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Only over a quarter of UK organisations have omnichannel connected in their organisations 
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Traditional communication methods are still the popular with three quarters (76%) of businesses using Email and three-fifths (59%) using SMS, but only 7% of UK businesses are using digital messaging apps.

The ongoing cost-of-living crisis has set a gloomy tone for consumersacross the country. Whilst customers tighten their pockets, businesses are looking for ways to deliver relevant and personalised communications that keeps customers keen. Yet businesses are missing the mark, according to exclusive new online research from global cloud communications platform Infobip.

The research, commissioned with research company IDG, polled 215 organisations spanning across  retail & e-commerce, transport and logistics, telecommunications, financial and insurance and public sector industries. The research aimed to assess the integration of digital channels and how connected they are across differing departments within an organisation and how this informs the customer experience.

The research found that only over a quarter (28%) of UK organisations have omnichannel connected in their organisations, yet over 60% of UK organisations see the value in connected communication channels.

The results also found the following about channel use in UK organisations:

  • There is a slower adoption of newer digital messaging apps: Traditional communication methods are still the popular with three-quarters (76%) of businesses using Email and 59% using SMS but only 7% of UK businesses are using digital messaging apps; next year this figure is set to double (14%).
  • (66%) of data used in the different channels is customer information, yet only 6% of communication is personalised by behaviour or context.
  • Businesses are finding omnichannel difficult to implement: 61% of UK businesses see a lack of collaboration or connection between departments as the main challenges for implementing an omnichannel Customer Experience

With half (50%) of UK organisations in the process of selecting such technology now, and a third  (33%) planning to invest in having omnichannel messaging platform over the next 6-12 months, the research shows that having connected communication channels is of priority. However there seems to be difficulty in integrating this and using it. The main challenges cited for implementing an omnichannel Customer Experience is difficulty in integrating data with legacy systems (62%) and lack of collaboration or connection between departments (61%).

Almost half of UK and European companies (45% and 41%) have high levels of some digitisation within their organisation, and consistent with the Europe-wide finding, almost all (99%) companies in the UK have customer experience automation integrated into their business at some level. But only half of companies in UK and Europe are actively implementing omnichannel into their systems. There is still some way to go for businesses to achieve optimal omnichannel experience for their end-users.

Ivan Ostojić, Chief Business Officer, at Infobip said: “Just like ourselves, our customers have an abundance of choice ranging from WhatsApp to Skype with their communication apps. While traditional communication methods are still going strong, to deliver effective and personal communication we need to tap into the digital messaging apps that our customers know, prefer and love. It’s encouraging to see we are recognising where our customers are and how we can reach them, this is informing where businesses are investing and funnelling their efforts. However, this can be a confusing task with legacy systems predating omnichannel methods. Partnering with businesses that specialise in supporting businesses transform their customer offering can lighten their load.”

Ads still presenting biased representation of women
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Women still lack unbiased representation in advertising in 2023, despite women being featured in advertising more than ever before.

That’s according to analysis by CreativeX of over 10,000 ads supported by more than $110m in ad spend from 2021-2022, which indicates that despite a more balanced presence among gender in advertising, equitable portrayals, and ad spend against diverse content remain low, particularly for intersectional identities.

Bucking the trend of other studies into representation within advertising, the dataset revealed that women appeared more frequently in ads than men. Of all unique individuals identified in ads from 2021-2022, 57.3% were women, and 42.7% men.

The higher frequency of women is most likely connected to the industries included in the study. A 2017 study from the Geena Davis Institute found that women appeared more often than men in ads from Healthcare and CPG brands.

Despite women proportionally featuring more in ads, this visibility did not extend to women with darker skin tones. Across all of the dataset, women with darker skin tones (type v and vi) featured 80% less than women with the lightest skin tones (type i and ii).

CreativeX says measuring appearance and casting only speaks to one part of the puzzle when creating representative content. i.e. inclusive ads that fail to receive sufficient ad spend will not be able to compete with inequitable content in an ever more crowded ad space.

For example, while its research demonstrated that ads featuring women aged 60+ received 221% more ad spend in 2022 compared to 2021, this was still only equivalent to less than 1% of total ad spend.

