The latest Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing from Econsultancy and Adobe highlights the key digital trends, challenges and opportunities which marketers need to be aware of during 2015, covering topics ranging from customer experience and mobile to cross-channel marketing and personalisation.

The report is based on a global survey of more than 6,000 marketers and internet professionals carried out at the end of 2014.

Here’s an overview of two of the topics, but be sure to download the full report for a deeper dive into Digital Trends 2015…

Driving a CX-friendly culture 

For many organisations, the goal of turning customer experience (CX) into a competitive advantage means recreating themselves.

This is because it requires the whole organisation to be working towards the same goal, including product teams, marketing, HR and finance.

It’s not easy to get hundreds or thousands of employees to realign their thinking, but it’s essential if the shift to the customer is genuine.

But the inherent challenges aren’t enough to deter businesses from trying.

The digital trends report shows that 44% of companies see customer service/experience as the primary way they will seek to differentiate themselves from the competition.

In comparison, 28% said that product quality would be their greatest differentiator.

Over the next five years, what is the primary way your organisation will seek to differentiate itself from competitors?

The report investigates the ways in which companies can redefine their culture, which are broadly labelled as:

  • Fostering a cross-team approach.
  • Realignment through incentives.
  • Supporting experimentation and understanding failure.

Marketing gets personal

According to the Adobe ‘Digital Roadblock’ survey of marketers carried out in early 2014, personalisation ranks as the most important capability in regard to future marketing efforts.

The latest report shows that little has changed, as ‘targeting and personalisation’ remain as the top digital priorities for 2015.

Content optimisation and social media engagement were also seen as high priorities.

Which three digital-related areas are the top priorities for your organisation in 2015?

Another key trend for 2015 is the way that businesses are now thinking of personalisation across the whole customer journey rather than in a particular marketing silo. 

In response to a separate question, two in five (38%) organisations agreed that omnichannel personalisation will become a reality in 2015, with respondents being 65% more likely to agree than disagree with this statement.

Download the full report for more insight into Digital Trends in 2015.