Altimeter released its The 2019 State of Digital Marketing report, exploring what’s top-of-mind for today’s digital marketers. In this #ContentChat community conversation, we explore the results, focusing on our top goals, challenges, and the skills we need to stay competitive in today’s data-driven business landscape.
Q1: What is your top digital marketing goal? Brand awareness, new leads. unified customer experience, new product awareness, or increased revenue with existing customers?
Brand awareness (37%) and new leads (26%) were top priorities for the survey respondents.
A1: The survey found 37% of marketers had a primary goal of brand awareness, with 26% focused on increasing the number of new leads and prospects. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
Our community largely mirrored these two goals, noting that brand awareness is a necessary foundation for most activities. Marketers need to focus on action-driving areas, though, past awareness.
This all makes sense to me as most of the marketing teams I work with have very aggressive new lead goals each month, and put a lot of their budget into top of the funnel content creation and distribution. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
A1] While brand awareness is important–with the addition of voice-first marketing & no click searches (45+% of Google), marketers need to think beyond branding to drive actions. #contentchat#digitalmarketing#voicemarketing https://t.co/HmxQ9xL4RI pic.twitter.com/5RHHh2LCgN
A1: What a tough question! Right now, we are focused on lead generation and nurturing. Just set up a few nurture campaigns we are really excited about. #ContentChat
— The Karcher Group (@KarcherGroup) August 5, 2019
A1.
Well it all starts with the “Brand Awareness”
If they know and understand the brand then only they start interaction and become a future clients. 🙂#ContentChat
— ⚡ Vraj Shah 📸 (@vrajshahspeaks) August 5, 2019
A1: Definitely new leads! #contentchat
A1. All of the above. I believe your Marketing Strategy should be focused on delivering awareness, leads, UX & driving traffic to your website and/or brick & mortar location. They have to be multi-leveled for success #ContentChat https://t.co/2NplNXitNg
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 5, 2019
A1: All of these goals are important! Brand awareness is definitely key because it can ultimately lead to more leads and a boost in revenue. #ContentChat
— Express Writers | Your Content Writing Team (@ExpWriters) August 5, 2019
It’s important to align your digital marketing goals with your business goals, and have both long-term and short-goal aspirations based on your unique buyer’s journey.
A1] Top digital marketing goals should be aligned with your business objectives. They also depend on where your audience & prospects are in the customer journey.
Remember the first 100 days post-purchase are critical.#contentchat#digitalmarketing https://t.co/LmSLVyAnGz
A1 – They’re all valid, but the 🔑 is how much value you assign to each and how they fit into your funnel/journey. #contentchat
— Andrew Stewart (@andrewtstewart) August 5, 2019
A1: Depends if we’re talking about long term goal and short term goal. Long term goals are expansion, new leads, and increased revenue. Short term, more traffic, smaller bounce rate, and brand awareness. #contentchat
— LiveHelpNow (@LiveHelpNow) August 5, 2019
Other areas of focus for the community? Brand consistency, thought leadership, engagement, scaling, and more. What is your top focus?
A1.
Our top digital marketing goals?
💪🏽Brand consistency
💪🏽Thought leadership
💪🏽Community building
💪🏽Impactful engagement#ContentChat
— Bentley University (@bentleyu) August 5, 2019
A1) Learning scalability in digital marketing. Lately I have been having an influx of work and clients, now its preparing for what’s next! #ContentChat
— David Perez (@njbranding) August 5, 2019
Q2: What are your biggest digital marketing challenges? Hiring the right people, scaling marketing innovation across the biz, proving the biz impact of digital mktg, exec buy-in, software/systems integration, team alignment w/strategy, or customizing content?
Hiring the right skills/people (55%), scaling marketing innovation across business units (54%), and proving the business impact of digital marketing were top challenges for the survey respondents—which the community met to mixed results.
A2: The survey found 55% struggle to hire the right skills/people, 54% are challenged to scale marketing innovation across the business units, and 47% struggle with proving the business impact of digital marketing. How do you feel about these results? #ContentChat https://t.co/KpNwDpCpdC
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
Talent sparked surprise given that it was the No. 1 ranking. It could be less of a matter of finding bodies versus finding quality talent, and Erika suggests exploring alternate work arrangements (i.e. work from home or remote workers) to increase the candidate pool.
