Lack of Marketing Tech Integration is Clouding Customer Insight

Many organizations have implemented marketing and commerce technologies, but a new report has discovered that they are still challenged to integrate and align these resources for more customer insight.

In the “Context, Commerce, and Customer: Best Practices to Exceed Expectations” study from the CMO Council and SAP Hybris, 23 percent admitted that their marketing and commerce processes were not working well together, and they are “struggling to connect all of the dots.” Just 1 percent said they were working together “extremely well” and “seamlessly in real time.”

About 55 percent said they were just beginning to implement marketing and commerce technologies to extend marketing’s view into cross-functional insights.

“With the advancement of marketing technologies and tools in recent years, marketers have benefited from greater transparency into the measurement of traditional marketing practices. And while this has helped marketers somewhat, it still falls short of providing a holistic, real-time view of the customer and their interactions at every step of the journey,” said Liz Miller, senior vice president of marketing for the CMO Council.

Nearly one-third of respondents (30 percent) said they are not delivering contextual experiences to customers in real-time, despite having a strategy in place.

Marketers Remain Dedicated to Technology for CX

Some organizations are struggling with marketing technology, but this is not preventing them from investing in it. Specifically, top-performing marketers are looking to tech for better results.

The “2016 State of Marketing” report from Salesforce found that 72 percent of top-performing marketers intend to increase their technology spend over the next two years. About 53 percent are already heavy tech adopters, and these same individuals are 7.7 times more likely to lead customer experience initiatives than their underperforming peers.