The last few months have brought about a change in consumer purchase behaviour. In fact, 73% of Indian marketers agree that customer expectations are more difficult to meet than they were a year ago, Salesforce’s ‘State of Marketing’ report said. To adapt, marketers are leaning into the digital transformations they had initiated prior to the pandemic, it added. In fact, 90% of Indian marketers say the pandemic changed their digital engagement strategy, and 88% say it changed their marketing channel mix. The trends revealed in the report were collected from a survey of over 8,200 marketing leaders across 37 countries and six continents, including 300 from India.
The top three priorities for marketers in India are engaging with customers in real time; creating a cohesive customer journey across channels and devices and improving marketing ROI/attribution and improving collaboration. 68% of Indian marketers expect revenue growth at their organisations over the next 12 to 18 months. The report added that after years’ worth of changes in customer behavior occurring over the course of months, marketers are accelerating their digital transformation. In India, 91% marketers say their digital engagement strategy has completely changed or somewhat changed since the pandemic. The average number of data sources used by marketers in India is expected to reach 32 by 2022.
Furthermore, the majority of budgets in India go to advertising across B2C (25%) and B2B (20%) businesses. Events and sponsorships are deprioritized getting the least amount of budgets across B2C (15%) B2B (13%) businesses. As per the report, prioritising things like technology, content, and skilling people for this digital first era will help marketers stay ahead. In India 61% of marketers rate employee training they receive as excellent, in comparison to the global average of 44%. 51% of these professionals choose to specialise in data analytics and content marketing.
“Over the course of a little more than a year, marketers in India have navigated changes in customer behavior that normally occur over years. The insights in this year’s State of Marketing report provide a good benchmark for what’s changed, what’s consistent, and where the art and science of marketing goes from here,” Yashdeep Vaishnav, RVP, digital experience, Salesforce India, said.
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