UAE Marketers Remain Optimistic About Future Business Growth
Embracing technology and data, marketers are blazing new trails of digital transformation and innovation. Showing that 81 per cent of UAE-based marketers say they have changed or reprioritised metrics due to the pandemic, higher than the global average of 76 per cent, was Salesforce in its seventh edition of the State of Marketing report. The […]
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Embracing technology and data, marketers are blazing new trails of digital transformation and innovation. Showing that 81 per cent of UAE-based marketers say they have changed or reprioritised metrics due to the pandemic, higher than the global average of 76 per cent, was Salesforce in its seventh edition of the State of Marketing report.
The report and its companion Tableau dashboards, based on a survey of over 8,200 marketers across 37 countries, including the UAE, offer a snapshot of how strategic priorities and challenges, marketing tactics, and technology are transforming against a backdrop of economic and social change.
For the vast majority of marketers, the events of 2020 and 2021 have changed nearly every facet of work. Yet despite the discomfort that change may bring, marketers remain an optimistic bunch when it comes to the future of their jobs and their business impact. Case in point: 86 per cent of UAE marketers feel that their work provides greater value than it did a year ago, and 72 per cent foresee revenue growth at their company over the coming 12 to 18 months.
“As UAE and Middle East customer expectations have changed during the pandemic, marketers have taken on increased importance in guiding digital transformation in their organisations,” said Robbie Kearns, Senior Regional Vice President – Africa, Middle East, and the Mediterranean, Salesforce. “With 81 per cent of UAE-based marketers changing or reprioritising metrics due to the pandemic, higher than the global average, their work is driving a cohesive customer journey across channels and devices, and enhancing marketing return on investment and attribution.”
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Forced to cater to an even more digital-first base of customers and prospects whose priorities and challenges transformed at breakneck speed, marketers over the past year experimented with the strategies, tactics, and methods with which they engage. As such, the profession became more KPI-oriented as marketers sought to understand what works in a radically changed world — and what doesn’t.
In the UAE, 81 per cent of marketers state they have changed or reprioritised metrics due to the pandemic. The most important marketing metrics being tracked in the UAE are customer satisfaction metrics, marketing/sales funnel, and content engagement.
A separate, related study of global respondents recently estimated that 60 per cent of customer interactions would take place online in 2021, up from an estimated 42 per cent in 2019. This rapid acceleration of the shift to digital engagement has prompted marketers to re-evaluate which channels warrant increased — or decreased — investment.
Also Read: Digital Marketing Strategies for Better ROI
Unsurprisingly, as customers and prospects spent time under various phases of lockdown with their devices, digital marketing channels have seen even greater appreciation than before. Video — be it through YouTube, Twitch, or a recorded webinar — saw a particularly large boost in value. With 81% of global consumers and business buyers expecting to spend more time online after the pandemic than they did before, there’s little reason not to expect this trend to continue.
Even what could arguably be the most analog marketing channel of all — events and sponsorships — is expected to make a permanent digital shift. UAE marketers expect 39% of their events to be virtual in 2022, with an additional 31 per cent a hybrid of virtual and in person.
As customers’ digital expectations skyrocket, reaching the right target, at the right time, on the right channel is becoming more and more challenging. Marketers are turning to various data sources and associated technologies to inform or even automate their processes. In fact, UAE marketers use an average of 15 customer data sources, up from 10 in 2020 and set to grow to 20 in 2022.
Also Read: How to Really Measure Consumer Engagement
As technology providers and governments put increased restrictions — or even outright bans — on the cookies that digital marketers have relied upon, the relative value of those data sources is evolving. Known digital identities, second-party data, and inferred interests/preferences saw the biggest jumps in popularity since 2020, whereas offline identities and anonymised digital identities saw the biggest declines.
Among the many changes businesses experienced during 2020 and 2021, perhaps none is as consequential as the shift to working from anywhere — be it an office, home, or elsewhere. In the UAE, 83 per cent of marketers say their companies are adopting new policies around remote work, with hybrid scenarios generally favoured as the expected post-pandemic scenario.
This shift is not without its challenges. For example, in the UAE, 75 per cent of marketers say it’s harder to collaborate now than it was prior to the pandemic. To meet this challenge, 84 per cent of UAE marketers say their organisations have adopted new collaboration technologies during this period.
If digital customer engagement didn’t define marketing before the onset of the pandemic, it does now. And like companies that who experimented with new ideas and business models during a time of astonishing change, marketers are leveraging new strategies to acquire better customer engagement and revenue growth.
