Salesforce study: Marketing managers optimistic despite headwinds

Salesforce, the global leader in CRM solutions, has published its eighth annual State of Marketing Report. The report shows that the work of Swiss marketers continues to create more value despite macroeconomic and labor market headwinds. The report also reveals how marketers in all countries surveyed are adapting to changing data privacy regulations - and managing more data sources than ever before.

Eighty-four percent of Swiss marketers believe their work represents greater value than it did a year ago - an increase of 2 percentage points from a year ago. However, they are struggling in an uncertain economy: 37 percent of Swiss marketers said that budgets are tight, and 88 percent of Swiss marketers agreed that it is more difficult to meet customer expectations than a year ago. To cope with the current situation, marketers are focusing on:

• Experimenting with new marketing strategies and tactics
• Improving the use of tools and technologies

Vanessa Gentile, Head of Marketing Switzerland at Salesforce: "Marketing managers are not only faced with the challenge of meeting the increasing demands of customers. At the same time, they are feeling the cost pressure - especially due to the current economic challenges. In addition, the regulatory shift to marketing without the use of third-party data is imminent. Companies, and marketers in particular, need to think about new strategies to further improve and strengthen the communication and relationship with their customers. Our eighth State of Marketing report is not only a barometer of sentiment, but also provides guidance in the ever-changing marketing landscape to create exceptional long-term customer relationships." The trends highlighted in the State-of-Marketing report were identified through a survey of 6,000 marketing executives in 35 countries and six continents, including 75 from Switzerland. Among the findings are the following:

• Multichannel as a success factor: Marketers are investing in a combination of channels and technologies to reach audiences in new places and build lasting relationships. Events and sponsorship, TV/Internet TV and website/app have seen the biggest growth in usage by Swiss marketers over the past year. However, email marketing remains dominant, accounting for more than 80 percent of all outbound marketing messages, according to Salesforce Marketing Cloud's trillions of messages sent.
• First-party data as an integral part of the strategy: Marketers are adapting to changes in data privacy regulations and demands for data transparency. Although 67 percent of Swiss marketers still invest in third-party data, 57 percent say they have a fully defined strategy for switching third-party data.
• KPIs are shifting as marketers seek real-time intelligence: At every stage of the funnel, marketers track more metrics than ever before, year after year. Rapid evaluation and response remains a competitive advantage. Sixty-seven percent of Swiss marketers engage customers in real time across one or more marketing channels.
• Distributed teams unite with collaboration technology: The realization that remote and distributed working is on the rise is prompting executives to invest in new collaboration tools. 77 percent of Swiss marketers say collaboration is more difficult today than before the pandemic and are using an average of 3.75 collaboration tools to help.

All information in detail

An overview of all the numbers in the 2022 State of Marketing Report in the Tableau dashboard. you can find here; the entire report with the global figures is available here.