We are excited to announce the release of our new Customer Engagement Report for Q3 2019! This report highlights the trends happening in the CRM world; from data and marketing technology to loyalty and customer experience. The Customer Engagement Report will be a quarterly publication going forward and will complement the media insights we share in the Digital Marketing Report (DMR).
Customer engagement is not easy as it requires strategy, data, advanced analytics, technology, campaign execution and performance measurement, all working together. Merkle has lived through the aspirations and iterative achievements of our clients over the past 30 years.
Below are a few highlights from our inaugural report. Download the full report here to gain all the insights.
Marketers Seek to Invest More in Data, Analytics & Technology
Today, automated data-based personalization is critical and can be achieved using machine learning (ML) and access to advanced measurement insights such as attribution. In our original research, 32% of marketers would look to invest more in data, technology and analytics before any other option. Digital investments were followed behind at 16%.
Marketers Rely on Outsourcing for Highly Specialized Skills
In Merkle’s 2019 Marketing Imperatives, we discuss that many marketers identify the need to wire together a group of technology components. In our experience, organizations must also invest in a platform for both enterprise integration and access to customer data. This requires deep expertise across a complex and disparate platform landscape and customer data architecture for insights and activation. Our clients recognize the value of external expertise with 30% - 42% outsourcing platform and database support.
Nearly 25% of respondents reported outsourcing their creative work while 45% collaborate with vendors to achieve their creative goals.
Day to Day Functions are a More Active Collaboration with Vendors
Personalization is not easy to achieve, which is likely why marketers report that 55% - 69% of their campaign functions are conducted with the help of external partners.
According to Marketing Land, by regular assessment of your marketing automation, customer experience and insights can offer low-hanging opportunities to improve personalization in their marketing programs. By partnering with vendors, marketing operations functions can benefit from external expertise while preserving the efficiencies of internal ownership.
Want to learn more about the latest CRM trends and insights from our experts, including articles on customer experience, promotions, and digital transformation through cloud technology? Download the full Q3 2019 Customer Engagement Report here.
