The 2017 Digital Trends report, based on the seventh annual trends survey conducted by Econsultancy and Adobe, highlights the key digital trends, challenges and opportunities which marketers need to be aware of during 2017, covering topics ranging from customer experience and mobile to data-driven marketing and personalization.
The 2017 edition of this research also investigates how committed organizations are to digital transformation, which is intrinsically linked to creating a great customer experience.
The report is based on a global survey of more than 14,000 marketers and ecommerce professionals carried out at the end of 2016.
The following sections are featured in the report:
- The hard realities of digital transformation
- Looking back on 2016
- Priorities and budget plans for 2017
- Keeping up with customer expectations
- Building a digital culture
- Design-driven transformation
- Looking forward to the future
- Fit for the future: three key areas marketers should focus on
Findings include:
- Over one fifth (22%) of client-side respondents ranked ‘optimising the customer experience’ as the single most exciting opportunity for the year ahead, slightly ahead of other areas such as ‘creating compelling content for digital experiences’ (16%) and ‘data-driven marketing’ (12%).
- The priorities that sit atop marketers’ lists are content marketing (29%), social media engagement (28%) and targeting and personalization (25%).
- Design is considered the next level on the path to digital transformation, with 86% of survey respondents agreeing that design-driven companies outperform other businesses.
- While over four-fifths (82%) of survey respondents believe that creativity is highly valued within their organizations and around three-quarters (77%) are investing in design to differentiate their brand, just over two-fifths (44%) don’t think that they have the processes and collaborative workflows to achieve a design advantage.
- A key part of delivering differentiated customer experiences in the future will involve looking beyond mobile and focusing on the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), channels which are regarded by survey respondents as exciting prospects over the coming years.
Econsultancy’s Digital Intelligence Briefings, sponsored by Adobe, look at some of the most important trends affecting the marketing landscape. You can access the other reports in this series here.