Generating brand awareness is the primary objective for marketers but connecting with the right audiences remains a challenge with only 26% confident in their personalisation efforts, a new study has found.
The fifth annual ‘Marketing Report’ for 2022 published by Nielsen this week highlights how businesses are using local SEO services and social media channels to publish content that boosts brand building and generates new leads.
Being able to engage customers across the funnel, during the initial awareness phase and then later to close a sale is crucial but those efforts are often undermined by a lack of quality data informing decisions.
Of the 2,000 marketers surveyed globally by Nielsen, more than two-thirds say first-party data is critical for campaigns yet only a quarter are fully confident in leveraging their own audience data.
This mismatch makes it very difficult for marketers to deliver the personalised strategies that can meet a target audience’s needs while driving key metrics and return on investment (ROI).
It is no surprise then that efforts to demonstrate ROI across the funnel are a struggle for many with only 54% of respondents claiming they are able to do it.
Social media is helping marketers to achieve other objectives though such as engaging audiences and acquiring customers as 64% say it is their most effective channel.
That has resulted in a 53% increase in investment in social media channels during the last year with TikTok and Instagram currently leading the way in terms of net Set featured image spending.
“This research reaffirms that marketers want to put money into channels to deliver immediate ROI, but this must be balanced with overall brand lift,” Nielsen chief marketing and comms officer, Jamie Moldafsky concluded in a statement.
