CMO Council Says Data Will Drive Customer Experience In 2017

Some 43% of marketers say they find it difficult to aggregate and centralize data in order to gain a clear view of the customer, although 44% acknowledge that digital and data have become inextricably linked.

The white paper -- Connected Interaction to Power Brand Attraction, released Tuesday from the CMO Council, in partnership with IBM -- analyzes the increasing need to drive a better experience and deliver on the big promise of omnichannel campaigns. The paper explores how innovations will demand new relationships with both data and technology.

Digital has altered content strategies and heightened the need for more types and formats of content, according to 60% of respondents. Some 44% think digital has heightened the need for aggregated data that pulls from across the entire company.

When asked about their "top experience goals," 42% of marketers acknowledge that they want better-connected campaigns, said Liz Miller, SVP of the CMO Council. Marketers realize they are "not connecting the dots," and acknowledge the need to link all media to complete the customer experience.

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The marketing and advertising industry remains entrenched in digital, but 34% of senior marketers say they are still testing and learning -- using each campaign as an opportunity to improve and advance experiences.

Some 37% of marketers say that in 2017 they will work to tie together physical and digital campaigns, while 29% say they will bring on additional resources and technology to better manage data and automation and 28% say they will form an initiative company-wide to optimize customer experience through all media and channels.

As digital advertising continues to advance, marketers say their goals are often just out of reach. Some 38% of marketers admit to seeing mixed results as some campaigns are hitting the mark and delivering results, while others have simply not yielded what was anticipated. Some 34% are testing and learning. Only 11% said they have met expectations when it comes to personalizing experiences. Seven percent of marketers believe they exceed expectations, having optimized how the brand reaches and engages an individual customer with a personalized, data-driven experience, while 6% are not sure and 3% admit to falling way below expectations.

Where will marketers invest the majority of their budgets in 2017? Some 59% of marketers said budgets will go to content marketing development and deployment; 48%, metrics and analytics to measure campaign performance; 47%, social media advertising and engagement campaigns; 38%, data management like aggregation and collection; and 33%, digital advertising for retargeting and asset management. 

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