Data Integration Concerns Lead Marketer Woes: Survey

Readers who haven’t been sleeping well of late may take some cold comfort in knowing their compatriots are tossing and turning right along with them.

Why the restlessness? Primarily over concerns about measuring results and increasing effectiveness, integrating marketing channels and turning data into actions, according to a survey of marketers from Unica.

These concerns, along with worries about best allocating marketing budgets, topped list of important issues cited by marketers, with each being called either very or somewhat important by at least 94% of all respondents.

Respondents also offered insight into where bottlenecks in the marketing process occurred. Two-thirds mentioned insufficient IT support of marketing technology needs, and more than six in ten again cited their ability to integrate across channels, reflecting their earlier concern. And nearly that many (58%) mentioned gleaning information from measurement, analysis and learning as a stumbling block.

Not that marketers aren’t trying to integrate data. Nearly three in four (72%) use offline data to influence their e-mail offers, while 70% use this information when crafting direct mail offers.

Other Web-based mediums don’t fare as well: Only 42% of respondents say they use offline data to generate onsite personal Web offers, although another 22% anticipate doing so within the next 12 months. These figures hold for offline data’s influence on call center offers, with 60% saying they do, or plan to, use information when tailoring offers.

The nascent mobile channel is bringing up the rear in this category. Just over one-fifth of respondents (22%) say offline data currently influences their offers, with another 21% planning to do so within the next year.

Mobile marketing generally has some catching up to do. Only one-third of respondents say they use this channel – and it’s a lot more common among European marketers it is among North Americans. But another quarter will be using it within the next year.

The picture is rosier for social media marketing, which is currently used by 47% of respondents, with another 23% planning to jump aboard in 2010.

Among these respondents, exactly half use blogs, with another 20% planning to do so. Fifty-six percent currently make use of third-party social networking sites, with 26%investigating this during 2010. And 44% have conducted viral or word-of-mouth campaigns, with another quarter looking in to doing so.

Unica conducted its research among more than 150 direct and online marketers throughout North America and Europe. Responses are based on those responsible for at least one targeted marketing function at a company with a minimum of $250 million in revenue.