[Research Round-Up] Salesforce Survey Examines the State of Marketing

Source:  Salesforce

(This month's Research Round-Up focuses exclusively on the latest edition of the State of Marketing survey by Salesforce. The new Salesforce survey is a large global survey of B2B and B2C marketers, so it provides a broad perspective on the priorities, challenges, and attitudes of the marketing community.)

Salesforce recently published the findings of its latest State of Marketing survey. The latest survey is the ninth edition of the Salesforce research. It was in the field February 5 - March 12, 2024.

Survey Demographics

• The survey produced 4,850 responses from marketing decision-makers
• Respondents were drawn from 30 countries across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe
• Respondents worked in 18 industry verticals
• 50% of the respondents worked in B2C companies, and 50% worked in B2B or B2B2C companies
• 39% of the respondents were VP-level or above
• 50% of the respondents were with mid-market companies (101 - 3,500 employees), 30% were with small and medium-sized companies (1 - 100 employees), and 20% were with large enterprises (over 3,500 employees)

Marketing Performance Levels

Salesforce classified survey respondents based on their self-reported level of marketing performance and used these categories to report some survey findings. The three categories used in the survey report are:

• High performers - Respondents who were completely satisfied with the overall outcomes of their marketing investments.

• Moderate performers - Respondents who were highly satisfied with the overall outcomes of their marketing investments.

• Underperformers - Respondents who were moderately or less satisfied with the overall outcomes of their marketing investments.

Marketers' Top Priorities and Challenges

Salesforce asked survey participants to identify their top priorities and biggest challenges, and the following table shows how respondents answered those questions.

It shouldn't be surprising that survey respondents identified "implementing or leveraging AI" as their top priority and their biggest challenge. Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, has been the hottest topic in marketing since OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022.

It's also notable, but not surprising, that the top priorities and the biggest challenges are nearly identical. These survey respondents clearly believe that for marketing to have the greatest possible impact on the business, they must successfully address their biggest challenges.

The State of AI

The survey revealed that the implementation of AI is still in its early stages. Thirty-two percent of all respondents said they have fully implemented AI in their operations.

Salesforce did find that high performers were 2.5x more likely than underperformers to have fully implemented AI. Forty-two percent of high performers said they have fully implemented AI, compared to only 17% of underperformers.

The survey also asked participants how they were using or planned to use AI, and the top five use cases identified by respondents were:

1. Automating customer interactions
2. Generating content
3. Analyzing performance
4. Automating data integration
5. Driving best offers in real time

While marketers are excited about the potential benefits of AI, they also have concerns about embracing the technology, particularly generative AI. The top five concerns about generative AI identified by survey respondents were:

1. Data exposure or leakage
2. Lack of necessary data
3. Lack of strategy or use cases
4. Inaccurate outputs
5. Copyright or intellectual property concerns

The State of  Marketing survey also provides valuable data on several other topics, including:

• The strategies and sources marketers are using to collect customer data
• Where and how much marketers are using personalization in their marketing programs
• How marketers are measuring marketing performance

The Salesforce State of Marketing survey is one of the research studies I pay attention to every year. I wish Salesforce provided a breakdown of responses between B2B vs. B2C companies and by country (or at least region), but even without this more granular reporting, the survey still provides important insights.