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The remit of marketing has expanded beyond branding to encompass business growth.

Therefore, marketers have to adapt to new metrics and decision-making frameworks. Data integration and analytics to measure impact are the new essentials.

Datorama is a Salesforce company that provides a AI-powered marketing intelligence and analytics platform for enterprises, agencies, and publishers. Recently, Datorama and researchers from The Leading Edge conducted qualitative and quantitative research with more than 1,000 marketers in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong.

The results show how marketers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are responding to the new growth mandate. This research also uncovers the challenges marketers face with data integration and analysis, and their solutions. 

Here are four highlights from the Marketing Intelligence Report:

 

1. Growth marketing is the new focus

The vast majority of marketers – 91% – recognise the major role marketing plays in driving revenue.

This growth mandate is also reflected in marketers’ priorities. About 94% of respondents say that their priorities have changed to focus on marketing-led growth.

 

“Growth marketing will become the most important thing in Thailand. Big companies are now not so much focused on branding... they want to drive revenue, especially now with COVID-19...so this will become more and more important. Everyone will move to a growth marketing approach.”

Media Agency, Thailand

Approaches to growth marketing, however, vary greatly:

  • 54% of marketers say they think of driving growth and efficiency as a long-term play that builds equity and loyalty.
  • 11% look for short-term gains including increased sales, acquisition, and retention.
  • 35% describe a mix of long- and short-term goals.

Time periods aside, the top growth-related sales initiative for marketers across APAC is connected customer experience across marketing, sales, and service. This means the top barrier – misalignment across teams on measurement and reporting – is essential to overcome.

 

2. There’s opportunity for those who can manage cross-channel data

Many of the barriers to effective growth marketing stem from inadequate measurement of cross-channel activity and performance.

The average APAC marketer is managing 7.4 marketing channels. A third experience challenges unifying data from different sources, and 64% spend a week each month – or more – doing this.

 

“We are still a way off a single source of truth. The issue is often the engagement and knowledge of our teams, and just doing things as they have always been done … And different teams will build what they need, so while a single source of truth is the aspiration, we are not there yet!”

Senior Marketing Manager, Singapore

Data-driven customer engagement and personalisation at scale can increase lifetime value and assist in immediately boosting returns of investment. This represents a straightforward growth marketing opportunity for the 71% of marketers who are still integrating data manually.

 

3. Optimisation requires investment and problem-solving

Data accuracy – rated the most important factor for marketing performance – is fundamental to effective analysis and optimisation. It must be solved first, before other challenges can be effectively addressed.

These other challenges include sharing and collaborating on data analysis (faced by 37% of marketers) and connecting marketing investments to business outcomes (faced by 35% of marketers).

By looking deep into marketers’ processes, our research uncovered three major underlying issues with marketers’ data practices:

  1. 54% don’t have access to real-time reporting or daily reports.
  2. 68% don’t have fully automated cross-channel reporting.
  3. 40% operate in silos, measuring performance independently within each of their tools or relying on spreadsheets.

 

4. A data culture is key

Marketers are optimistic. Sixty-six percent say they’ve made excellent progress in gaining executive support. Sixty-four percent rate the progress on aligning key performance indicators across teams, regions, and partners as excellent.

 

“Getting all our staff engaged to really understand how to input and use the data correctly, and in a timely manner – that is our real challenge with data-driven marketing.”

Marketing Manager, Singapore

In the data revolution, tools and processes are vital. But so is a data culture. 

People need enablement. They also need to be part of a culture that:

  • Shapes decisions and actions around data insights at every level.
  • Gathers and manages the right data mapped to desired outcomes – now and for the future.
  • Prioritises the democratisation of real-time data so that it is not locked up in the IT department.

By understanding and utilising these data integration insights, marketers can lead data-driven decision making to deliver better performance and return on investment. In this changing business environment, that knowledge is essential to business success and growth marketing.

 

Find out more about how marketers are using data to fuel growth marketing. Register for the Datorama APAC Marketing Intelligence Report Webinar.

 

Datorama APAC Marketing Intelligence Report Webinar