Nearly 88% of market leaders use agile marketing strategies, finds the latest Merkle report
With increasing demand, more marketers are focused on delivering personalized customer experiences for scaling up engagement. Recently, performance marketing firm Merkle has published its “Q2 2020 Customer Engagement Report” based on a survey by Ugam. The company surveyed 400 marketers from the US and UK brands across different industries to develop insights. The study is focused on how market leaders are utilizing agile marketing to align various organizations and build enhanced data-driven campaigns. This is an extension of its previous (Q1 2020) report that highlighted the challenges marketers faced when confronted by the need for personalization.
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Lately, there has been a massive agile surge of agile technologies adoption across organizations – about 88% of marketers reported that they use agile methodologies in their marketing practices. Furthermore, another 89% of marketers said they are currently implementing agile in various functionalities or with teams. Nearly 85% of respondents are planning to increase their agile adoption, and another 57% stated that they have formal plans for the same in the next two years. Clearly, there is slated to be a continuous surge for agile marketing in the coming year.
Jose Cebrian, Senior VP of marketing strategy at Merkle, is reported having said, “The pandemic has shone a bright light on the importance of agile thinking and practices, and we are encouraged to see such widespread adoption of agile marketing…Through agile adoption, marketers can help cut through disruption to achieve their organizational goals efficiently and effectively. This report provides brands with rich, research-based information and examples to make better business decisions in their journey to deliver the total customer experience.”
As per the study, marketers from different sectors are adopting agile in their plan – retail, high-tech, and financial organizations have applied agile marketing more extensively as compared to non-profit, insurance, media, and travel sector.
Privacy Regulations Adding To Data Accuracy
The study also highlights the impact of consumer privacy regulations – the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). They are somehow affecting marketers’ abilities to provide total customer experience (CX). Nearly 92% stated that they are confident about their ability to comply, and about 67% see the regulations as a positive force in their marketing functionalities.
Regardless of the stringent privacy regulations on data practices, businesses still understand the essence of balancing data sources. Merkle tried to find out what kind of data is driving businesses’ personalization efforts – 41% indicated that it’s mostly a mix of first-party and third-party data. Also, while the UK marketers prefer first-party data more, the US marketers utilize both first-party and third-party data combined.
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Clearly, it’s the beginning of a new era for privacy legislation. With the COVID-19 crisis, more marketers are starting to understand what the customer wants and from where their target audience data comes – allowing for enhanced personalization.
