FORBES INSIGHTS RESEARCH REPORT ON THE

FUTURE OF MARKETING

Marketing Operations is the Key to Success

In association with:

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A Letter from Leadership

In 2016, Aprimo (formerly Teradata Marketing Applications) and Forbes teamed up to survey global marketing leaders about the future of marketing. What we determined from our survey results was this: marketers who will succeed in 2017 and beyond are those who embrace and adopt the discipline of Marketing Operations.

Why? Because innovation combined with Marketing Operations frees marketers to do what they do best—perform smart marketing. And that means more content in the market that’s strategically aligned to each customer journey.

Marketers who have an infrastructure that allows them to remain agile—and enables them to respond to a rapidly changing global market—are the ones who will develop meaningful customer connections. And that, ultimately, results in creating loyal, lifelong brand advocates.

This report highlights the benefits of automating marketing to enable agility. Here’s to creating smarter marketing in 2017!

All the best,

John Stammen Aprimo CEO

Contents

Executive Overview .................................................3

Survey Demographics .............................................4

What Is Marketing Agility? .....................................5

The Current State of Agile Marketing .................6

The Key to Success .................................................. 7

How Organisations Are Planning to Increase Marketing Agility ................................................... 9

What’s Next for Marketers? .................................10

The Future: Mind the Gap .................................... 11

Forbes Research Report

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Executive Overview

Forbes Research Report

Consumers today want to associate more with the brand than with other, less interesting elements of the company. Some even invest in organisations simply because they have solid, globally recognisable brands.

Today’s consumers control their individual brand experience.

Before consumers even think about having a “live” conversation with a company representative, they have typically engaged in conversations across multiple channels by reading product and/or service content and interacting online.

From distribution channels to payment methods to interactions, consumers want and expect a seamless brand experience. But with today’s explosion of channels and customer touchpoints, creating a positive brand experience is harder to achieve—and manage—than ever before.

So what does that mean for modern marketers?

In a digital first world, it means marketers are under an exponentially heightened pressure to increase speed-to-market and effectiveness windows to meet consumer demands.

Consistently. On time. Every time. At every hour of the day.

The consumer relationship with an organisation’s brand is something far more complex than it was a decade ago. In the past, a company’s brand was a by-product of the core business (e.g., Ford: Quality is Job One), but today, a brand is a living thing—one that is continuously being created in parallel with the company itself, and one that has intrinsic value that draws people directly to it.

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Survey Demographics

The combined Forbes and Aprimo study honed in on the current —and future—state of marketing, as well as the agility required to keep pace with the demands of today's consumer. The survey spanned multiple geographies, numerous industries, and was completed by a variety of marketing leaders.

The results reveal that although there is still ample opportunity for improvement, organisations are trending toward adopting more agile marketing processes to meet, respond to, and exceed consumer expectations.

Geographies

Industries

Organisational Level

USMiddle East or Africa

Europe Asia

Financial Services

Senior Executive

Vice President

Director

Manager

Other

Healthcare & Medicine

Insurance Retail Technology

Forbes Research Report

33%33% 32%

1%

15%

31%

13%

1%

30%25%

12%

14%

15%

16%

By Achieving True Marketing Agility

With the following definition of marketing agility in mind, survey participants were asked how they measure success:

Marketing agility is about aligning and adjusting marketing processes in a way that meets the demands of when, where, and how a consumer wants to engage.

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A flexible, intelligent Marketing Operations platform brings order to marketing chaos by adapting to consumer needs while simultaneously maintaining best practices.

Forbes Research ReportForbes Research Report

37%

30%

27%

24%

Efficiency (faster speed-to-market)

On-time completion of marketing projects

Customer focus (increased customer response)

Flexible approach to changing customer needs

According to the survey, marketers measure success by their ability to succeed in the following areas:

How Do Marketers Measure Success?

of those surveyed are exploring ways to implement marketing workflow management.43%

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Forbes Research Report

74%

29%

45%

So how agile do marketers consider themselves today?

74% of respondents cite “agility of Marketing Operations” as a current marketing challenge, but additional survey data proves that organisations

are ready and willing to improve their marketing

agility, especially as budgets and support for agility increase.

29% of respondents “strongly agree” that their

company fully embraces marketing agility.

45% of survey respondents say

“technology” is the most critical factor contributing to the

success of their organisation’s agile

marketing efforts, while 33% report that

“process/organisation” is the most critical factor.

The Current State of Agile Marketing

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Forbes Research Report

Modern marketers are learning the customer journey as customers themselves are experiencing their own journey. In the past, marketers made bold predictions, such as: If I discount, they will buy based on instinct.

Today’s environment is much more nuanced and complex. Marketers must be able to measure their success based on learnings instead of instincts.

The Key to Success

Steps must be taken to ensure process and measurement are enabled. The best way to achieve this is to implement the right kind of agile technology that supports on-going consumer examination and education—a platform that “recognises” and builds upon past successes to create future wins.

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1 Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016, Understanding the New Martech Buyer Journey Whitepaper June 2015; http://www.walkersands.com/New-Martech-Buyer-Journey.

