36% of Marketers Still Find It ‘Extremely Difficult’ to Access Data and Analytics

As data and analytics continue to grow in importance, new research suggests that marketers still struggle with everything from accessing this critical information to maintaining its accuracy.

Nielsen recently published its annual global marketing report titled, “Era of Alignment: Future-focused Strategies for Brand Building and Customer Acquisition,” and statistics indicated that most marketers are still challenged by elements of audience data. Specifically, 36% find data access to be “extremely/very difficult,” while 35% stated that they find data accuracy/quality to be “extremely/very difficult.”

“To overcome these challenges, marketers need to prioritize their data strategies, complete with an investment in first party data — the data companies collect directly from users or people in a consent compliant way,” concluded the researchers behind the report.

Marketers See Organizations Falling Short with Data

While marketers continue to face obstacles when it comes to accessing and maintaining data, previous research indicates that many believe their organization is falling short.

Salesforce conducted its “Marketing Intelligence Report,” and statistics suggested that just 26% of marketers believe their organization has exceeded their expectations in terms of harnessing accurate, validated data. Additionally, only 27% claim that their organization has exceeded their expectations when it comes to providing real-time data access.

Overall, just 45% of respondents claimed that they have established data preparation processes, and only 48% have technology dedicated to analytics. However, 44% claim that they intend to develop data preparation processes in time.