• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 26, 2011

The opportunity to understand what marketers are thinking and doing during a period of unprecedented change and increasing expectations makes the Unica Annual Survey of Marketers especially valuable. Last year, the survey revealed that the key concerns among marketers were an overall shift to online marketing, a greater emphasis on website personalization, and a general dissatisfaction with IT support for marketing's technology needs.

This year, the survey found continued interest in many of the same issues, plus a more urgent need to turn data into action, increasing recognition of mobile's marketing power, and a desire for more integrated technology solutions.

When asking marketers about their key issues, this year's survey changed one of the answer options on the questionnaire from "measuring results and increasing effectiveness" to "attributing success to marketing". While a subtle yet distinctive shift in perspective, the option struck a nerve, and attribution took one of the top spots. At the same time, "turning data into action" leapt into the lead, but was clearly a more urgent cause for North American marketers than European. "Determining optimal channel and contact frequency," an issue that ranked fairly low in the previous survey was also in the top. Interestingly, despite the buzz and media hype, social media pulled in dead last with only 19%.

Top 3 Important Issues to Marketers
	% of Respondents
Issue	Total Respondents	North America	Europe
Turning data into action	62%	70	52
Attributing success to marketing	53	49	58
Determining optimal channel and contact frequency	48
Integrating marketing across channels	44	48	28
Influencing buying cycle	38
Allocating marketing budget	33
Shifting to social media	19	14	27
Source: Unica, "State of Marketing, 2011," May, 2011

Measurement analysis & learning moved into the lead spot as the biggest bottleneck marketers face within their organizations, holding a solid ten percentage-point advantage over 2010's number one, "IT support of marketing technology needs." Also noteworthy is the sharper distinction of priorities this year, with a range of 57% at the top to 31% (for "channel execution & delivery") at the bottom. Last year, the numbers were more closely clustered together, but clearly in 2011, the demarcations are more pronounced, suggesting that marketers have sharper clarity about their priorities.

Top 3 Bottlenecks in the Marketing Process (% of Respondents)
Bottleneck	% of Respondents
Measurement, analysis and learning	57%
Integrated cross channel efforts	53
IT support of marketing tech needs	47
Marketing planning and objectives	43
Source: Unica, "State of Marketing, 2011," May, 2011

The results are based on the response from 300 online and direct marketers with more than $100M in annual revenue, while the largest block (54%) reports $1B or more per annum, and management responsibilities across the complete spectrum of marketing roles with 35% marketing executives.

Over half cited technology as the key to productivity. Without question, marketers see technology as vital to resolving the challenges of meaningful measurement and analysis and choosing the next best course of action, more than the addition of staff or agency support.

There is a concern with integration, with 87% of marketers expressing an interest in a marketing suite that is better integrated.

While responses suggest that interest in achieving truly integrated cross-channel dialogs with customers is high, nearly half of the respondents report that organizational structure and internal processes is the most significant barrier in achieving the goal.

Barriers to Interactive Marketing
Barrier	% of Respondents
Organizational structure, culture and process	55%
Existing systems and date too disparate	50
Lack appropriate in-house skills	33
Lack of budget	33
Difficulty working with IT	33
Uncertain ROI	32
Lack of from upper management	24
Cost too high	18
Source: Unica, "State of Marketing, 2011," May, 2011

Email is pervasive, but nearly three-quarters of respondents complain that their email data is either not integrated with other customer data, or that the integration is mostly a manual effort. Only a little more than a quarter report adopting any paid search software to manage keyword bids.

Email Adaption by North American and European Marketers
Use of Email	% of Respondents
Current use	67%
North America	80
Next 12 months	11
After 12 months	6
No plans	10
Don't know	5
Source: Unica, "State of Marketing, 2011," May, 2011

Consumers are rapidly adopting connected mobile devices and smart marketers are aggressively following their audience. 43% of respondents say they currently use the mobile marketing, with another 23% planning to do so within a year. 16% plan to use it in more than 12 months. Yet, as with other tactics, today's efforts are largely not well integrated with other marketing efforts.

Social media remains the reigning champion among emerging marketing channels, leading the way with 53% current usage. But marketers' enthusiasm is less than last year, suggesting that we have passed the peak of inflated expectations and are focused on finding the value that social channels can yield.

For additional information from Unica, and the PDF file of the study, please visit here.