NEW YORK—Marketers may have a host of new tools and media available to them, but their number-one challenge remains something as old as the field itself: knowing consumer’ needs, wants and attitudes.
That was a chief finding in Experian Marketing Services’ 2016 Digital Marketer Report, which looks into the challenges, priorities and other key issues impacting marketers worldwide. The report found 38% of marketers cited knowing their customers as their top challenge in 2016, while 52% named enhancing their customer knowledge as one of their top three priorities.
Other top challenges identified by marketers include increasing visibility over competitors and staying ahead of new marketing trends. The integration of technology and collecting, linking and managing data also were key priorities.
“The future of marketing is being driven by sophisticated, channel-agnostic consumers who expect exceptional experiences every time. This reality poses a real challenge for organizations, as consumer intolerance for mediocre brand interactions puts more pressure on brands to leverage their data and technology,” said Ashley Johnston, senior vice president of global marketing at Experian Marketing Services. “Today’s brand marketers realize the significance of knowing their customers, but it’s still problematic. Our research found that regardless of the company size or industry, marketers around the globe still find this to be a top challenge.”
Experian Marketing Services surveyed more than 1,000 marketers worldwide to identify the biggest opportunities and challenges for marketers around the world. The annual report benchmarks the key issues that brands face as they try to engage audiences with relevant messages in an often complex digital environment.
Additional findings:
- 81% of marketers report challenges in achieving a single customer view.
- Enterprises cite making messages contextually relevant as their top challenge.
- 70% of respondents work in marketing teams that are integrated either fully or somewhat, up from 61% in 2015.
- Personalization helps achieve a 158% increase in click rate.
- 66% of marketers plan to implement predictive modeling over the next year and 68% plan to run mobile campaigns.
- 81% of marketers build segmented audiences for paid advertising.