Marketers are facing such a huge deluge of customer information - arriving from numerous sources - that they are at risk of not being able to see the wood for the trees and losing sight of important KPIs.
That is one of the key findings of a new report by cloud-based operating system Domo, in partnership with Censuswide, which quizzed over 680 senior marketers around the world about their current - and future - strategies.
It found that the vast majority (83%) are struggling to adapt to the volume of data, while nearly the same proportion (80%) feel the industry as a whole focuses on too many performance metrics and 78% admit to chasing short-term results over long-term strategy.
To reduce operational and strategic complexity, almost a quarter (23%) of large organisations are preparing to spend up to 40% of their marketing budget on data management and analytics in the next 12 months; nearly three-quarters (70%) say they will allocate at least a fifth to this type of technology.
The study also found that as a result of the changing nature of marketing, many senior professionals are finding it difficult to hire the right employees and upskill their current workforce.
More than a third (35%) of those at large organisations said their main recruitment priority is to build a rounded team with a balance of data and creative skills. Skills in data security and compliance were also reported (45%) as crucial while creative skills (45%), and data science and analytics skills (42%) were also high on the agenda.
Today, marketers see the use of data as a driving force within the sector. A fifth believe the biggest benefit of increased data is the ability to make key marketing decisions faster, and in real-time. In addition, a quarter of respondents say it enables them to build better-informed strategies.
Domo founder and CEO Josh James said: "Despite having more data about the customer journey than ever before, marketing leaders have more pressure from the business and more challenges in keeping up.
"Today’s hyperkinetic business environment calls for marketers to have a new modus operandi, helping them balance marketing’s strategic and operational needs, while creating customer value across all marketing activity and clearly communicating it to the bottom line.
"More intelligent use of data is central to a new approach to marketing. The result will be a marketing organisation that creates customer value, increases transparency around results and enables marketers to focus on strategy and execution."
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