Now more than ever, Marketing Operations is essential to successful modern marketing, as dictated by today's highly complex and multifaceted environment.

Unfortunately, more than 51% of marketers say their companies are among the last to adopt the technology that makes marketing agility possible.1

Only 23% of respondents currently consider themselves “highly successful” in using agile marketing to deliver relevant, individualised customer communications. All respondents indicate these as the top areas in which they've had success.

Feel like you’re getting left behind? Don’t worry… many organisations are still in the midst of implementing a Marketing Operations solution to help them bridge the gap.

27%

20%

26%

18%

22%

9%

26%

23%

28%

21%

20%

16%

11 %

Forbes Research Report

Technology that automates Marketing Operations makes marketers more nimble and agile… and ultimately, more successful.

Faster shifts of marketing spend

More efficient marketing iterations

Increased real-time customer experience

Higher marketing metrics and KPIs

Fewer layers of marketing approval

Transparency of marketing spend

Faster speed-to-market

Increased customer response

Marketing projects completed on time

Marketing projects completed on budget

Flexible approach to changing customer needs

Increased accountability across the marketing function

Increased marketing collaboration

How Organisations Are Planning to Increase Marketing Agility

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43%

38%

36%

32%

32%

24%

43%

42%

Forbes Research Report

Although stand-up meetings can be beneficial to certain processes, they are not a marketing agility panacea. In fact, without the right technology and infrastructure in place, they can create more problems than they solve. Likewise, hiring new talent can bring insight and depth to an organisation, but without the right processes in place, high turnover and quality control issues often result.

Implementing marketing plan and spend management

Hiring new talent

Implementing marketing workflow management

Implementing content production management

Ensuring content compliance

Implementing a flatter organisation

Engaging a third party

Creating stand-up meetings

Technology

Process/organisation

Company culture

Budget

45%

5%

17%

33%

The factors considered most critical for agile marketing success are:

Although agile marketing presents many challenges, it also offers unprecedented opportunities to connect more strongly with individuals.

47%

37%

32%

27%

27%

26%

23%

17%

14%

14%

12%

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What’s Next for Marketers?

Forbes Research Report

Too much organisational bureaucracy

Difficulty proving the ROI of agile marketing

Employees are not empowered to make decisions

Difficulty showing how agile marketing leads to business outcomes

Operating in a siloed/hierarchical organisation

Budgetary issues

Lack of vision from top management

Not having the right technologies

Not having enough IT talent

Not having enough marketing department talent

Difficulty choosing the right third party

Interestingly enough, some of the top marketing challenges address the need to prove ROI, attribute business outcomes to agility, and boost budgets. On the flip side of these issues, Hubspot’s State of Inbound 2016 Report reveals that marketers who are able to calculate ROI are 1.6 times more likely to receive higher budgets.

Overall, only 28% of respondents "completely agree" that their organisation's current corporate culture, technology, processes, and budget support agile marketing. (And unfortunately, 3% report no support for agile marketing.)

31% say a year from now, they’ll still be working toward becoming more agile, while another 31% says their progress will depend on resource availability.

Marketers cite their top agile marketing challenges as:

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The Future: Mind the Gap

Ch

ann

el C

om

ple

xity

Content

Resource Capacity

The Marketing

Operational Gap

Digita

l Firs

t Mar

keti

ng

Traditional m

arketing

Forbes Research Report

Marketing moves fast. But agile marketers move faster.

Automating Marketing Operations is the future of marketing. And implementing the right technology can help marketers regain control of their marketing. Not only is it smart—but it’s vital—for marketers to mind the gap between traditional and automated marketing.

By establishing best practices and a methodology for continuous learning, smarter marketers hold the key to current and future success in an ever-evolving marketing landscape.

Aprimo and the Aprimo logo are registered trademarks of Aprimo LLC and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and worldwide. Aprimo continually improves products as new technologies and components become available. Aprimo, therefore, reserves the right to change specifications without prior notice. All features, functions, and operations described herein may not be marketed in all parts of the world. Consult your Aprimo representative or Aprimo.com for more information.

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Aprimo is a category-leading marketing operations

platform that frees marketers to focus on smart

marketing by managing the five essentials: plan,

spend, create, distribute, and perform. Aprimo’s

comprehensive suite improves time-to-market

and maximises a company’s marketing investment

to drive revenue. Aprimo is head-quartered in

Chicago, with global R&D and customer support

in Indianapolis, and international operations based

in London.

For more information, visit www.aprimo.com.

About AprimoForbes Insights is the strategic research and thought

leadership practice of Forbes Media, a global media,

branding and technology company whose combined

platforms reach nearly 75 million business decision

makers worldwide on a monthly basis. By leveraging

proprietary databases of senior-level executives in

the Forbes community, Forbes Insights conducts

research on a wide range of topics to position brands

as thought leaders and drive stakeholder engagement.

Research findings are delivered through a variety of

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Forbes' social and media platforms.

About Forbes Insights