Understanding the influence of a marketing campaign beyond acquisition and conversion to include the influence of each interaction is the top challenge for US and UK marketers, according to [download page] a survey from Forbes Insights and Coremetrics. Results of “Bringing 20/20 Foresight to Marketing” indicate 26% of marketing executives rated this as a top online marketing challenge (more than one answer allowed) for their organizations.
Cross-channel Consistency Also Major Challenge
Closely following understanding influence were two challenges related to obtaining consistency across multiple marketing channels. Twenty-five percent of respondents cited obtaining an integrated view of customers across multiple online marketing touchpoints, followed by providing a consistent experience across different media and different screen types (24%).
Another challenge relating to cross-channel consistency, reaching customers no matter where they are online, was ranked fifth (20%), behind another challenge relating to understanding information, interpreting data to make business decisions (21%).
4 in 10 Marketing Execs See Tech Investment as Needing Improvement
When asked to rate their company’s investment in technology to support online marketing, compared to their competitors, the largest portion of respondents (42%) said it is strong in some areas but needs to improve in some areas, while another 30% termed it adequate.
About the same percentage called their company’s investment in online marketing technology world-class (14%) and needing significant improvement. In one positive sign, only 2% said radical improvements are needed.
Offline Customer Behavior Toughest to Measure
A combined 52% of respondents said offline customer behavior is very difficult (14%) or difficult (38%) to measure and interpret. Customer behavior across all marketing touchpoints closely follows with 48% calling it very difficult (12%) or difficult (36%). Getting all channels’ performance behavior in one view also 48% saying it is very difficult (10%) or difficult (38%), but with slightly fewer respondents describing it as “very” difficult.
Other measurement/interpretation tasks cited as very difficult or difficult by more than four in 10 respondents include the value of a marketing campaign based on influence and interaction (43%), customer behavior on social media (43%), and all vendors’ performance comparison in one view (41%).
Customer Retention Top Marketing Priority
Slightly more than half (52%) of US and UK marketing executives say one of their company’s top marketing priorities is customer retention, according to other survey results. Other popular responses include customer acquisition (38%), customer profitability (29%) and branding (28%).
About the Data: Forbes Insights, in association with Coremetrics, an IBM company, surveyed 321 marketing executives at companies with more than $250 million in annual revenue in the US and the UK. More than three quarters of the companies (77%) had annual revenues of $1 billion or greater, and the remaining 23% had revenues of at least $250 million. More than a quarter of respondents held C-level titles, including CEO (15%) or CMO (11%), and the rest had senior titles including senior vice president, vice president, director of marketing, and marketing manager.
