Though it’s not uncommon for people to think of marketing as this singular, monolithic thing, marketing is very diverse field and how it’s used depends on things like the size of the business and the industry involved. This can cause a problem if business owners think of marketing as something that’s not important for their particular industry. Good marketing isn’t just for retailer stores and online shops. A recent study from Oracle shows the disparity between marketing in different industries and why business owners need to step up their game to reach consumers and please customers in this new era of technology.
The study, titled “Why You Need To Be A Modern Marketer: The Business Impact of Marketing Maturity in the Age of the Customer,” examined the adoption of modern marketing best practices across 20 industries including electronics, energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media, retail, and telecom. The results of the study showed that businesses in the retail industry did a significantly better job of integrating advanced marketing tactics into their business plan as well as their ad content.
Many of the trends and practices that work well for retail marketing work equally well for other industries. Things like personalization of web experiences, integrated feedback loops, multi-platform functionality, and more can improve the business practices of other industries. However, some business have yet to adapt these techniques into their systems.
“To successfully compete in today’s digitally powered economy, marketers need to continually refine and evolve their approach in order to better understand and engage their customers,” said Andrea Ward, the vice president of marketing of Oracle Marketing Cloud, in a press release. “The retail industry has a long tradition of being customer-centric, and is leading the shift toward more customer-focused modern marketing practices. By embracing new data technologies and taking an integrated marketing approach, retailers are able to create a digital dialogue with their customers and deliver the right messages at the right time
According to the study, 46 percent of retail organizations have intelligent targeting capabilities that provide real-time feedback and advanced insights to enhance customer engagements and increase marketing effectiveness. In contrast, only 31 percent of total respondents from other industries cited the same level of targeting ability.
Similarly, when evaluating marketing integration (the value of which was discussed in a previous article on this site), the study found that 42 percent of retail organizations currently leverage a fully integrated cross-channel marketing platform for enhanced marketing orchestration, while only 14 percent of respondents from other industries integrate their systems in the same way.
It’s important for business owners and marketers to remember that besides a functional system, consumers want to use the best interface possible. This applies just as much to bill payment systems as it does to an ecommerce portal. To illustrate the importance, think of it this way: if an older company doesn’t offer online bill pay, customer service support on multiple channels, or send out helpful information via email newsletter, that company will slowly see its marketshare erode as customers seek out better experiences on more modern systems.
The study, which was conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Oracle, surveyed 492 marketing decision-makers across a range of industries in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Australia.
This Oracle/Forrester study is filled with good information and business owners can get the full version online. The research boils down to one key point: “Organizations that embrace modern marketing processes outperform their nonmodern marketing peers and competitors on key business performance indicators including revenue growth, market leadership, and workplace excellence.”
The time has come for all industries to boldly move their businesses to the future, or risk find themselves relics of the past. For more research that shows why businesses need to evolve their marketing practices, read this article on the game changing value of an integrated marketing campaign.