As business intelligence budgets increase and structured query language is increasingly used, execs and data analysts disagree on the needs and challenges, Ascend2 and bipp report.

Email remains a preferred channel, but it falls behind SMS when it comes to CX messaging, Zendesk reports.

But mobile opens fell during the year as people worked at home, Campaign Monitor reports.

Agile marketing involves the ability to scale up as required. This ability to pivot is helping brands deal with the disruptions of the past year, MediaCrossing says in its report The New Era of Agility in Marketing.

Marketers also face the hurdles of reducing spam complaints and increasing their email list size, Ascend2 reports.

Consumers are demanding that businesses share their values and beliefs. But they still want free shipping above all else, CommerceNext reports.

More people are shopping online, but less than half solve problems on the first contact, least of all through email, The Northridge Group reports.

Brands hope for drop-and-drag editors and strong personalization and segmentation capabilities, Campaign Monitor reports.

Almost two-thirds of small businesses fail to employ a CRM or other automated system, Visual Objects reports.

Buyer attention is a key metric in predicting whether communications will lead to a sale.