Home » “The Open Rate Is Gone Forever”: Salesforce’s Kevin Doyle On Why Marketing Metrics Have Changed For Good

25 August, 2021

“The Open Rate Is Gone Forever”: Salesforce’s Kevin Doyle On Why Marketing Metrics Have Changed For Good

There are always going to be some casualties in a rapidly changing digital marketing industry.

And according to Salesforce’s regional vice president of data, personalisation and marketing automation Kevin Doyle, the next victim is the open rate.

“The open rate is gone forever,” he told B&T. “That will be something that marketers can no longer rely on.”

Doyle’s comments come as tech giant Apple prepares to roll out its iOS 15 update, which will for the first time include the new Mail Privacy Protection.

Under the new update, users will be able to block third parties from accessing data email opens and clickthroughs.

For Doyle, these changes are just part of the reason why marketers need to rethink their approach and outlook on metrics.

“It’s not good enough to rely on vanity metrics such as open rates and click-through rates. It’s not enough,” he said.

“It’s not enough to know what channels don’t drive a sale. It’s not good enough to have to wait 30 days to get a report from an agency to understand what actually is driving the best possible performance.”

Aside from industry-wide changes such as Mail Privacy Protection, Doyle also believes a change in strategic priorities is impacting marketing metrics.

According to Salesforce’s latest State of Marketing report, three out of four CMOs are now aligning their KPIs with those of the CEO.

That means marketers are on the hunt for metrics which “are more strategic and more valuable to the business”, according to Doyle.

The CX battlefield

There will also be renewed emphasis on “customer centricity”, rather than “channel centricity” for marketers.

This comes as 72 per cent of marketers reveal customer experience is the key competitive differentiator.

“More importantly than ever is customer satisfaction and what the marketer’s role is in addressing that KPI in the organisation,” said Doyle.

Salesforce’s report shows that today, more than ever, marketers are looking to take ownership of the customer experience.

“This is the highest ever that marketers have said that they own the customer experience,” Doyle said.

“And the reason for that is that marketers are the front of the organisation.

“The days are gone where marketing used to be purely pushing messages out on billboards and radio. Now, when someone engages with you, typically it’s now by digital channels and marketers are owning that digital experience from front to back.”

Data management holds Australia back

While the report was conducted globally, Doyle was able to share insights into how the Australian market differs from the rest of the world.

Unfortunately for Australia, while the rest of the world is looking to progress, many local marketers are just focused on keeping their house in order.

“For the rest of the world, the number one priority for the next 12 months is innovation,” said Doyle.

“In Australia, we said it’s about unifying data sources. And the reason why unifying data sources was important was in order to control trust and the conversation that you have with a customer.”

However, the local market’s focus on unifying data sources is not so much an indication that Australian businesses are behind the rest of the world.

Rather, it is illustrative of an advanced customer base, said Doyle.

“I think we’re probably a little bit ahead,” he said.

“We’re a little bit ahead in that customer expectations here are higher than that then they’ve ever been. And so because of that, we have to move faster and harder in order to drive those better experiences.”

Image: iStock/Redlio Designs

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Kevin Doyle Salesforce