After a tumultuous two years that changed the way marketers operate, there are many questions about where we go from here. That’s why Oracle Marketing set out to uncover what marketers worldwide think about the year ahead and what they plan to do to succeed in an ever-changing world.
Working with research firm Ascend2, Oracle gathered insights from 853 marketers across the US, Canada, India, and the UK who represent organizations in various industries and marketing channels. We compiled the results into a new report, “Marketing trends 2022: Marketers tell all about successes, struggles, and solutions.” The report reveals interesting insights into the biggest challenges and opportunities of the year.
Here are five findings that stood out.
1. Marketers are feeling the positive vibes
After a world-altering two years, marketers would be justified in feeling unsure about the future. But most had a positive outlook on the year ahead: 37% of marketers feel confident that they will achieve their marketing objectives, another 31% feel hopeful, and 24% feel excited. There’s plenty of reason for confidence—94% of marketers said their efforts were successful last year.
2. The “new normal” means new challenges
Despite the optimism, marketers are aware of the challenges they face. Survey respondents said the top challenges are maximizing performance across channels and adapting to circumstances as they arise. While that’s hardly surprising considering the past two years, it is surprising to see marketers haven’t yet found a solid strategy for remaining agile and embracing new digital channels.
3. The struggle is real when it comes to ROI
According to our survey, marketers' two most hated tasks are creating reports and dashboards and calculating ROI. These tasks tend to be difficult and time-consuming, and tracking marketing ROI only gets more complex with new channels, data sources, and tactics. In fact, about one-third of marketers said that proving marketing attribution and ROI is one of their top challenges.
4. No tech stack is safe
Trouble measuring ROI could be one of many reasons 82% of organizations plan to add, remove, or replace components of their marketing tech stack this year. Other reasons include the expanding marketing landscape since marketers organize data from more sources to run more campaigns to more specific audiences. Perhaps that’s why they plan to invest the most in customer data platforms (37%), segmentation and targeting solutions (32%), and email marketing platforms (32%).
Marketers were least likely to fear missing out on account-based marketing (ABM), and the fewest survey respondents identified it as a tactic they would add in 2022. However, many aspects of ABM, such as personalization, audience segmenting and targeting, and data management, remain priorities. ABM may be already happening, and teams are refining existing campaigns.
Our 2022 survey paints marketers as optimistic and excited, even in the face of steep challenges. Yes, they must be more agile than ever before while at the same time delivering more personalized experiences at a moment’s notice. But they have plenty of ideas and strategies to help achieve their goals.
Vanessa Denice is a Senior Content Manager for Oracle Advertising & CX, specializing in B2B and B2C Marketing. She has a decade of experience writing, editing, and managing content for agencies and corporate marketing teams.