Individuals at the intersection of multiple historically marginalized identities, such as gender and race, face compounded disadvantages. This is evident when considering representation in advertising.

The research demonstrated that ads with lighter-skinned men in professional or leadership roles received as much as 4x more in ad spend as compared to ads with darker-skinned women in the same roles.

Previous studies have considered the context in which men and women appear in ads. Unilever’s own research found that just 3% of advertising featured women in leadership roles, and only 2% showed women as intelligent.

Despite being among the most educated group in the US, women of color make up just 4% of C-Suite executives, and black women make just 63 cents for every dollar earned by white men. Lack of representation in advertising exacerbates these real-life inequities.

Download the full CreativeX 2023 Gender in Advertising Report here.

What does excellence look like in B2B Marketing?
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According to recent research, 82% of business leaders find B2B marketing boring – and 88% of CEOs want a bold, contrarian or provocative approach. That’s fine, says Workbooks’ CEO John Cheney, but execution is just as important as strategy. Before going wild with an innovative B2B marketing strategy, it is vital to put in place the marketing engine and ensure the current ‘people, process and technology’ is set up to effectively deliver campaigns and gain real value from creativity… 

Executing strategy

On the one hand, 60% of B2B marketers face reduced or stagnant budgets in 2023. On the other, marketers are being called to tackle the risk averse culture within the B2B industry. CEOs want the marketing team to take a radical approach to the look and feel of the brand, build synchronicity between different arms of the business to pool creative ideas, even create more intense emotions to drive B2B buying behaviour.

But while this call for change provides marketers with an apparently unchecked opportunity to unleash their creative talents, the reality of B2B marketing is that the business will always be looking for a return on investment and tangible proof of value. And that means the execution is just as important as the marketing strategy: however innovative or just plain ‘out there’, if the business cannot run email or Google Advertising campaigns, if it can’t track leads or benefit from trade shows, all that creative thinking will be pointless.

So, what does good really look like when it comes to B2B marketing? Where does technology, including CRM, fit in? And what steps should a company take to make the most of stretched marketing budgets this year?

Step 1: Self assess to identify execution shortfall

It is vital to honestly assess the current marketing set-up when executing campaigns. How good is the business at running digital advertising campaigns? What is the SEO benchmark, and how is SEO performance measured? How effectively are Marketing Qualified Opportunities turned into Sales Qualified Opportunities? How are results tracked? How are sales measured against different marketing activities?

Whether the focus is brand awareness or lead generation – the team needs to both effectively run campaigns and measure the results. The data provided by every campaign is key to the evolution of the marketing strategy, so without that, the B2B marketing process cannot improve. Honestly assessing and then improving any underperforming areas is essential if the business is to truly benefit from the next marketing strategy.

Step 2: Consider technology from a place of success

There are so many marketing technologies available, it is easy to get distracted by the latest innovation. But technology can only accelerate what a business is already doing. So, if the marketing execution process is already working well, adding technology will enhance that process and deliver benefits. If marketing is not working well, tech will simply help the business to do the wrong thing faster: more useless leads, more hits on the landing page that bounce straight off again.

When the execution process aligns with the business goals – the target personas and value propositions – the addition of technology can fast track execution and support the evolution of the marketing strategy.  Using CRM for example, to join up information across the entire sales and marketing process not only transforms B2B marketing activity but also provides the insight required to support ongoing strategy development.

Step 3: Leverage feedback data to support creative strategy

The general perception of marketing is that it is all about creativity, logos and brand awareness. But marketing is actually all about revenue. Without the foundation of ‘execute, measure, learn’, it all falls apart. In addition to using the data provided by effective marketing execution, creating a strong feedback mechanism with the sales team can rapidly highlight the value of leads and provide insight into where plans can be refined to drive additional value.

Conclusion

Innovative, creative campaigns can be hugely exciting, but before turning up the investment dial it is essential that the marketing engine has the capacity to execute well. With marketing execution in place, including the right people, processes and technology, a company can apply a raft of different marketing strategies to reflect and deliver on business goals.

Third of marketing budgets spent on operational excellence, but results inconsistent
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Thirty-one per cent of marketing budgets are spent on the pursuit of operational excellence, despite having inconsistent impact on overall organisational performance.

