Report: Digital Marketers Set to Tackle Marketing Automation Challenges

According to the “2015 Digital Marketer Report” released by Experian this April, 31 percent of senior marketers claimed that marketing automation was their biggest challenge to date. As a result, 36 percent of them have made it their top priority for 2015.

“Automation is key in delivering true cross-channel campaigns,” wrote the authors of the report. “It enables the marketer to set up complex communications once, test as appropriate, track results for measurement and optimize accordingly.”

Customer acquisition (45 percent) was cited as the second biggest challenge for senior marketers. However, only 36 percent of individuals made this one of their top three priorities in the coming months. The data indicates that although marketing automation may be a challenge, it’s one that the majority is willing to tackle.

Making Marketing Automation a Priority

This is not the first report to show that marketers are having trouble adopting automation. A study published in April 2015 by Spear Marketing revealed that 40 percent of B2B marketers do not use an automated email responder to follow up with new leads.

Additionally, 54 percent of respondents claimed that their marketing database consists of poor, inaccurate data.

“Any amount of under-utilization of marketing automation is a problem in that it, at the very least, prevents companies from generating a maximum return on their investment,” wrote the authors of the report.

In a recent survey conducted by Ascend2, 45 percent of marketers say that a lack of ineffective strategy is their biggest obstacle when it comes to adopting automation practices.