BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Only One In Ten Marketers Are Modern

This article is more than 9 years old.

When I first saw the title of a recent research study from Forrester my immediate attention went to the word "modern."

There are of course countless examples of the word in common usage such as modern art, modern dance, modern appliances, modern civilizations and so on. There are also of course a plethora of pop culture references that incorporate the word, too.

From the TV show Modern Family to the classic Bowie song, Modern Love and the lesser known Sheena Easton ditty, Modern Girl, which just so happens to be on my iPod. Hey, a person can have an eclectic taste in music, can't they?

The full title of the study, which was commissioned by  Oracle  (disclosure: my employer) is Why You Need To Be A Modern Marketer: The Business Impact Of Marketing Maturity In The Age Of The Customer. In this particular context the word "modern" is defined as marketers who:

  • Use a combination of expressed preferences/interests, BANT, and basic criteria and also employ intelligent targeting based on real-time feedback data and behavioral tracking/analysis.
  • Have customer understanding that is comprehensive: They use data to develop personas for every major audience type and use these tools to guide marketing strategy, messaging, and execution.
  • Have customer data that is current and accessible in real time. They use predictive models and statistical techniques to model things like lookalikes and next best offers to drive the best business opportunities more efficiently.
  • Leverage attribution measurement to help understand the impact of multiple channels.
  • Have a standard, fully integrated cross-channel marketing automation platform.

The last bullet really struck home with me as those who know me know I am perhaps the world's biggest proponent of an integrated marketing approach.

Only One In Ten Are Modern

After surveying nearly 500 B2B and B2C marketing decision-makers in the US, the UK, Forrester discovered that, based on the definition of "modern marketers" only 11% scored well enough to be considered modern marketing worthy.

Additional key findings included:

  • Marketing maturity has an impact on the business. Companies that employ marketing best practices and topped the scale as modern marketers also grow revenue faster and enjoy greater market share than their less sophisticated peers.
  • Despite increasing focus on digital channels and marketing automation, many marketing practices
    remain immature.
  • Traditional brand management skills rank as most important. While marketers recognize data now drives the business and have upgraded core practices around data management and targeting, their hiring practices have yet to catch up.
  • Modern marketing delivers increases in sales and profitability. Marketers who win and retain customers in the digital age use technology and new processes to scale their reach and engagement while delivering measurable results to the business.

So the obvious question, at least obvious to me, is 'Why are nine out 10 marketers not modern in their thinking, their approach and so on?'

Jonathan Riemer, who is the Director of Global Marketing Campaigns and Senior Writer for the Oracle Marketing Cloud says it starts at the top.

"Most marketers (from the CMO down to the manager) have growing pressure from their leadership to generate immediate and continued success (leads, engagements, etc)," he says. "Much like the stock market, instant upticks and quarterly delivery rather than year to year strategy are all that matters."

He also thinks that the pressure forces too many businesses to settle for what's already in place.

"Unfortunately, all that pressure forces the organization to make do with whatever systems and processes they have cobbled together, no matter how broken or labor intensive," he added. "There’s no time to stop the engine, retool and improve."

He was quick to add that while results can still be produced via the non-modern way of doing things, there's more to the story than just numbers.

"Sure, their bosses may be happy with 200 marketing qualified leads (MQLs) produced per quarter, but the metric itself is siloed. There’s no correlation to the crazy amount of email campaigns, social programs, and display and search desperately shoveled out the door to thousands and thousands of poor, abused contacts and the quality of the leads actually produced. Who knows how much better the leads would be, if they could do things in a coordinated way across all channels.

The bottom line is most successful 'modern marketers' have managed to affect sometimes painful changes to method and approach."

My Take & Next Steps

I absolutely agree with my colleague Jonathan. I believe far too many marketers across the world rely on antiquated methods and systems for the simple reason is that's what they've always used in the past which is of course the complete opposite of word modern, which in one definition is defined as "of or relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past."

Me being me I have to use a pop culture reference to further  my point and I don't need to look any further than the aforementioned Bowie song "Modern Love" whose lyrics include:

"I catch a paper boy,

But things don't really change,

I'm standing in the wind,

But I never wave bye-bye"

Translation: Non modern marketers "catch the paper boy" meaning they catch the news that there is a whole new way of marketing available to them but things don't really change because they remain blindly loyal to archaic methods. The wind they stand in is from their modern competition as they blow by them. And of course these old-school, non-modern marketers staunchly refuse to wave bye-bye to anything from the past.

In terms of next steps, as identified in the study, key recommendations include:

  • Use technology and process to simplify the marketing approach. Advancing all five key modern marketing practices simultaneously can become complicated without tools and analysis that can focus the marketing team’s priorities.
  • Invest in a comprehensive data strategy. If customer understanding is the key to competitive advantage in the digital age, then data will become the currency by which marketers acquire this insight. Modern marketers put their data to work when they combine primary customer data from internal systems and databases with anonymous third-party sources to upgrade their customer intelligence.
  • Combine content strategy with automation to scale message delivery. To maximize the chance each marketing-generated opportunity turns into a successful revenue event, modern marketers must combine marketing automation with content marketing strategies that engage customers with information and utility they value.

One Final Thought

There's one other part of the definition of "modern marketer" I want to share.

"In dialogue with buyers, (modern marketers) give them exactly what they need at each stage of the purchase journey, personalized to their preferences. They give the buyers nothing that would waste their time."

That pretty much says it all right there, kids.