Well-Integrated Marketing Technologies Impact Business Performance and Increase Marketing Effectiveness [INSIGHT]

Chief marketers are fast becoming expert urban planners fighting enterprise data sprawl in their digital marketing technology portfolios. They are being challenged to bring disciplined development and cross-functional harmonization to what is an ever more crowded, data-producing landscape.

A new study published today by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and Tealium, finds strong links to suggest that improved business and marketing performance are directly related to having a formal roadmap for digital marketing technology acquisition, integration and data unification. The online research is based on Q3 2014 interactions with 150 senior marketers in North America.

Entitled “Quantify How Well You Unify,” the CMO Council report explores how well chief marketers are taking ownership of digital marketing technology strategies and to what degree they are unifying and extracting value from multiplying customer data sources. Among the high points, the study revealed:

    •    Forty-two (42) percent of CMOs who own their marketing technology strategy see greater business impact than those who do not.
    •    Those with a formal strategy contribute more to overall revenue and value creation. Half (50 percent) are able to achieve more targeted, efficient and relevant customer engagements, and 39 percent achieve greater return and accountability of marketing spend.
    •    CMOs who manage and integrate technology are achieving measurable business and operational gains. Nearly one-third (30 percent) of CMOs who say they manage and integrate technology extremely well or pretty well are seeing tangible business value, with 51 percent of those achieving greater revenue contributions.
    •    Those who integrate a technology strategy within their overall marketing strategy are able to achieve more personalized customer interactions across channels. Fifty-nine (59) percent of those who have integrated this strategy report achieving more targeted, efficient and relevant customer engagements.
Unfortunately, there is a need for master planning when it comes to collecting and analyzing customer-centric data sourced from websites, social networks, mobile apps, online customer communities, and other interactive, self service and self-help channels.
    •    Less than half (44 percent) of senior marketers surveyed say they have a formal marketing technology strategy and program to further business goals.
    •    Just 16 percent of marketers report their marketing technology strategy is tightly aligned to the business strategy.
    •    Only 3 percent of marketers say they are doing extremely well at integrating marketing technologies across functions.
    •    A surprising 54 percent of marketers are not sure whether their marketing technology investments are producing tangible business value.

“While 67 percent of survey respondents believe new marketing technologies are essential or very important to overall marketing group performance and effectiveness, they are being held back by technology overload, too many data sources, and lack of strategic application and integration of disparate point solutions and data,” notes Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council, an organization that represents 7,500 chief marketers in 110 countries controlling some $400 billion in aggregated annual spend.

Tealium advises chief marketers to architect a comprehensive “martech” strategy that fully integrates all digital marketing functions, data sources and customer touchpoints. By unifying siloed marketing applications, marketers have a much more robust view of their customers and can drive more personalized and impactful experiences that convert visitors into consumers.

“Most CMOs are unaware of how many digital marketing solutions they are using, and a majority have not defined a coherent and comprehensive marketing technology strategy or a path forward,” adds Tracy Hansen, Chief Marketing Officer for Tealium. “Embracing a unified marketing model generates measurable ROI and improved economics; category innovators and best-practice leaders prove this belief time and again.”

Study Observations

    •    Technology is now an essential part of the modern marketing strategy, but the rapid increase in technology options is causing problems—applications and customer data are more fragmented than ever.
    •    Most CMOs do not have an end-to-end marketing technology strategy; those who do are likely to contribute more to overall revenue, ROI, customer engagement, etc.
    •    CMOs who own the marketing technology strategy have greater business impact than CMOS who delegate the responsibility.
    •    CMOs who successfully manage and integrate technology are achieving measurable business and operational gains on their investments (greater returns, smarter spend, less resources, process efficiency, speed to market, reduced costs, greater revenue, etc.).
    •    CMOs who are good at integrating marketing technologies are seeing better business upside (more visitors, customer acquisitions, conversions, transactions, retention, upsell/cross-sell, repeat purchase, affinity, etc.).
    •    CMOS who have successfully integrated their technologies are achieving measurable improvements in personalizing customer interactions and delivering better customer experiences across all digital channels.
    •    The most successful companies have a comprehensive marketing technology strategy and are taking steps to better deploy, manage and integrate their technologies, end-to-end.
    •    The most successful companies extend their marketing technology beyond marketing to include sales, product development, etc., and they generate a significantly higher business impact.