I know that hiring is always tough, but I think in some cases, hiring could be a little bit easier if more orgs were open to working arrangements outside of the 9-5 in the office. Once you are open to virtual employees, you significantly broaden your hiring reach. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
It surprises me that so many businesses are struggling to hire the right people. Hiring can definitely ben hard, but 55% feels very high! #contentchat
A2.
According to me,#hiring right talent/people, (find like minded and similar mission people)
(Sometimes) Lack of perfect marketing of your own agency or individual
A2: Hiring the right people and training them. Educating my clients and exposing them to new methods of marketing. #ContentChat
— Janette Speyer (@JanetteSpeyer) August 5, 2019
A2: I think getting the right people on your team can be difficult, especially when you’re entirely remote. Not everyone is cut out for it!
Luckily, we’ve been able to build a great team that stays connected and works together successfully. #ContentChat
— Express Writers | Your Content Writing Team (@ExpWriters) August 5, 2019
Determining ROI is a common challenge, which ties into creating highly customized content (which was lower on the rankings than anticipated).
I expected to see content customization based on customer data as one of the top 5 struggles, but it was really low on the list. Which is a shame—a well-targeted and customized piece of content is significant sales fuel. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
Yes! #Content customization can be highly effective… but many (most) companies don’t have basic #marketing strategies defined or implemented.
Customized/personalized content takes resources to create and a strategy on how to implement. #CRM #marketingautomation #ContentChat
— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) August 5, 2019
Content customization is a pretty sophisticated level. My guess is everyone’s finding it hard enough just to get set up and meets their org’s expectations. #ContentChat https://t.co/6ZLXWTfuSV
— Jen Brass Jenkins (@chrliechaz) August 5, 2019
A2: We’re working to create and distribute content that brings us not only more leads, but the right leads. This pushes us to innovate our previous strategies to appeal to a somewhat new(er) audience. It’s doable, but it’s definitely hard! #contentchat
— Brafton (@Brafton) August 5, 2019
A2. I believe as a Digital Marketer, the most difficult challenge is quantifying ROI. However, that can be resolved by identifying goals & objectives in the beginning #ContentChat https://t.co/Gv5MqVTvHG
— Eddie Garrison #FLBlogCon (@EddieGarrison) August 5, 2019
A2: We think proving the impact of digital marketing can be tough. After all, it’s got to help the bottom line in some way, but some aspects are harder to quantify (like brand awareness). #ContentChat
— Synthesio, an Ipsos company (@Synthesio) August 5, 2019
Many community members cited time management/prioritization as a challenge, which may be why content customization currently isn’t top-of-mind for companies. This is also amplified as new platforms and trends arise every day.
I would say, personally,
it’s the overwhelming feeling
of seeing all of the latest:
-trends
-tools
-platforms
-mediums
and trying to figure
out how to successfully
allocate your budget/time!
What will have the biggest impact?
What aligns best?#ContentChat
— Bentley University (@bentleyu) August 5, 2019
A2: For us, it is time management o fit all. There is so much ground to cover across so many platforms. Juggling it all is definitely a challenge. #contentchat
A2:
▶️Understanding user intent
▶️Delivering the right message in the right context and at the right time
▶️Building transferable knowledge and being left behind once your Facebook learnings are no longer applicable to TikTok#ContentChat
A2. The biggest #digitalmarketing challenges I see for SMBs is figuring out how to prioritize limited budgets and resources.
There’s so much that COULD be done, but what should we do right now with available or affordable resources? #ContentChat
— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) August 5, 2019
Other challenges include alignment on strategy, wearing both a generalist and a specialist hat, and getting executive buy-in (and understanding) of various marketing activities.
A2: I will settle on customizing content and team alignment with strategy.
If you do not get a team that understands the strategy together with the niche Content your whole objectives could be messed up. #ContentChat
— Kofi Dotse 🇬🇭 (@kofiidee) August 5, 2019
A2) Being general enough to be versatile and help clients with their needs while still focusing on certain pieces of the pie and becoming a niche’d expert. #ContentChat
— David Perez (@njbranding) August 5, 2019
A2: Honestly? Getting leadership to understand the how, whys, and needs of digital marketing. It’s 101 around here baby. #ContentChat https://t.co/AAAikLcUW0
— Jen Brass Jenkins (@chrliechaz) August 5, 2019
A2 My experience has problems tend to come on the systems side as opposed to the management side. You can sell the team on what you’re trying to do, but finding a way they can easily incorporate it into their work can be a challenge. #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) August 5, 2019
Q3: What are the top digital marketing skills you are looking to hire for?
