From the very beginning, Opal was a purpose-built platform. That purpose was simple: to help our friends who worked in marketing have alignment with what content they were sending to market, across their channels.
Compared to 10 years ago, the Opal platform is quite a bit more sophisticated, and our customer base has grown dramatically. However, that purpose of solving the challenges of real marketers hasn’t changed. One of the primary challenges that we address for our customers is providing strategic alignment with their marketing campaigns and content. While we know that alignment is a lynchpin to our customers’ success in marketing – we wanted to hear from the market as a whole.
That’s why we commissioned Forrester Consulting to survey enterprise marketing leaders. We wanted to know about their challenges around the lack of alignment and how it impacts their ability to successfully bring marketing content and campaigns to market. Forrester interviewed 151 CMOs, VPs, and Senior Marketing Directors from the retail and tech industries.
On September 19, 2023, Opal and Forrester published these findings in a report called:
“Operational Alignment Fuels Content Marketing”
You’re free to drop your contact information right here to download the full report. However, if you’re not sure you want to commit the time, we’re summarizing the key tech and retail marketing research right here.
Summarizing Our Tech & Retail Marketing Data
While the research and the published Opportunity Snapshot Report are full of value, the following are the most essential pieces. This tech and retail marketing data tells stories all on its own, as well as the full report.
Demographics of those surveyed
Seniority levels of the respondents:
- 35 are CMOs
- 79 are VPs of Marketing
- 37 are Directors of Marketing
Sectors of the respondents:
- 77 work in tech
- 74 work the retail sector
Countries of the respondent companies:
- 122 are in the United States
- 29 are in Canada
Annual Revenue of the companies:
- 105 had revenue between 1 and 5 billion dollars
- 17 had revenue of more than 5 billion dollars
What They Care About
- 89% of marketing leaders say that connecting planning, creating, and calendaring is necessary for content to succeed.
- 87% of marketers say their organizations need better hardware/software to achieve desired alignment.
- 38% of marketing leaders recognize the need to improve the alignment and collaboration of marketing with other departments above all else.
How they Evaluate the Success of a Marketing Program
- 58% of marketing leaders say that scale/scalability is a main way they determine success for a content program.
- 56% of marketing leaders say that efficiency is a main way that they determine success for a content program.
- 42% of marketing leaders say that customer growth is a main way they determine marketing’s impact on business goals.
- 42% of marketing leaders say that customer retention is a main way they determine marketing’s impact on business goals.
Their Biggest Pain Points
- Only 1% of marketers said their organization’s content planning and execution strategies are seamless.
- 77% of marketers said that organizational silos make aligning on strategy difficult.
- 45% said cross‐functional misalignment on business objectives (e.g. teams with disparate goals or key performance indicators) is still a challenge.
What They Said
Our tech and marketing research was also full of quotable nuggets from these marketing leaders.
“Strategic alignment ensures that marketing efforts are in-sync with the ever‐changing market dynamics. This adaptability helps in staying ahead of the curve, seizing opportunities, and mitigating risks in a fast‐paced business environment.”
CMO, RETAIL, US
“Alignment between leadership and operational teams promotes a culture of continuous improvement.”
CMO, RETAIL, US
Upcoming Webinar with Forrester
To bring this fresh tech and retail marketing data to a broader audience, Opal and Forrester are hosting a live webinar. During the webinar Opal CEO George Huff and a senior Forrester analyst will delve into the marketing research. In addition to highlighting and explaining the data, they’ll share from their long experiences of working with marketing leadership. You won’t want to miss this expert look into the marketing ecosystem of 2023!
Register here!
About the Opal Platform
If you’ve never heard of the Opal platform before, here’s what you should know. We’re a marketing planning platform that brands like Target, Starbucks, GM, and countless other legendary brands use to create their marketing. Alignment around marketing strategy was the focus of our tech and marketing research, since that is one of the primary benefits Opal provides to customers.
There are several key elements of the Opal platform that deliver these critical benefits:
Central Calendar – Alignment starts here. Your calendar should be a record of everything you’ve done in the past and the source of truth for what you’re putting into market in the present day and near future.
True-to-Life Content Previews – Understanding how your audience sees your marketing is very important. Opal's realistic previews let your team view and work on content exactly as it will appear in the market.
Powerful Workflows – Opal has solutions designed for this challenge. Our approval workflows can be customized to ensure the right person is automatically selected for approval.
If you want to see Opal for yourself, please schedule a custom demo right here!