Only 15% of Companies Have Advanced Marketing Capabilities

Digital transformation in marketing is simply the application of information and technology to bolster marketer's performance. The marketing technology landscape has exploded in the past 3 years, with 323 marketing tech startups fetching over $11 billion from venture capitalists in 2015 alone. The unprecedented growth in marketing technology landscape is overshadowed by the massive growth of information and business related data production and consumption. We are in the age of the customer, where everyone is mobile, social, data driven and almost always connected. According to Pew 2016 research, 1 in 5 U.S. adults (50 million) are almost always online. In the digital economy, customers and prospects are well-informed and expect personalized, and always available delivery of services that lead to meaningful engagements. Only advanced marketing organizations are well positioned to meet the ever growing expectations of digital customers.

To better understand modern marketing and advanced marketer's use of technology to best position their companies to develop differentiation through customer experience, Salesforce partnered with Harvard Business Review Analytics Services to find out how organizations are adopting to business disruption as it pertains to marketing.

A total of 556 global respondents completed a global survey, representing executive management, board members and middle management across key industries (technology, financial services, manufacturing, etc.) and geographies. How important is sales and marketing alignment in the today's age of the customer? Do marketing organizations have access to the right tools to effectively support and enable sales growth, while engaging with the mobile, social, data-driven and almost always connected customer? How does the modern marketer drive digital business transformation, balancing the science and art of marketing, to deliver on the brand promise while proactively finding ways to connect with customers in a whole new way? The need for marketing automation, mobile and social collaboration technology and advanced analytics like machine and deep learning advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are critical tools in the digital marketer's tool box. To learn more about the research methodology and participants profile, you can visit here: High-Value Marketing: Connecting Customers Through Technology, Analytics, and Collaboration​