• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 9, 2014

Direct response or branding goals can determine how search marketers set up advertising budgets, but all should think about integrating processes, data and campaigns no matter what the intended key performance indicators or intended outcome. It may be difficult to believe, but data fragmentation caused partly by the massive growth in silo marketing applications remains the No. 1 data concern among marketers.

Tealium, a San Diego-based company specializing in enterprise tag management and real-time marketing, released a study with Econsultancy which reveals that 47% of marketers believe gaining a view across customer data remains key to their long-term success, but only 14% claim to have strong related processes. The 20-page report highlights survey results from 313 client-side marketers at B2C and B2B companies. The report continually brings up the word "unified," but switching it out for "integrated" makes more sense. It's a missing tactic throughout the industry, although everyone talks about it.

Marketers participating in the study cite better personalization, improved customer service, and enhanced abilities to segment customers that could help better target services and ads as the top three benefits. Only 45% of those participating in the study at companies generating annual revenue of more than $50 million say their organization has a data warehousing project, and 28% said they didn't have one at all.

By comparison, only 16% of small businesses generating less than $50 million in annual revenue said they have a data warehousing project, whereas 42% do not. Many businesses are using marketing clouds, including 18% of small businesses and 13% of enterprises. Some 51% of respondents said the ability to easily read and understand the data would help them achieve success.

Numerous potential problems still exist. Among then, more than 72% report issues with fragmentation, which can slow or stall processes and call validity into question. Fewer than 20% say they have a strong capability in viewing and using data from their marketing channel applications. And, even among the largest organizations, only 16% have connected all of their applications to the point where they share key operational and customer data. Interesting read. Go forth and conquer the data dilemma or risk losing customers.

"Sharing" photo from Shutterstock.