Salesforce presents the results of its 8th annual State of Marketing report. In the report, the 6,000 marketing professionals who have participated have stated that their work adds more and more value despite macroeconomic and labor uncertainties. This has been indicated by 87% of those surveyed globally (85% in Spain), 10 points more than in 2021.

It also highlights how professionals in the 35 countries surveyed are adapting to changes in privacy regulations, while managing more data sources than ever before. In line with this, 60% of those surveyed in Spain stated that they had a strategy in place to reduce dependence on third parties when obtaining data from their customers.

Despite this, they face an uncertain situation given the ups and downs of the economy. Thus, 30% of marketing professionals in Spain confirm budget reductions as one of the biggest challenges for the coming year. On the other hand, 76% of them state that meeting customer expectations will be more difficult than a year before.

Challenges and priorities of marketing departments for 2023
The report has detected the 3 priorities of the marketing departments for this year in Spain. Industry professionals in our country will prioritize the creation of a cohesive customer journey, experimentation with new marketing strategies or tactics, and compliance with privacy requirements.

On the other hand, reinforcing innovation in their relationship with clients in the face of outdated technologies and tools, improving collaboration with the proliferation of remote teams, and seeking a balance between personalization and client comfort are the 3 main challenges for professionals. Spanish by 2023.

Companies around the world expect their marketing teams to meet customer expectations, do more with less in the face of economic uncertainty, and adapt to changing data privacy laws to prepare for a cookieless future. . This edition of the State of Marketing report will become a useful guide to help professionals navigate the changing marketing landscape and deliver exceptional customer experiences that help build lasting relationships.

Laura Guzmán, Vice President of Cloud Sales at Salesforce.

4 trends that define how companies relate to their customers
The report presented by Salesforce identifies four trends that define the relationship between companies and their customers. The Salesforce Customer 360 platform allows companies to face new challenges with a greater chance of success.

According to José Yáñez, Senior Vice President of Cloud Sales at Salesforce for Southern Europe, “the Salesforce Marketing Cloud value proposition, framed within the Salesforce Customer 360 platform, is helping companies in all sectors to increase their efficiency. Our analysis shows that Salesforce customers achieve a 31% improvement in customer engagement and a 28% increase in ROI from their marketing investments.”

The four key trends defined in the report are:
The relationship with customers advances through new and traditional paths. Marketers are investing in a mix of channels and technologies to reach audiences in new ways and build lasting relationships. Television and over-the-counter (OTT) services, audio and digital content are the channels that have experienced the greatest increase in use in the last year by marketing professionals in Spain. However, email marketing is still dominant, accounting for more than 80% of all messages sent through the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Marketers navigate a complex technological and regulatory landscape. Although 81% of Spanish professionals in this area continue to invest in third-party data, 60% claim to have a fully defined strategy to abandon this data source. Among the actions implemented by professionals in Spain we find incentive programs for clients to obtain information (56%), creation of their own data management strategy (54) or a cross-data management strategy (52 %)
KPIs change as marketers optimize information in real time. In all phases of the marketing funnel, year after year, professionals increase the number of parameters to monitor. The speed of obtaining information continues to be a competitive advantage. 84% of marketing organizations in Spain interact with customers in real time through one or more channels.

Remote teams improve with collaborative technologies. It is a fact that remote and distributed work is here to stay and that is why managers are investing in new collaboration tools that facilitate communication between teams and with clients. The transition to virtual environments is not being easy and, in fact, 74% of Spanish marketing professionals affirm that it is now more difficult to collaborate than before the pandemic. Collaborative tools are becoming important allies in this situation and, on average, respondents in Spain use 4 of these tools.