Just 5% of digital and e-commerce professionals describe their marketing technology as a single platform that manages data across multiple channels, while 10 times more (51%) say they have separate, non-connected technologies managing data for different channels. Problems integrating platforms can present a serious barrier to omnichannel marketing activities, per the Econsultancy and Adobe report [download page].
The study is based on a survey of more than 2,000 digital and e-commerce professionals, two-thirds of whom are based in Europe. Respondents to the survey clearly see channel management as crucial to omnichannel marketing activities: when asked to identify the top 3 obstacles to consistently integrated omnichannel marketing activities, a majority (51%) cited non-integrated tech platforms. Moreover, the next-most common barriers were disparate data sources (40%) and management of channels in silos (39%).
The ability to effectively integrate technology platforms is an attribute of high-performing marketing teams, according to research from Salesforce. In identifying areas in which top-performing marketers differed from their peers, the Salesforce research noted that high performing marketing teams are having much more success integrating business systems (with 60% excelling at this) than moderate performers (21%) and underperformers (4%).
Another area in which top-performers separate themselves from the pack? Mapping the customer journey. And for respondents to the Econsultancy and Adobe survey, this is also a work in progress. Indeed, only 1 in 10 (11%) say they closely match channels and content to a well-mapped customer journey, although another 61% are trying to do so… Still, that leaves more than one-quarter (28%) who aren’t attempting to match their marketing activities to the customer journey.
What’s the key problem? The systems… Almost 2 in 3 respondents agreed that they lack the systems to effectively map the customer journey. Other problem areas include a lack of time and resources to map the customer journey (63% agreeing), lack of data to effectively map the journey (60%) and lack of analysis skills (53%).
About the Data: The report is based on a survey of more than 2,000 digital marketers and e-commerce professionals, 54% of whom are from the client-side (with the remainder being agencies, vendors and consultants). Some 67% of respondents are from Europe, with Asia (10%) and North America (8%) the next-most heavily represented regions.
Respondents work in a variety of business sectors, but most commonly in financial services and insurance (12%), technology (12%) and retail/mail order (11%). Agency respondents tend to come from smaller companies (74% from companies with less than $13 million in revenue), while company respondents came from larger companies (50% from companies with at least $65 million in revenue).
