Three quarters (75%) of senior marketing professionals working in UK-based B2C brands do not believe senior leadership truly values the role of customer marketing to the wider business.
The findings from a study conducted by first-party data agency Planning-inc indicate that marketers are being hindered by inoperable customer data, insufficient analyst resource and a lack of customer insight, diminishing the impact of their programs.
The research identified that marketing teams feel they are lacking both funding and resources to effectively carry out their job. For example, half (47%) of marketers surveyed stated they do not have the adequate resources to get insight into customer behaviour, with less than a quarter (23%) confident they have a full 360-degree view of individual customers.
At a time when UK consumer confidence nears historic lows, personalisation has become a lynchpin for garnering customer loyalty and increasing retention rates. Yet, the lack of insight into customer behaviour is affecting these efforts, with 43% believing their current personalisation efforts in communications are “unsophisticated”, likely due to disjointed customer data.
Despite a lack of sophistication, 86% are still sending 11-to-25 communications per week, indicating that many marketers are still relying on volume over relevancy. These are often based on historical insight with more than 4/5 (81%) marketers stating it takes four or more days to act on insights to optimise their campaigns.
James Melhuish, CEO of Planning-inc, said: “Between a volatile economic environment, increasing frugality, and consumer behaviour trending toward brand promiscuity, it’s never been more important for B2C brands to scale their personalisation efforts and retain customers. Yet, these findings show that marketers don’t have access to the right information about their customers, limiting their efforts to develop their customer marketing campaigns.
“With the right tools and insights, marketers can make fundamental gains in a business’ external communication efforts, directly impacting the bottom line. In turn, this will win more senior visibility and engagement to demonstrate value, helping build internal relationships.”
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