There is a marked discrepancy between marketers’ need to manage metrics and their confidence in the accuracy of the data, new research from Coremetrics has found.
‘The Face of the New Marketer’ study, conducted on Coremetrics’ behalf by Bloomberg BusinessWeek Research Services, polled 361 senior marketing executives in the UK and the US.
Three quarters of marketers reported that using various online tools for personalisation is a priority and 81% claim that it’s very important for them to increase visitor value through compelling product and content offerings. Yet only half report they currently use online personalisation tools (51%), suggesting the information and data gathered through online marketing efforts is still not being used to its full potential.
The two top challenges now facing marketers are obtaining an integrated view of customers across online marketing touch points (45%) and interpreting the resulting data (41%), the survey found.
And, while spending on online marketing efforts has increased, most marketers lack confidence that they are using the right metrics to gauge marketing success and value, the survey found. When asked how they would evaluate marketing success at the end of 2009, nearly half (47%) said “meeting our key performance indicators.”
However, well over half of marketers (62%) claim they are not confident they are tracking the right metrics for online marketing performance. Additionally, there is a perceived lack of confidence in the accuracy of this online marketing data. Only 13% of executives are extremely confident the online data they receive from managers is accurate, while only 6% of managers share the same level of confidence about the data they are providing.
“Business leaders are aware of the value online marketing provides, but there is a disconnect in that many are not sure they are using it effectively,” says John Squire, chief strategy officer at Coremetrics. “Companies that can harness marketing technology can then get the most meaning and value out of the data they collect from it. In turn this enables companies to personalise their marketing efforts and create a competitive advantage.”
