96% of Marketers Say New Innovations Stemming from COVID-19 are Here to Stay

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many marketers have been forced to shift their goals and strategies, and new research suggests that their changes are here to stay.

Merkle recently published a special COVID-19 edition of its “Customer Engagement Report,” and statistics showed that 52% of marketers have increased their spending since the COVID-19 outbreak, and 74% have ultimately changed their approach to customer content. In general, 96% of respondents believe that these new marketing and service innovations are here to stay.

During the pandemic, 50% of marketers said they have tried new marketing technologies or features, while 45% have become more customer centric in their marketing messaging. Forty-two percent have developed a new transaction fulfillment capability, while 39% have added a new marketing channel.

Overall, most marketers (54%) say that the importance of communicating with customers has become “significantly more important” as a result of the pandemic. Approximately 37% said the same about prospects.

Marketing with the Customer Experience in Mind

Previous research suggests that marketers may be able to gain leverage over their competition by focusing on personalizing the customer experience.

Adobe shared the results of its 2020 personalization survey, and data showed that only six out of ten organizations feel that they have extensive personalization efforts in place. That being said, 83% agree that personalization is differentiating, and 94% said that businesses with “extensive” personalization are more likely to stand out from the competition.

Over the next five years, 66% of respondents stated that they see their investment in personalizing steadily increasing.