The Pursuit of Data-Driven Maturity report, based on a survey conducted by Econsultancy and Adobe, examines the extent to which organisations are investing time, expertise and budgets to make data-driven marketing a reality. The research also explores adoption levels for more advanced techniques, such as audience amplification and predictive analytics.

The report is based on a global survey of more than 3,600 marketers and ecommerce professionals carried out at the end of 2015.

The following sections are featured in the report:

  • Introduction
  • Building a data-driven strategy
  • The return on data
  • Moving to a whole customer view
  • Audience amplification: finding new customers with data
  • Understanding tomorrow’s customers with predictive analytics
  • Outpacing the competition

Findings include:

  • Most companies either have no formal approach whatsoever to using data in marketing programmes (23%) or are working towards a strategic approach, but haven’t arrived at one yet (51%). Only 26% of responding organisations have a solid data-driven marketing strategy in place.
  • The online/offline divide still exists in 60% of organisations surveyed and 83% struggle with merging their data points.
  • Only 7% of those surveyed exploit audience amplification as much as they can, while 13% are doing some work, aided by external support.
  • Less than a fifth (19%) indicate they have technology and processes designed to predict the needs and behaviours of customers and prospects.
  • Two in five (41%) report that marketing takes a back seat to IT/tech groups in managing its data, with 45% suggesting that marketing can’t make decisions on new technology investments.
  • More than two-fifths (43%) are not using mobile data in any meaningful way, while only a fifth collect data on how mobile affects the customer journey. Even smaller proportions are using mobile data for geo-targeting (17%) or uncovering differences between customers (16%).
  • A third (34%) of responding companies rely on individuals/teams separately managing point solutions and delivering insights to a central repository. At the other end of the spectrum, only 13% are using cloud-based technology that includes solutions across marketing goals.

 

Econsultancy’s Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefings, sponsored by Adobe, look at some of the most important trends affecting the marketing landscape.