New Salesforce research finds UAE marketers determined despite headwinds

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, has released its eighth annual State of Marketing report. In the report, UAE marketers say their work provides increasing value despite macroeconomic and labor headwinds. The report also reveals how marketers in the countries surveyed are adapting to changes in privacy regulations — all while managing more data sources than ever before.

86 percent of UAE marketers say their work provides greater value than it did a year ago. However, they face an uphill battle in an uncertain economy: 19% of UAE marketers cited budgetary constraints and 59% agreed that customer expectations are more difficult to meet than they were a year ago.

To help meet the moment, marketers are focusing on:

• Experimenting with new marketing strategies / tactics
• Balancing personalization with customer comfort levels

 “Organisations in the UAE are increasingly looking to their CMO and their marketing teams to meet the challenge presented by customers’ digital-first expectations. There are also growing concerns about budgetary restraints and the ability to do more with less in the face of global economic headwinds, and the need to accommodate evolving data privacy requirements to prepare for a cookieless future,” said Robbie Kearns, Senior Regional Vice President, Salesforce.

The trends revealed in the State of Marketing report were collected from a survey of 6,000 marketing leaders across 35 countries and six continents, including 100 from the UAE. Insights include the following:

• The march toward digitally-led engagement treads new and familiar paths. Marketers are investing in a combination of channels and technologies to reach audiences in new places and build lasting relationships. Audio, Events and sponsorships, and website/app have seen the largest increase in usage in the last year by UAE marketers. However, email marketing remains dominant, accounting for over 80% of all outbound marketing messages, according to trillions of message sends from Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
• Marketers navigate a complex technology and regulatory landscape. Marketers are adapting to changes in privacy regulations and calls for data transparency.  Although 72% of UAE marketers still invest in third-party data, 80% say they have a fully defined strategy to shift from third-party data.
• KPIs shift as marketers pursue real-time intelligence. Across every stage of the funnel, marketers are tracking more metrics year over year than ever before. Speed to insight remains a competitive advantage. Seventy-eight percent of UAE marketing organizations engage customers in real time across one or more marketing channels.
• Distributed teams unite with collaboration technology. Recognizing that remote and distributed work is here to stay, leaders are making investments into new collaboration tools.  58% of UAE marketers say it’s harder to collaborate now than pre-pandemic and are turning to an average of 3.38 collaboration tools to help.