Gartner surveyed over 400 marketing operations (MarOps) leaders between August and October 2022 to find that 94% of marketing organisations are formally pursuing operational excellence (e.g., improving processes, building new capabilities). This indicates an acceleration of investment since 2020, when only 49% of marketing organizations surveyed had a dedicated MarOps leader.

However, the survey found that 72% of operational excellence pursuits don’t actually demonstrate characteristics that align with success, putting enterprise growth and marketing transformation at risk.

“CMOs are under pressure to make every dollar count,” said Michael McCune, Senior Director, Advisory in the Gartner Marketing practice. “However, their teams are spending a large proportion of their budgets pursuing change and improvements in ways that aren’t effective.

“‘Business-as-usual’ marketing activities do have to change, but CMOs shouldn’t divert funds away from activities such as advertising and trade shows that could have a more significant impact on marketing’s overall remit to drive growth.”

Strong pursuits of operational excellence complement the day-to-day management of marketing’s work and are associated with characteristics such as automated workflows, effective use of Agile methods and persistent effort over multiple years.

Organizations with strong pursuits were 43% more likely to report exceeding their operational performance goals compared to organizations without strong pursuits, but at a greater cost: They spend 45% more than average and dedicate 18% of their staff to achieve MarOps excellence, compared to the average 5% of staff dedicated to all other pursuits.

“Marketing organisations can’t blindly or ineffectively invest in improvement at the expense of business as usual unless it shows results, given the tight economic and labor markets,” said McCune. “They need to lay a better foundation for that investment and can look to strong pursuits for guidance.”

In order to maximize the impact of future MarOps investments, Gartner says marketing leaders should:

  • Communicate to stakeholders that pursuits of operational excellence will not have a persistently high cost. A new pursuit likely has many opportunities to drive improvements, but it should not be a cost dragged on marketing over the long term. As improvement occurs, resource requirements for continuous improvement should diminish.
  • Seek resolution of known critical gaps. CMOs often know about systemic problems, but lack resources to address them at the start of operational excellence efforts. Make sure to have a dedicated team working to resolve one or some of the known critical gaps so that investment in the pursuit has early payoffs.
  • Ensure that MarOps efforts don’t duplicate enterprise initiatives. Alignment with operational excellence pursuits in sales and service functions is always a good idea, but CMOs should avoid neglecting the enterprise-wide efforts of other functions such as finance and HR that may lighten marketing’s lift over time.

Retailers not seizing 1st party data capture opportunities
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Almost two fifths of retailers employed no form of data capture during online buying journeys, impacting their ability to market effectively.

In-depth research of 99 UK ecommerce brands in its 2023 WunderkIndex Report, which analysed on-site shopping journeys and customer engagement – across both email and text channels – over a 6-month period.

With 37% of the brands audited not seeking data capture, either when a customer first comes to the site, after browsing the site for several minutes, or at the point of exiting the website, retailers could be leaving valuable first-party data on the table. This risks impacting their marketing list growth and future revenue opportunities through email engagement, meaning they are potentially missing out on an estimated 6-10% additional digital revenue.

By the end of 2020, CPC (cost per click) across social media platforms had risen by between 20 – 60% YOY (year-on-year).  Yet, despite these rising costs, some of the conventional paid media platforms used by brands to acquire customers, including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, were seeing a 30% decline in conversions.

This prompted many brands to question the ROI of being overly reliant on ‘rented’ audiences on 3rd party channels, especially with the planned third-party cookie cull by Google, set to take place in 2024, added into the mix.

This makes 1st party data now even more mission-critical to drive long-term engagement, revenues, and customer lifetime value (CLV) through cost-efficient owned channels – as well as to deliver ROI on marketing pounds, particularly given the continuing economic headwinds.

The WunderkIndex report also reveals common shortcomings in retailers’ data capture capabilities, with 93% of the websites surveyed failing to include explicit checkbox consent in on-site capture experiences, falling short of GDPR-led permissioning best practice.

Of the retailers audited with capture capabilities, 86% prompted visitors for an email address but just 6% were set up to capture mobile numbers, missing out on customer engagement opportunities via text – a rapidly growing and high-converting marketing channel.  A recent Wunderkind survey of over 2,000 UK consumers found that, while 84% agree that email is still the most convenient channel for communicating with retailers when shopping online, a third (32%) say they now find text just as convenient – an increase of +6 percentage points year-on-year.

