Malaysia lags South-east Asian peers in digital marketing maturity: Poll

WHEN it comes to digital maturity in marketing and customer engagement, Malaysian companies lag their Asia-Pacific peers on the back of relatively slower investment in business transformation, an industry study has said.

That's even as customer engagement has shifted more heavily online this year, as the use of websites, text messaging and e-mail, social media, mobile apps and online marketplaces all grew in popularity compared with 2019.

The survey scored respondents' digital customer experience on a scale of one to five based on indicators such as the level of personalised content for clients, as well as the use of technology like machine learning and marketing automation.

Of the 100 organisations polled in Malaysia, no businesses scored a "five" overall, and only 17 per cent scored four, according to a recent poll of businesses across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia, which was commissioned by business platform provider Sitecore and communications company AKQA.

"Organisations in Malaysia struggle with optimising their tech investments," Nick Boyle, Asia vice-president for Sitecore, told Asean Business, as he cited marketing technology stack and digital customer experience as areas for improvement.

"Businesses based in Malaysia are also more conservative, prioritising cost and risk management versus technology driven transformation and innovation, which may slow down the DX (digital experience) journey.

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"This is unlike the approach adopted by businesses in other countries - where the focus is on bringing new products and services to market and digital transformation."

Meanwhile, Indonesian companies came out the median of the six countries surveyed, with the report citing "a good mix of DX maturity". Slightly over two-fifths (43 per cent) of organisations there scored a three, while another one-fifth (22 per cent) scored a four.

"Many of the smaller businesses reported higher-than-average maturity levels, which significantly lifted the Indonesian average," the report added.

The report also found that manufacturers in Thailand were more digitally mature than South-east Asian counterparts, while retailers in Thailand and Australia did "particularly well" with reinventing the digital customer experience to meet consumers' needs.

"Thailand and Malaysia have an opportunity to boost digital experience maturity by investing in personalised digital experiences," said Mr Boyle. "Of the Thai businesses assessed, more than half (52 per cent) scored threes and are on track to offer intelligent and personalised digital experiences."

Examples of highly personalised digital experiences under the survey's rankings metrics included using machine learning insights to segment the customer base, as well as automating every customer interaction for one-to-one personalisation.