Most corporate executives understand the importance of marketing analytics, yet few companies gain significant benefits from analytics.
Marketers struggle to integrate data from disparate sources, properly define the problem and design a solution for their organization, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) study, Broken Links: Why Analytics Investments Have Yet to Pay Off, sponsored by sales and marketing firm ZS.
“While nearly all companies invest in analytics, few organizations are getting it right and generating meaningful business impact,” stated Dan Wetherill, an associate principal on ZS’s analytics process optimization team and leader of the study, in a ZS news release. “Our study indicates that strong collaboration between executives and analytics professionals and a willingness to embed analytics processes more closely into the fabric of the business can help companies increase customer engagement and profits.”
Data is Very Important to Business
Most (70 percent) of the 450 survey respondents say sales and marketing analytics is already “very” or “extremely important” to their own business’s competitive advantage. In just two years, 89% of respondents expect this to be the case.
However, only 12% of respondents say those involved in their businesses’ general analytics efforts can stay abreast of emerging industry innovations. Just 2% believe transformations in capabilities at their companies have had a “broad, positive impact.” It is clear that marketing analytics remain a work in progress.
Although many companies invest significant resources into sales and marketing analytics, their analytics capabilities are usually immature. Eighty-six percent of respondents say their company has recently put in place or plans to implement improvements to sales and marketing analytics; 52% report their organizations spend heavily on the technology or are undertaking targeted investments to complete key functional improvements.
Don’t Take Advantage of Big Data
Researchers recommend that companies break down data silos and put their big data stores to better use. More than 90 percent of respondents have invested in cloud-based big data infrastructure or are planning to do so, yet only 8 percent have fully integrated it into their analytics capability.
Seventy-three percent of respondents said that domain expertise, understanding the environment in which the business operates and what it needs to succeed, is “very” or “extremely” important to sales and marketing analytics’ ability to meet the needs of the business’s analytics consumers.
“Analytics professionals need to understand the business in order to accurately define the problem or business need, effectively design the solution, and then deliver the resulting insights in a way that more systematically drives impact and change,” Wetherill advises.
While they understand the need for advanced analytics, two-thirds of executives surveyed lack employees with sufficient advanced analytics training. Most companies outsource at least part of their analytics program, a trend that is expected to continue over the next two years.
By 2016, more than half of all digital marketing hires will have a technical background, predict the executives surveyed. Digital marketing will require a marriage of technical skills and creative skills, including content creation, graphic design and social media.
More Analytical Personnel Needed
Other studies have also cited the importance of analytics training.
“The ability to analyze and interpret that data will be the core driver in optimizing customer engagement across all channels,” writes Laura McGarrity, vice president, digital marketing strategy at Mondo, in The Future of Digital Marketing.
“It’s critical to bridge the gap between technology and marketing, McGarrity states. “The time is now for CMOs and CIOs to join forces to work hand-in-hand, embracing development, design and creative services.”
Bottom Line: Executives recognize the necessity of data analytics for successful marketing. However, few companies can reap widespread benefits from marketing analytics. Integrating data, applying data-derived solutions to business issues, and finding properly trained personnel remain key challenges.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
