THE STATE OF DIGITAL MARKETING SURVEY 2015

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1 THE STATE OF DIGITAL MARKETING SURVEY 2015 Discover survey results on marketing trends and priorities from nearly 200 of today s top marketers

2 INTRODUCING THE STATE OF DIGITAL MARKETING SURVEY 2015 Zmags conducted The State of Digital Marketing Survey in June of The goal for this survey was to better assess the priorities and challenges for marketers this year by conducting a web-based survey of Zmagss customer and prospect base of senior marketers. Anonymous responses were gathered from 176 of today s leading marketers to discover what they found to be their: 1. Critical success factors in creating digital experiences 2. Biggest challenges 3. Most important technologies for engagement 4. Time to market hurdles

3 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR CREATING ENGAGING DIGITAL EXPERIENCES Q1. What do you consider to be the most critical factor for creating engaging digital experiences? Zmags first asked marketers: What do you consider to be the most critical factor for creating engaging digital experiences? The responses indicated that content is still king with 49% listing creating rich media experiences to get people s attention as their most critical success factor. Clearly, without great content almost any campaign is doomed for failure but it is interesting that marketers still find content so critical, even ranking it above popular industry topics these days like context sensitivity (20%) and omnichannel delivery strategies (17%). This reinforces the perspective that marketers are still focusing on the importance of creating substantive and engaging content that resonates with audiences as a first priority. 5% 17% 9% 49% 20% Key Takeaway CONTENT Creating rich media experiences to get people s attention CONTEXT Delivering the right message at the right time EASY OF PURCHASE Making it easy for consumer to buy Content is still king. More critical than even getting the context right or OMNICHANNEL Delivering content across multiple channels and devices SPEED Getting experiences to market fast distributing across channels.

4 RICH CONTENT RULES Clearly content quality is critical and creating rich content that engages with bold images and multimedia is one of today s most impactful marketing techniques. HubSpot recently showcase statistics that emphasized that visual data is processed 60,000x faster than text and 56% of content on the web is images. These numbers underscore the fact that with the abundance of content available to consumers today, rich, digital images can help your campaigns rise to the top of sea of content.

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6 KEY MARKETING CHALLENGES Q2. What would you classify as your biggest chanllenge in delivering new digital marketing experiences? Next, Zmags asked marketers: What would you classify as your biggest challenge in delivering new digital marketing experiences? Perhaps not surprisingly, the answer to this question was overwhelmingly lack of time (40%). In today s society where a recent Microsoft study found that people s attention spans are now less than that of a goldfish time has become our most precious resource. Lack of time presents a real challenge for marketers who are struggling against fierce and growing competition to fight for consumers dwindling attention rates. There has never been more content or information readily available for people to consume than today and less time for people to consume it. 22% 40% 23% 15% Some of this lack of time is also related to a second key challenge listed in the Zmags survey: dependencies on 3rd parties, agencies and IT (23%). Marketers need tools and technologies that help them do more in less time and reduce dependencies on 3rd parties, particularly during the busy holiday planning months for retail marketers. Key Takeaway Marketers need tools and technologies that help them to do more in less time, particulary around the holidays. Dependencies on agencies/ third parties/it Lack of the right tools or technologies Lack of time Marketers face too many dependencies on 3rd parties. The need for stronger technical skills/knowledge

7 TODAY, A GLANCE IS ALL YOU GET Zmags isn t the only company to reveal lack of time as an emerging and powerful issue for marketers today. Marketing Profs highlighted that 79% of marketers say it is a major challenge to get people s attention and the Content Marketing Institute found that of 69% marketing professionals feel challenged by a lack of enough time. And it isn t just marketers that are feeling this time crunch, consumers are struggling with lack of time as well. In an article featured in TIME magazine, Chartbeat s CEO asserted that 55% of all page views on the web get less than 15 seconds of attention and a blog by Kissmetrics found that 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less or they start abandoning. This is leading to a term we coined at Zmags called the need for instant digital gratification, where marketers and consumers need their digital activities to be instantaneous and immediately satisfying. This trend is only increasing with younger generations with a millennial quoted in the Boston Globe as saying, most of my generation has grown up not having to wait for anything.

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9 TECHNICAL MARKETING CHALLENGES Next Zmags dug deeper into the specific technical marketing challenges the survey respondents faced. Zmags asked marketers to rank their challenges and found that the #1 issue was designing web updates, followed closely by updating and optimizing digital content. Marketers found collaborating and publishing to be less challenging aspects of the digital marketing process. However, it is worth noting that publishing might have been ranked as less challenging because marketers often hand this process off to a third party or IT group to manage. Q3. Rank the following digital marketing challenges from most challenging (1) to least challenging (5). The important takeaway is that creating and updating content on digital channels needs to be simpler for marketers. Today s modern marketers cannot achieve the real-time, contextual marketing objectives that the industry strives for if designing and refreshing content is a cumbersome and challenging process. MOST CHALLENGING 1. Designing web updates LEAST CHALLENGING 2. Updating and optimizing digital content 3. Analyzing result and web metrics 4. Collaborating internally on website changes 5. Publishing new digital content across channels Key Takeaway Creating and updating content on digital channels needs to be simpler for marketers. Marketers cannot achieve real time engagement with consumers if technical challenges can t be overcome.

