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60%

Struggle demonstrating ROI of marketing activities

59%

Generating quality traffic/leads

40%

Getting more value from owned channels

1/3

of marketers struggle with creating high quality content

3x

as many marketers are challenged with leads as compared to brand building

35%

of marketers believe creating high quality content (ideation and execution) to be a challenge

29%

see ABM as an emerging challenge among old problems

Perspectives


Leadership

New metrics offer hope for perennial challenges

The top challenges revealed by our research are nothing new to marketers—they’re perennial difficulties that plague most planning cycles. Demonstrating ROI of marketing activities, generating quality traffic/leads, securing budgets, and getting more value from owned channels have been on top challenge lists in similar forms for decades.

With marketers prioritizing innovation and shifting focus toward newer tactics like content and account-based marketing (ABM), one might expect to see old troubles fall away and new challenges rising to the top. Yet the same problems persist. The perseverance of classic marketing challenges throughout varied economic environments may say less about their enduring nature, instead revealing issues with how we measure success.

As marketing continues to evolve and new metrics gain steam, we believe our understanding of these challenges will grow. Which problems are “real,” and which are more a reflection of outdated measurement? What are the true root causes of these concerns? And how do we solve them—not just for this cycle, but in a programmatic way that allows us to address them over the long term?

With the growth of engagement metrics, customer lifetime value (CLV) measurements, the time-to-innovation metric, and other emerging mechanisms, we’re already seeing the balance tip toward more useful methods of measuring success. As younger generations take a more prominent role in marketing—and as our technology continues to break barriers—we expect this trend to continue. These factors and others will allow us to cast typical marketing challenges in the appropriate light, implement policies to address them in intelligent, automated ways, and shift our focus toward higher value initiatives that deliver differentiating results for our clients.


Strategy

Marketing complexity sidetracks great marketing

It’s not surprising that demonstrating ROI and generating quality traffic are continual challenges. Marketing keeps getting more complex, and the tools and technologies we leverage can distract us from the fundamentals. Great marketing is always about knowing your customers and building moments at any level—brand, campaign, or content—that connect your brand to their wants and needs. Ask yourself first, is this useful or compelling for our audience, will they care? If the answer is yes, yet it’s not showing ROI, then consider whether you are measuring it effectively.

Proving what is truly effective is more challenging, as quantity-based metrics can only be accurate if you have taken the time and resources to link up all your systems with a view into which audiences matter. Often the true answer is that a lot of your marketing is having an impact; you just can’t see it.

To help, I advise all marketers to keep two sets of measures: one for those you can measure quickly and use for optimization and a second for your bigger business goals. Avoid being hasty on what is or is not working for your broader goals; use them like a progress bar. Take the time to set up multiple long-view tests that can have an impact, then spend time with leadership to discuss the merits and results of how your tests turned out. It’s better to diversify bets and get some learnings rather than watch the performance of “what you’ve always done” slowly erode.