Data and technology among the biggest pain points for marketers
New report applies ‘migraine rating’ to marketing challenges, while also prescribing remedies
Dealing with data, IT bottlenecks and lack of time for optimisation are among the challenges which cause the biggest headaches for marketers, according to new research published by Econsultancy and SmartFocus today.
Digital technology and changing consumer behaviour have created a near infinite number of opportunities for marketers to reach and engage customers, while also creating a whole host of new problems for marketing teams to wrestle with.
Marketing Pain Points and How to Overcome Them, produced in partnership with SmartFocus, ranks 17 pain points experienced by modern marketers, with a diagnosis and suggested remedy for each problem.
As well as analysis by Econsultancy, the report contains insight and advice from a number of leading marketing experts who prescribe advice on how challenges can be overcome and headaches mitigated.
Each pain point has been given a ‘migraine rating’ based on the percentage of marketers who rate a challenge as a ‘4’ or ‘5’ on a five-point headache scale.
The research is based on a survey of more than 500 client-side marketers carried out between February and March 2015.
As well as remedying the 17 pain points, the research digs deeper into a variety of paint points relating to different aspects of marketing.
The 10 pain points with the highest migraine ratings are:
-) ‘IT and web development teams are a major bottleneck.’ 54%
-) ‘There is no time to test and optimise campaigns.’ 47%
-) ‘I’ve always wanted a single customer view, but haven’t been given the time, budget or IT resources to build one.’ 42%
-) ‘I can’t keep track of customers across different channels and on different devices.’ 41%
-) ‘I don’t have enough budget / my budget is decreasing.’ 41%
-) ‘I’m struggling with multiple data sources.’ 40%
-) ‘I have trouble defining attribution and assessing the touchpoints required to convert a customer.’ 40%
-) ‘I struggle to prove the ROI of marketing activities.’ 39%
-) ‘I’m in a battle to keep up with marketing technology.’ 33%
-) ‘Finding marketers with the right skills is a nightmare.’ 30%
Bola Awoniyi, Research Analyst, Econsultancy, said:
“The increased connectivity of the consumer really has created a multitude of opportunities for marketers but the workload and array of challenges has become greater. The aim of the research is to identify common stumbling blocks and, more importantly, help marketers to alleviate these headaches for the benefit of themselves and also their organisations.”
Jess Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Smartfocus added:
“The research shows a key challenge for marketers lies in gathering their disparate data to create that elusive single customer view. However, if marketers focus on a single marketing view of the customer, they will be able to create segments of one and market to the individual, which is key to truly effective personalization and contextualization.”
Source:Econsultancy