Online Marketers Talk The Talk, But Don’t Walk The Walk: Study
Here’s a question for marketers: If three-quarters of you acknowledge using tools for personalizing offers is a priority, and four in five of you say it’s important to increase Web site visitor value through compelling product and content offers, why are only half of you using personalization tools?
Coremetrics, a marketing optimization firm, discovered this disconnect in a recent survey. Among its other findings, 47% said they would determine whether 2009 had been a good year by evaluating their performance metrics. Fair enough. But 62% aren’t confident they’re tracking the right performance metrics.
“Business leaders are aware of the value online marketing provides, but there is a disconnect in that many are not sure they are utilizing it effectively,” John Squire, chief strategy officer of Coremetrics said in a statement. “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 personalize their marketing efforts and create a competitive advantage.”
Among the study’s other findings:
The three most commonly used marketing measurement tools are: individual online marketing campaign performance (77%); online customer behavior — per visit/session (76%); and display advertising performance based on impressions (69%);
The two top challenges facing marketers are: Obtaining an integrated view of customers across online marketing touch points (45%) and interpreting the resulting data (41%);
The three areas that have seen the biggest spending increase this year are: online marketing (69%); generating online business (56%); and Web 2.0 (55%);
Two-thirds of marketers indicated marketing has always been viewed as critical in their organization, while only 19% say that marketing is seen as discretionary;
The three most commonly used forms of online marketing are: e-mail marketing (87%); display advertising (86%); and paid search (69%);
Collaboration is important and could be easier if barriers are removed. 97% of marketers say it is important for their organization to collaborate to better target customers. However, only about half indicate that this is an easy process. The biggest barriers to collaboration are: organizational structure (47%); control issues (38%); decision making procedures (33%); and poor communication (33%).
