Nation’s Top Marketers Want to Drive More Personalised Interactions, but Remain Campaign Versus Customer Focused.

Melbourne, Australia – 07.00 AEST 04 June, 2013 – Econsultancy, in association with Responsys Inc. (Nasdaq:MKTG), a marketing cloud software and services leader, today announced the results of its first ever State of Customer Engagement Report. The study, which surveyed Australian marketers from large to enterprise-level brands[1], reveals that better customer engagement and marketing interactions are the top priority for the country’s marketing leaders.

In today’s relationship era of marketing, almost all (94 percent) respondents believe customer engagement is important to their company, yet despite this, almost half (46 percent) center their marketing activity around sending campaigns, rather than supporting the customer journey.

Further, while marketing leaders have a firm desire to drive success, more than half of the respondents (56 percent) say their organisations don’t have a single view of each of their customers, meaning they lack a foundation on which to build lucrative long-term customer relationships.

The research also found that marketing leaders face a number of challenges in striving for individual customer engagement, with nearly a quarter of respondents (23 percent) citing a lack of vision as the biggest barrier they face. Significant barriers to customer engagement also include a lack of internal resources (71 percent) and an inability to effectively manage customer data (65 percent). More than one in three (37 percent) believe they are too focused on short-term strategy and the same percentage feels their marketing campaigns lack overall direction.

What’s more, seven in ten respondents (69 percent) rate the cross-channel experience of their customers as either ‘average’ or ‘poor’, and 58 percent say they lack the adequate tools and technology to engage with their customers at an individualised level. This is significant given the increasing expectations of customers to have seamless experiences across channels and devices.

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, consumers have more choice and it is increasingly challenging for businesses to harness brand loyalty, meaning that building relationships is more important than in the past. Brands need to focus on the relationships which are the most lucrative, yet the report reveals only a third (35 percent) are well equipped to measure the value of customers.

Commenting on the results, Paul Cross, President of Responsys Asia Pacific said, “It’s clear that customer engagement is fundamental to successful marketing, yet far too many marketers are still focusing on campaigns rather that driving smarting marketing interactions that lead to better experiences and lasting relationships with their customers. By employing marketing cloud software to automate, individualise, and coordinate cross-channel marketing interactions at scale, these challenges can be confronted head-on. Marketing leaders need to work with their teams to ensure that the customer is always at the center of their digital marketing activity or in most cases totally flip their marketing model on its head.”

[1] Based on the responses of nearly 50 senior representatives from large to enterprise-level brands, to an online survey carried out during May 2013. Additionally, senior marketers from multiple brands were interviewed directly to form the qualitative basis of this report. Participating companies include: Accenture, AMP, Betfair, Kimberly-Clark, KPMG, Luxottica, MasterCard, NRMA, Universal Music, Virgin Mobile, and Westpac.

About Responsys
Responsys (NASDAQ:MKTG) is a leading marketing cloud software and services company. Our mission is to enable the smartest marketing in the digital world. The most respected brands across the globe use the Responsys Interact Marketing Cloud to manage their digital relationships and deliver the right marketing to their customers across email, mobile, social, display and the web. Our customers gain competitive advantage through the automation, individualization, and coordination of cross-channel marketing interactions at massive scale. Founded in 1998, Responsys is headquartered in San Bruno, California and has offices throughout the world. For more information visit www.responsys.com

Connect with Responsys
• Like Responsys on Facebook – www.facebook.com/Responsys
• Follow @responsys on Twitter – www.twitter.com/Responsys
• Follow Responsys on LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/company/responsys

The report is available for download here:

http://www.responsys.com/land/download-engagement
Paul Cross, President of Responsys Asia Pac