Salesforce released the new State of Marketing report, sharing insights from over 4,800 marketing leaders across 29 countries — including 99 from the UAE.
The report covers the latest trends on how marketers are evaluating and implementing AI into their operations; approaching data acquisition, maintenance, and application strategies; and ensuring customer trust and security as vulnerabilities increase.
Key insights from the research include:
- Priorities for a new marketing era. Marketers are evolving their practices in a highly competitive landscape. They’re looking to AI — both generative and predictive — to help personalise at scale and boost efficiency.
- Implementing / leveraging AI is marketers’ #1 priority on a global scale, as well as their biggest challenge.
- Locally, improving marketing ROI and attribution is UAE marketers’ No. 1 priority, while outdated tools and technologies is their No. 1 challenge.
- Marketers shore up their data foundations. Businesses have long struggled to connect disparate data points to create consistent, personalised experiences across customer journeys. Yet as third-party cookies are depreciated and AI proliferates, that quest is only becoming more critical — and challenging.
- 32% of marketers in the UAE are fully satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources.
- 66% of marketers in the UAE have access to real-time data to execute a campaign. 78% need the IT department’s help to do so.
- Marketers in the UAE use an average of 10 different tactics to collect data, with customer service data being the most common.
- Marketers embrace AI with an eye on trust. Marketers are intent on successfully applying AI in their operations with the right data, but are concerned about security
- 83% of marketers in the UAE are already experimenting with or have fully implemented AI into their workflows.
- AI implementation is also a point of differentiation: high performing marketing teams are 1.3x more likely than underperformers to have fully implemented AI within their operations.
- The three most popular AI use cases among marketers in the UAE are: Generate content, personalise the customer journey across channels, and drive best offers in real time.
- Full personalisation remains a work in progress. To meet rising customer expectations around personalisation, marketers are graduating beyond broad audience segmentations, like location or age, to more specific identifiers like individual preferences or past interactions. There’s also a difference between how the highest- and lowest-performing marketing teams adapt.
- High performers in the UAE fully personalise across an average of seven channels, compared with underperformers who fully personalised across 4.5.
- Marketers seek unified analytics. There is no shortage of data sources but putting that data to work is a challenge — especially when it demands a holistic or long-term view of data.
- 46% of marketers in the UAE track customer lifetime value (CTV).
- 91% of marketers in the UAE say they have a clear view into marketing’s impact on revenue.
- Deeper relationships emerge with account-based marketing (ABM) and loyalty programs. Companies are increasingly turning to strategies like ABM and loyalty programs for better acquisition and retention. Yet many of these programs’ information sources remain disjointed, as does the customer experience.
- 71% of marketers in the UAE say loyalty data is fully integrated across all touchpoints.
- 57% of marketers in the UAE say loyalty program functionalities are accessible across all touchpoints.
- 77% of B2B marketers in the UAE use ABM for upselling and 56% use it for cross selling.
Comments on the news:
- Ariel Kelman, Salesforce Chief Marketing Officer said, “We are in a new era of AI, catalysed by the generative gold rush, and marketers are leading the charge by embracing rapid advancements in the technology to better connect with customers and prospects. A strong data foundation will be critical to AI success for marketers as they work to bring together and unify customer data for real-time activation.” —
- Richard Turtle, Regional VP Salesforce Digital MENA, said, “The State of Marketing report paints a fascinating picture of the nuanced challenges faced by marketers in the UAE, and the immense opportunities open to them thanks to AI. While less than a third of UAE marketers are satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources, they are moving in the right direction, with loyalty data fully integrated across all touchpoints for more than two thirds of marketers. They also recognise areas they want to improve, including ROI and attribution, and amid concerns about outdated tools and technology, they are embracing AI: 83% of UAE marketers are experimenting with AI, or have already implemented it into their workflows. We look forward to continuing to help them achieve and surpass their goals in one of the region’s most dynamic markets.”