Looking specifically at value exchanges offered for customer data opt-ins, discounting was the most common, offered by 40% of brands, followed by newsletter subscription (32%) and other perks such as VIP events, sales access, and exclusive content (17%).  This mirrors consumer demand for money-saving benefits, such as immediate discounting (58%) and free shipping (56%), topping Wunderkind’s recent shopper poll as their preferred value exchange mechanism when choosing to opt in.

Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, General Manager at Wunderkind International, said: “We’re seeing a seismic shift, not only in marketing channel performance but also in consumer behaviour, prompted in part by channel adoption but also driven by cost-of-living consumer behaviours, where the concept of value and that of value exchange are evolving.  And that calls for a change in marketing strategy – balancing the scales and pivoting to maximising value from owned audiences and channels will be absolutely critical in 2023, as retailers work harder to win conversions from increasingly cautious shoppers.  By owning and optimising 1st party data, brands can ensure ROI on marketing spend, while at the same time providing a better and more personalised customer experience.”

Marketing industry urged to implement continuous learning cultures
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The DMA is calling on senior management teams across the UK to introduce continuous learning cultures within their marketing organisations.

This follows today’s publication of findings from our UK-wide pilot into micro-upskilling, revealing it offers additional learner benefits compared to traditional training methods, but it must be spearheaded from the very top to reach its full potential.

In late 2022, around 150 learners across 16 multinational organisations, charities, SMEs, and agencies took part in trialling micro-upskilling over a 6–10-week period. Organisations such as Experian, RSPCA, Golden Charter, Visit Scotland, PETA, and The Dragonfly Agency were involved.

The DMA’s pilot is an integral part of its wider campaign to move the marketing industry a step closer towards reducing industry-wide skills gaps and talent shortages – to fuel future growth in the UK’s digital economy through continuous staff development.

The main objective was for participating learners to commit as little as one hour a week to flexible, bitesized e-learning and professional development. Following the pilot programme, learners took part in a survey to help the DMA better understand their experiences of micro-upskilling as an alternative learning approach.

There were key benefits identified by talent:

  • 52% of learners felt more engaged with upskilling due to the micro-upskilling pilot
  • 46% developed new skills through micro-upskilling that they wouldn’t have previously been able to
  • 39% of learners stated they found micro-upskilling better than their previous learning experiences
  • 67% believe micro-upskilling has made their organisation more engaged with their skills development

“Direction, support and structure are essential building blocks of a learning culture yet are also the main barriers to professional development,” said Rachel Aldighieri, MD of the DMA. “Our micro-upskilling pilot findings are really encouraging – demonstrating to businesses how they can develop these building blocks to supercharge skills acquisition in the short term, while instilling long-term learning habits across their organisation that benefits the employee and employer.”

A key challenge affecting 60% of learners was finding time to upskill. In addition, 55% also stated they had too many competing priorities. These were the most stated challenges by quite a margin, so senior leaders must bear this in mind when implementing micro-upskilling.

Because of these reasons, 35% managed to do micro-upskilling ‘most weeks’ throughout the pilot, with 39% only able to do it ‘some weeks’. 26% even stated that they were unable to ‘do it very often’.

Evidently, micro-upskilling opportunities are highly desirable to staff – so much so that 90% of learners stated that they would like to continue micro-upskilling with their respective organisations.

Aldighieri explained: “In the current economic climate, financial and time constraints mean that traditional training approaches are harder to implement, yet it is critical that our industry doesn’t neglect skills development and the growth of our teams. Micro-upskilling provides an effective and productive way of investing in our people and, in turn, plugging skills gaps to drive business growth.”

63% of learners stated they would feel more confident and positive about their career if micro-upskilling was permanent at their organisation – 33% would be more likely to stay with them.

Aldighieri added: “The fact that the majority of participating talent mentioned that if micro-upskilling became permanent it would boost their career confidence as well as their organisational loyalty, suggests it has a huge role to play as an alternative learning method in our industry – supporting traditional approaches such as training days.”

Micro-upskilling is clearly an important step in the right direction for facilitating meaningful change, so the DMA will now expand its commitment to it.

