A new Arm Treasure Data report, “2019 State of the Customer Journey,” found that nearly half (47 percent) of respondents struggle to gain insights from their marketing data due to silos.
- Organizations lack visibility into their customer journey due to data silos
- More than 60 percent of those surveyed manage three or more pre-purchase customer touchpoints, with nearly a third (32 percent) having six or more
- Nearly half (48 percent) say they are not using a formal lead attribution strategy, making it difficult to determine which of their marketing efforts produced a sale
Making sense of the data
The marketing technology landscape has exploded in recent years, with more than 7,000 vendors offering martech solutions. These companies provide tools for independently managing everything from mobile advertising to interactive content to influencer marketing activities (plus dozens of other sales and marketing functions). Due to the rapid growth of tools and data, it is no surprise that businesses are struggling to access and properly analyze the data.
The Arm Treasure Data report also found that 54 percent of companies say they don’t have a full picture of their marketing data and thus their customer journey. These blindspots put achieving an exceptional customer experience at risk. Without a complete view of each customer journey, the odds of sending the wrong marketing message at the wrong time increase considerably.
Other key findings:
Customer journeys are complicated.
Most (61 percent) report having three or more pre-purchase customer touchpoints, with about a third of all respondents (32 percent) reporting six or more touchpoints.Many don’t know what works.
Nearly half (48 percent) say they are not using a formal attribution strategy, making it difficult to determine which of their efforts produced a sale.It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Long buying cycles make it critical to keep track of customer journeys. About 40 percent report the timeline from first engagement to purchase is four months or longer. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of respondents don’t have any idea how long their customer journey takes from first interaction to purchase.Unreliable data sources lead to marketer confusion.
The lack of a clear data picture means companies have potentially misplaced confidence in the effectiveness of their own marketing channels. Respondents cite salespeople and the company website as two of their three most influential marketing channels, while simultaneously acknowledging those aren’t the primary channels they turn to when making their own purchase decisions.
Why is it so hard to get the customer journey right?
Siloed data, combined with gaps in data analysis skills and lack of resources in marketing, technology, and data science, makes it tough for many organizations to develop accurate pictures of their customer journeys. Companies with many different types of marketing technology often suffer the most from the silo effect because data in one system is difficult to use with software and data in other systems. For example, an email marketing solution might not be able to easily share data with the company’s mobile application, limiting the ability to provide an omnichannel experience.
To help break down silos it’s important to integrate the data you already collect. Useful marketing technology, such as customer data platforms (CDPs), combine data from many sources, online and off, to create a full picture of the different customer journeys buyers and prospects take. With more unified data organizations can determine what compels customers to buy and why.
To see the full results of the “2019 State of the Customer Journey”, download the report