Hiring was a top challenge for marketers, and they’re looking for candidates with skills in: data analysis (41%), marketing automation/software expertise (38%), UX design (36%), video production and editing (31%), and coding/development (29%).
A3: Here are the top 5 most-wanted digital marketing skills: Data analysis 41%, Marketing automation/software expertise 38%, User experience design 36%, Video production and editing 31%, and
Coding/development 29% #ContentChat https://t.co/l58vqEmbfp
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
Data analysis as a primary skill set teams are hiring for, followed by marketing automation expertise makes sense given the complexity of integrating and gaining insight from data across the marketing stack. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
I am a little surprised to see coding in this list as most of the groups I work with outsource coding and development versus having a developer on staff that supports digital marketing campaigns. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
The community mostly named soft skills as what they look for, including an eagerness to learn and a passion for marketing. Data skills, though, remain in demand, as well as familiarity with social media platforms and an eye for design.
I always look for folks with a sincere interest in marketing and a desire to always be learning. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
A3: Creativity, tenacity, patience and a will to keep learning #ContentChat
— Janette Speyer (@JanetteSpeyer) August 5, 2019
A3: Ability to understand what the client is looking for and creating work to accomplish THEIR goals. I want to work with designers, not artists who can’t abandon their own style. #ContentStyle
— David Perez (@njbranding) August 5, 2019
NOTHING WRONG WITH ARTISTS. Just need different tools for different jobs.
— David Perez (@njbranding) August 5, 2019
If I am hiring, I must look for,
1) Having knowledge of platforms is mandatory.
2) Must be aware with analytical tools.
3) Able to “CREATE AND CURATE” content it self.
4) ABLE TO LISTEN SURROUNDINGS AND TO RESEARCH PROPERLY. #ContentChat
— ⚡ Vraj Shah 📸 (@vrajshahspeaks) August 5, 2019
A3.
I’m not sure what we are looking to hire, specifically, but we value…
Knowledge in:
💪🏽data analytics
💪🏽UX + accessibility
💪🏽Project management
💪🏽Web design/programming
💪🏽Design
💪🏽Organic + paid social
💪🏽AI
💪🏽etc. #ContentChat
A3.#contentwriter
Social Media #Influencer
Graphic designers
Project managers (😂😂)#SEO and #SEM experts#SocialMediaMarketer
…etc.#Contentchat
— Jignesh Thakkar (@JigneshThakkarV) August 5, 2019
Q4: What are the primary metrics you use to measure digital marketing success? Customer Loyalty/Customer Lifetime Value |Direct revenue | (e-commerce or sales) | Brand Awareness/Brand Health | Leads Generated/Converted | Customer acquisition | Digital engagament (content interactions/shares/ likes/downloads) | Net Promoter Score?
Customer loyalty/customer lifetime value (61%), direct revenue (55%), and brand awareness/brand health (48%) topped the list for the survey respondents.
A4: The top 3 were Customer Loyalty/Customer Lifetime Value 61%, Direct revenue (e-commerce or sales) 55%, and Brand Awareness/Brand Health 48% #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) August 5, 2019
Our community mostly agreed, with a few additions. Check out their primary metrics below!
A4a .
For Brand Awareness,
+ Vanity Metrics (Likes, Comments, Retweets, & Bookmarks)
+ Website Visits
+ Testimonials
+ Responsiveness by audience (Interest)#ContentChat
Do your customers become your biggest sales people? That’s one huge metric for success. It means relationships have been built and you have provided value! #ContentChat
— David Perez (@njbranding) August 5, 2019
It really depends on what our goal is for the quarter but right now we are focused on the number of sales-qualified leads. #contentchat
— The Karcher Group (@KarcherGroup) August 5, 2019
For Brand #awareness and leads generated:#Engagement on social media platforms
(Social reach)
Returning visitors
Would love to know others opinions..#Contentchat
— Jignesh Thakkar (@JigneshThakkarV) August 5, 2019
A4: We look a lot at generated/converted leads and digital engagement. #contentchat
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