“The DMA will now work with our wider community to introduce micro-upskilling as a key element of membership. A pledge will be introduced requesting member organisations to commit an hour a week to all staff’s L&D in our new People Pillar of the DMA Code. We aim to make continuous learning synonymous with the DMA community, so our marketers are regularly enhancing their skillsets and helping to drive responsible business growth,” concluded Aldighieri.

4 basic tips for strong brand creation
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By Flavio Andrew do Nascimento Santos/PhDc is Lecturer at Berlin School of Business and Innovation (BSBI)

Creating a brand is a process that can often be painful, and we have the notion that everything good has already been created, and that there is nothing else left for the new brands.

With this feeling of exhaustion, there is a fantastic article written by Jennifer Murtell on the American Marketing Association´s blog, asking the question: Do we really need more brands?[1] In short, there is no clear answer to this question, but facts are facts: over 60% of consumers look for brands they can trust before they look at the price. Therefore, if your brand is your voice, we should build a brand that people can trust.

To do so, here are four simple tips for strong brand creation. And here, a ‘strong brand’ is a brand that people can trust, especially after the pandemic, where trust has a very different meaning. Janet Balis[2], in the 10 Truths About Marketing After the Pandemic, from The Harvard Business Review calls our attention to an important shift: the old truth is that your brand should stand behind great products. The new truth is that your brand should stand behind great values. Creating great value leads to our number 1 tip: it needs to be clear.

1. Clear

Having a clear message is important to build trust. Consumers are making purpose-driven decisions and your message should be clear and as short as possible because the clear ones are the ones that stay in consumers´ minds.

2. Distinct

Consumers have contact with so many different brands every day and with social media, this amount is only growing. Your voice (or brand) needs to be strong, and have a personality, differentiated from the ones in the market. You can start with the cliché question: what am I doing that no one else is doing? If you have this answer, you should make sure that it looks obvious in your brand to the customers.

3. Relevant

Continuing with this idea that ‘consumers are purposefully making decisions’, your brand needs to speak up about the relevance of the product or service. If the consumer values are now different, it is preferred to connect with brands that (at least show) the relevance of their being.

4. Credible

The last tip is a friendly reminder that if you make a promise, your consumers will remember it. Keep in mind that, after the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are skeptical of the market and the brands, and we, as consumers, curse brands that are not delivering what they promise.

And credibility leads to our EXTRA TIP ✨: be authentic!

Michael Platt is a professor of neuroscience, marketing, and psychology whose research demonstrates how our perception of brands influences our decisions and defends: “we relate to brands in the same way we relate to people”[3]. In these terms, our consumers will know if you are not creating an authentic brand with a credible, relevant, distinct, and clear voice in the middle of all the other brands.

It is important to remember that identity and community are somewhat related to brand creation. Consumers are using one brand over another to show community affiliation and identity connection. This mindset is powerful if your brand creates a sense of community and identification with a purpose that people trust. And, unfortunately, there is no magic to creating a great value brand and a brand that people trust, the only way to do so is by hard-work and consistency in the everyday life of the brand.

Finally, from an educational perspective, there is a role that institutions should play to help companies increase their brand trust, even in societies where we can check that institutions are losing trust over years. Effective communication & transparency are at the center of this relationship among educational institutions, companies & their brands, and consumers.

About The Author

Flavio Andrew do Nascimento Santos/PhDc is Lecturer at Berlin School of Business and Innovation (BSBI)

Flavio has more than 11 years of professional experience in tourism (3 years in management positions) working on diverse hospitality companies, revenue management, tourism agencies, market research, consulting projects, and as a university MBA professor.

[1] https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/does-the-world-really-need-more-brands/

The year of impactful work: Redefining priorities for marketers
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By Esther Flammer, Chief Marketing Officer at Wrike  

Current economic uncertainty means that many businesses and consumers are struggling with reduced budgets. With global growth expected to slow down even more in 2023, it’s never been more important to connect with the right audiences and stand out from competitors.

At the same time, the pace of work has increased significantly, as businesses have had to quickly adapt to seismic market and economic shifts and reduced spending has been met with higher expectations. For marketing teams, the pressure to deliver is higher than ever, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be calming down any time soon. This has shed light on numerous productivity challenges that have affected the industry for decades, including the need to prioritise innovative strategies that get in front of buyers and do high-value, results-driven work that maximises ROI while still getting pulled in too many directions by work that isn’t tracked or measured.