10 MARKETING ANALYTICS It is worth noting that respondents to the Zmags survey were highly split on the topic of marketing analytics. When asked How challenging do you find analyzing web metrics and analytics?, 48% found it to be the least challenging part of the digital marketing process while 41% ranked it as the most challenging. Marketers eitheir do analytics very well or very poorly This result indicates that many marketers still need easier ways to see the results of their campaigns. It also alludes to the fact that analytics is becoming a differentiator for top brands and marketers need flexible analytics solutions that integrate with their design technologies so they can monitor and react to instant insights on the impact of design changes. 41% 48% Key Takeaway 11% Many marketers still need easier ways to see the results of their compains. Analytics are becoming a differentiator for top brands. Analytics must be flexible and integrate with design technologies for instant insights on the impact of design Least Challenging Somewhat Challenging Most Challenging changes.

11 MARKETING IS HARD All of these challenges point to the fact that marketing is hard and it isn t going to get any easier. With the now infamous CheifMartec chart showing nearly 2000 marketing vendors in the market and 21% of marketers revealing in a recent MediaPost article that they now spend 15 or more hours a week managing services vendors, marketers must find tools and technologies to simplify the key aspects of the digital marketing process like campaign design and omnichannel publishing.

12 As marketing complexity rises, do you have a clear path for reaching your customers?

13 MARKETING TECHNOLOGIES Q4. Which of these technologies is most important to your consumer digital marketing strategy in the year ahead? 15% 21% 10% 2% 52% Zmags asked marketers: Which of these technologies is most important to your consumer digital marketing strategy in the year ahead? Survey respondents indicated mobile was the overwhelming technology priority of choice for marketers in the year ahead capturing 52% of the vote. Mobile is now at a turning point where it is shifting from something marketers talk about to something they are investing in. While there is some debate on whether mobile is paying off when it comes to ecommerce purchases, there is little contention over the fact that mobile is emerging as the primary way for reaching consumers in today s increasingly digital world. While mobile is clearly the top priority, social (21%) and localization technologies (15%) will also play a large role in marketing strategies for the year ahead. Key Takeaway Mobile Video Social Networking Loyalty/Rewards Programs Localization & Personalization Marketers are at a turning point where mobile is shifting from something marketers talk about to something they are investing in.

14 MOBILE MAKES AN IMPACT Just in case there is any doubt that mobile is the way forward for marketers, here are a few additional statistics to reinforce our finding. emarketer found that 53% of web traffic for retailers is coming from mobile devices. Attendees of the recent Zmags Master Marketer webinar with New York and Company heard how NY&C have seen 65% of their web traffic come from mobile, leading them to operate with a mobile-first mentality in web development. And the Branding Brand Mobile Commerce Index found that across the top 200 brands 51% of their web traffic comes from mobile, making it a critical component of any good marketing strategy.

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16 TIME TO MARKET Zmags examined time to market and asked: On average, how long does it take you to create and publish new digital marketing campaigns across channels? Q5. On average, how long does it take you to create and publish new digital marketing campaigns across channels? Somewhat disappointingly, the survey found that nearly a quarter (23%) of survey respondents are taking a month or more to launch campaigns. And 56% take at least a week to bring campaigns to market. At first glance, these numbers may seem passable but in a world where time is clearly of the essence and popular trends disappear overnight, the dream of real-time marketing becomes an impossibility without tools and technologies that empower today s modern marketer to accelerate time to market. Marketing in the moment can only happen if marketers have the technology and lack of dependencies to make that vision a reality. 14% 23% 30% 33% Key Takeaway 1+ months Less than a week 1-3 weeks Just hours Nearly a quarter of marketers are taking a month or more to launch campaigns. The dream of realtime marketing is difficult to put into practice.

17 CONCLUSION The results of the State of Digital Marketing 2015 survey are clear and resonate around four key topics - the 4Rs of digital marketing: Rich Content is still king for the 49% of marketers who listed it as their most critical success factor. Marketers are clearly prioritizing the delivery of rich and immersive experiences that engage the consumer with interactive features, like video, animations, and more. Rapid Lack of time is the most pressing challenge for marketers today. They need tools which give them the freedom to create and deploy experiences rapidly without any coding to accelerate time-tomarket, which is over a month for nearly a quarter of the marketers surveyed. Reach Mobile is the top technology priority for 52% of the marketers surveyed. Connecting with consumers across every digital touchpoint from mobile, tablet, kiosk and more will be critical for marketers going forward. Revenues All of these priorities and challenges should be focused around the customer experience and ultimately making it easy for consumers to buy with commerce enabled experiences. Zmags Creator and Publicator platforms make these strategies easy and fast to achieve. Visit: to experience the efficiencies that the right digital marketing technology can deliver.

18 CONTACT US ABOUT ZMAGS Zmags provides the technology businesses need to deliver instant digital gratification. Zmags content marketing technology is built for marketers who want to create attention- grabbing digital experiences but don t have time for lengthy technology learning curves and custom development. The Zmags Creator and Publicator platforms enable companies to rapidly create and publish memorable digital experiences without writing a single line of code. Over 1,500 of today s leading companies, including Nike, Neiman Marcus, Kate Spade, Whole Foods, Audi and more, trust Zmags to help them instantly connect with their customers in the moments that matter. ZMAGS.COM FACEBOOK.COM/ZMAGS TWITTER.COM/ZMAGS LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/ZMAGS BOSTON, USA SUPPORT SALES@ZMAGS.COM LONDON, UK SUPPORT SALESUK@ZMAGS.CO.UK COPENHAGEN, DK SUPPORT SALESDK@ZMAGS.DK