• by Tanya Gazdik , April 14, 2016

Experian Marketing Services’ 8th annual annual global study finds that the first order of business and priority for marketers is better knowing their customers.

The 2016 Digital Marketer Report reveals that the top challenge also is marketers' top priority: knowing their customers’ needs, wants and attitudes. Thirty-eight percent of marketers cited knowing their customers as their top challenge in 2016, and 52% named enhancing their customer knowledge as one of their top three priorities.

The research found that regardless of the company size or industry, marketers around the globe still find this to be their major hurdle.

More than half of the marketers we surveyed said “enhancing their knowledge of the customer” is one of their top three challenges this year, says Emad Georgy, CTO, Experian Marketing Services.

“To solve for that, marketers are focusing more than ever before on the data – not just demographic data, but behavioral data, preference data, motivations, and more,” Georgy tells Marketing Daily. “And to gain a complete understanding of that customer, brands must invest in the technology and an organizational structure that will assist them in connecting those data points into one coherent understanding of who their customers are, what they need, and how they want to interact with the brand.”

The major obstacles and priorities uncovered in the study align very closely with many of the challenges Experian’s clients solve daily, he adds.

“The marketers we see who are most successful at bridging the gap between siloed data sources and departments are the ones who have embraced the tools, insights and technology to help them center their conversations on the customer, rather than the channel,” Georgy says.  

“For CMOs, now is the time to take a fresh look at the way you structure and incentivize your teams,” he says. “Is your marketing team set up in a way that benefits the customer? Or is a different customer experience dictated in every channel? CMO’s need to invest in technology that ensures data is accessible and actionable across groups.”

Other top challenges indicated by marketers include increasing visibility over competitors and staying ahead of new marketing trends. The integration of technology and collecting, linking and managing data also were key priorities. 

Experian Marketing Services surveyed more than 1,000 marketers worldwide to identify the biggest opportunities and challenges for marketers around the world.