Recent research from Wrike found that the total cost of wasted time for marketing teams is around $59 million per year, significantly higher than other departments. The average marketing professional is wasting 16 hours per week on miscellaneous work. This equates to 820 hours, or 103 working days per year. This staggeringly high figure goes to show that business leaders must find a better, more efficient way for marketing teams to work.

In order to excel in this current period of economic uncertainty, marketing teams must find a way to maximise their most precious resource – time. Only then can they boost productivity, deliver better results, and produce their most meaningful work.

Marketing and the Dark Matter of Work

Research from CERN revealed that we can only see about 5% of matter in the universe, with the other 95% flying under the radar as ‘dark matter’. This can also be said about much of the work we carry out today. Many of the activities we undertake and the interactions we have are never captured, tracked, or measured against a specific goal.

The very nature of a marketing professional’s job is exacerbating the problem. The need to constantly move at pace, producing and using reams of data alongside a never-ending list of applications can be challenging. When a task isn’t managed in one single platform it can create Dark Matter. Whether it is trying to find notes from the latest creative huddle or missed messages about editing work which were shared over email, Dark Matter is everywhere.

As marketing teams get busier –  taking on more projects per year (11 large-scale) – and with the number of messages increasing to 301 each day, this Dark Matter is beginning to have serious repercussions, and not just in terms of a lack of productivity. In fact, 80% of marketing professionals are experiencing burnout. This human cost of the Dark Matter of Work is sadly unsurprising. Many marketing teams are feeling the stress of trying to navigate broken workflows, which leads to misalignment, missed deadlines, duplicate work, and stalled projects.

Delivering impactful work

Working in synchrony is key for marketers to eliminate wasted time and tackle feelings of burnout. It’s important that every team has the ability to collaborate effectively cross-functionally and cross-departmentally, without silos and within a single source of truth. Teams also need access to tools that increase visibility into the work taking place and allow them to automate time consuming, mundane tasks like approval processes. This leaves more time and space for creative thinking and the ability to focus on delivering what really matters – brand consistency, customer experience, and maximised ROI.

At the moment, marketing leaders don’t have visibility into 45% of work taking place. In response to this, 97% of marketing professionals said a single source of truth would reduce stress for them and their colleagues. So, what’s the solution? This is where collaborative work management platforms come in.

Collaborative work management platforms ensure that individuals are aware of exactly what they are contributing to a project, meaning fewer mistakes, greater consistency, and a shared knowledge of what others are working on. This creates an environment in which creative thinking is encouraged from start to finish – which will ultimately enable marketers to create more impactful work.

One company already witnessing the benefits of these technologies is AVEVA. Over 20,000 enterprises in over 100 countries rely on AVEVA to help them deliver life’s essentials: safe and reliable energy, food, medicines, infrastructure and more. By connecting people with trusted information and AI-enriched insights, AVEVA enables teams to engineer efficiently and optimise operations, driving growth and sustainability. However, with the company going through a significant merger the leadership team urgently needed to work out how to consolidate multiple project teams, tools and processes. This is why the marketing function decided to implement a collaborative work management solution.

Implementing a collaborative work management solution has enabled AVEVA to centralise multiple project teams, tools, and processes, while bringing together employees in one easy-to-use platform. By helping to boost visibility across marketing teams and the other departments they work with, this technology has been key to building better brand consistency and improving results. Since onboarding, the organisation has grown from 248 to 505 users and collaborates on approximately 1,000 tasks in the platform each month.

With a looming recession, marketing teams cannot afford to fall victim to the Dark Matter of Work. In order to be successful, they need to gain greater visibility and better integrate applications. It is only then that they will truly understand the work being done across an organisation and streamline it. By implementing these changes, marketers will have time back to focus on work that drives ROI.

Survey says marketers ‘remain defiantly creative’ in the face of recession
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Marketers feel more under pressure than ever to show their worth, with 84% agreeing that proving ROI has become more important as budgets are scrutinised and businesses tighten the purse strings.

