revenue (45%). To stay ahead of the competition, 56% of businesses in this study plan to significantly increase their marketing budgets. As they develop their digital marketing strategies for the coming year, business leaders say they have a few challenges to overcome. These are:
- User experience 46%
- Data quality 45%
- Lead generation 41%
Digital marketers are eager to connect with consumers. Over time, they can capture user information that will ultimately help them develop customized marketing. If marketers engage in a practice called progressive profiling, they’ll reduce the chance of aggravating consumers. Using this practice, they can ask questions during specific customer interactions and then build a solid profile of each customer. In addition, analysts recommend that marketers regularly cleanse their data to ensure that customer information doesn’t get old and out-of-date.
To meet their 2018 digital marketing goals, businesses say the following formats are most effective:
- Social media marketing 53%
- Marketing technology 51%
- Content marketing 42%
- Search engine optimization 42%
- Search and social ads 32%
- Email marketing 31%
- Data management 28%
Most marketers feel confident in their abilities to conduct social media campaigns. They say the most challenging formats are marketing technology (46%) and data management (47%). This outcome isn’t surprising, as these tactics have not historically been part of the marketing department.
The biggest opportunity for digital marketing services providers will be in SEO management and content marketing development. Over 40% of marketers believe these formats are effective. A similar number also struggle with good execution of these formats.