Personalization is a vital ingredient when it comes to effective advertising, and certain marketers know it. However, given the task of actually applying it to said advertising, that’s a different matter.
It seems that some marketers are having trouble when it comes to narrowing down the development of a single customer viewpoint, according to a July 2014 survey by Forbes Insights (in association with Sitecore). It appears that fragmented and siloed data systems could be playing a part in preventing said grasp.
Senior executives across various companies in the U.S. believe that their companies utilize an average of 36 different data-gathering systems and vendors – and some even go beyond that with over a hundred. However, only 24 percent of those polled find any sort of connection or integration with this system, making it hard to nail down a single system. In contrast, 56 percent believe that their systems were only partially integrated, meaning that a more streamlined future is possible as a result.
Integration efforts are a critical item for marketers, with 62 percent believing that a single, central customer marketing database with customer information is a huge priority, with 59 percent saying something similar when it comes to a singular system to deliver experiences across various digital channels.
To reflect this, a separate May 2014 study by Forrester Consulting (commissioned by Conversant) had similar results, with 35 percent of U.S. marketing pros stating that a single view of each customer across various sales and marketing channels was a lot tougher than looked, mainly due to making a broader implementation of personalization systems. A smaller percent of 30 percent thought it was a little bit less, stating it was a “major challenge.”
61 percent of the respondents in the poll believe that identifying, vetting and integrating technology, platforms and vendors for better personalization was a huge challenge, noting that adopting the latest personalization technologies could very well integrate separate data sources and types, creating a better single customer view. However, as you might guess, that challenge is tough for many to overcome.
We’ll see if these trends pick up – and a better personalization system is introduced – in the months ahead.
Source: eMarketer