That’s according to Optimizely, which surveyed 100 in-house marketing professionals across the UK and found that despite anticipated financial constraints, almost two thirds (63%) of marketers are determined to be even more creative in 2023 with half of those surveyed (50%) also looking to take more risks as we head into the new year.

Optimizely’s research also looked at the role of marketing in navigating economic uncertainty and how to market most effectively when budgets are cut.

Key findings include:

  • An overwhelming majority of marketers (91%) believe that it is important to invest more in marketing during a recession – with over half (55%) strongly agreeing with this statement.
  • Three quarters (76%) also believe that customer experience will remain an ‘essential’ part of their marketing strategy in the year ahead despite the uncertainty — more than any other factor.
  • Over half (55%) also believe that personalisation technology will be an essential element in their plans for reaching consumers during the tough times ahead.
  • Seven in ten (70%) marketers in the UK believe that their ability to experiment is being restricted as Britain enters what is anticipated to be its longest period of recession since the 2008 financial crisis.

Commenting on the findings, Optimizely’s CMO, Shafqat Islam said: “The bleak economic outlook undoubtedly puts marketers under more pressure to deliver more business outcomes under increased scrutiny h in 2023. But while cutbacks are being made, using data and insight to experiment and learn about customers will continue to play a vital role in brand growth.

“To limit creativity and experimentation at a time of economic hardship is a short-sighted approach based on the fallacy that experimentation does not provide ROI because it includes an element of ‘failure’. Rather, experimenting helps teams to fail fast, enabling them to quickly learn what does and doesn’t work in the new economic landscape. There are no failures, just learnings.”

“The right experimentation strategy helps marketers decide which creative ideas are, and aren’t, worth pursuing. This informed, creative strategy — combined with a personalised approach — will provide the backbone for marketers’ success in 2023, no matter what happens with the UK economy.”

Marketing experts crack Christmas code and reveal how to generate last-minute festive sales 
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While eCommerce businesses should have planned in advance of the festive season, it’s never too late to implement new tactics to improve a brand’s Christmas marketing strategy to generate last-minute sales before the New Year ends. We spoke to marketing experts to gather the top trends eCommerce brands should be taking advantage of NOW before the end of 2022…

Digital PR 

For eCommerce brands with Christmas discounts and deals galore, taking advantage of shopping journalists is a good way to generate last-minute coverage and referrals to your site. Mollie Haley-Earnshaw, Account Manager at Wild PR, highlights: “The festive season is the peak period for gift guides, with journalists covering the best gift picks from a range of brands and across various budgets. For the eCommerce industry, it’s important to maximise organic efforts to support sales of hero products.

“Gathering the best discounts and products and forming a press release which covers off key details, such as product information, creating a bespoke media list and sharing this content with relevant journalists looking to pull together gift guides is a sure-fire way to place yourself in the festive online conversations before it’s too late.”

Being reactive to the news agenda is another tactic eCommerce brands should consider ahead of the New Year. Communication experts at Wild PR recommend paying attention to the news cycle during the lead-up to Christmas, considering how you could comment on topics relevant to your eCommerce business.

Twitter is also your best friend during this period. Monitor the #journorequest hashtag, and you can guarantee you will find an opportunity to get your business featured in the media.

For example, an eCommerce brand that sells ethical products should consider commenting on how to be sustainable during the Christmas period, when the plastic and packaging waste produced is considerably higher.

PPC 

Integrated marketing agency, Fishtank, comments on the last-minute PPC tactics brands can take advantage of before the year ends. Fishtank highlight that the time between Christmas and January is called Q5 and is statistically the cheapest time to go big on social adverts whilst achieving outstanding results.

Fishtank adds: “High-quality visuals, including images, gifs and videos, are key to success during the holiday season. With so much competition, make sure your brand stands out from the crowd.”

Another PPC tactic to consider before year-end is reviewing past data. If eCommerce brands can analyse past performance and understand what worked best last year and what didn’t, this will help narrow down your focus and help optimise your budgets better.

Fishtank also recommends creating bespoke ad copy and implementing A/B testing for various Christmas-themed messaging, ensuring that target keywords are mentioned in the headline and description to increase the relevance of the ad copy.

Creating scarcity is another way to tap into last-minute shopping stress. In the PPC ad, an eCommerce brand should aim to emphasise fast shopping options paired with a product deal. Additionally, adding a timer to a display ad with a countdown to Christmas will help create a sense of urgency among consumers, encouraging them to buy.

Commercial Director at Circus PPC, Ahmed Chopdat, expressed how important Q4 is for eCommerce brands. The paid media specialist commented: Push PPC as a key marketing channel as this is where you can get instant results. The one channel you can rely on to be able to manipulate to help make up for lost sales in other channels is PPC, so it’s essential that not only you have it switched on during the Advent period, but that it is appropriately optimised.”

Content 

Usually, when customers are browsing your site in December, they’re taking part in some last minute shopping. For some, this could be considered stressful. To make the user experience stress free, eCommerce brands should drum up content that provides concise information on the products they’re interested in.

Examples include taking gift guide press releases and turning them into blogs, utilising user-generated content to drive campaigns to make them relatable, and making content shoppable; particularly on social media.

When drafting gift guides and blogs for a site, eCommerce brands should ensure that they’re keyword-rich to boost organic traffic. Engaging in on-page SEO will help search engines understand the content of pages so they can provide shoppers with the appropriate results. User intent should also be considered when drafting copy.

For example, if an eCommerce business knows its customers will be looking for inexpensive gifts or shopping last minute, then drafting gift guides with headings such as ‘gifts under £20’, ‘last minute Christmas gifts’ or ‘gifts with next day delivery’ would be catering to the users intent.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a powerful tactic to get your online store in the spotlight. Many might believe that SEO only works when a strategy has been in place months ahead of the festive season, however, there are SEO techniques that can support last minute exposure.

Keywords are key players in SEO, and are pivotal in bolstering eCommerce sales. Ideally, brands will begin to work on their Christmas SEO in the summer. However, while updating your online store with last minute  festive content, optimising landing pages, product pages, and blogs with seasonal keywords will assist in getting your eStore in the search results.

Creative 

Landing on a website during the festive season and seeing pages come to life with Christmas-infused branding is a great way to engage potential customers. Fishtank suggests: “Add interactive seasonal elements to your website e.g. a Christmas gift hunt or falling snow across your website, adding a Christmas hat to your logo, adding festive website banners that feature holiday exclusive discount codes.

“An eCommerce brand could also add a holiday landing page that can feature exclusive holiday discounts and products for that season.”

Social media

Lastly, ramping up social activity is a foolproof tactic to undergo to generate those extra Christmas conversions. In December, potential customers love to engage with Christmas-themed content, such as advent giveaways and competitions and Christmas countdowns. To drive traffic to the site, it’s important to include a clear call to action (CTAs) with delivery deadlines, so it initiates a sense of urgency within the customer.

Running paid ads across social media platforms should be another consideration for eCommerce brands. During December, shoppers will be looking for the best deals and information on the products, and by setting up social advertising, an eCommerce store will expand reach and target people at the right place in the buying process.

Other festive social ideas include creating engaging visuals, utilising reels and video, incentivising UGC, and collaborating with influencers.

Wild PR also highlights that engaging in off-page SEO with social media is an effective way to generate leads, yield brand exposure, and engage audiences. Using social media will support the reach of your new festive content and will encourage more clicks to the online shop.

Ahmed adds: “Some channels, such as SEO, take longer to get desired results, so the earlier you have an idea of the messaging you’ll be using, the better!”

Katrina Cliffe, managing director of Wild PR commented: “Online exposure doesn’t happen overnight, which is why businesses need to crack the Christmas code early and ramp up their festive marketing campaigns before it’s too late. Ideally, this would be done during the summer months in the first instance, but sometimes it doesn’t work that way. Ultimately, these tips are the fundamentals to leveraging that extra bit of festive exposure while you still can.”

“If your Christmas strategy is already well underway, but you’ve forgotten about prepping for 2023, it’s time to get started. Before the end of the year, we really encourage eCommerce brands to tackle their large dev tasks, delving into technical SEO, optimising content and nailing your PR, social, and PPC strategies with the aim of getting ahead of competitors to kick off the New year.

“Another quick win to take you into 2023 is offering first-time buyers of your eCommerce store a unique discount that only activates in the New Year. This is a great way to generate repeat customers.”