• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 11, 2023

Zeta Global reveals nearly half of marketers participating in an independent study conducted by Forrester Consulting do not trust the reliability of their company's data due to fragmented tools and poor integration.

The study, "Elevate Your Integration Strategy for Maximum Business Impact," released Tuesday, examines the biggest challenges brands face in improving the customer experience  through quality data. 

Some 84% of companies have more than 10 technologies in their tech stack, yet more than half believe their stack doesn’t work as it should. This fragmented approach of integrating so many technologies can hinder a marketer’s abilities to create personalized experiences. It also increases operating expenses.

In fact, 59% of marketers who rely on poorly integrated tech stacks experience delays in launching campaigns, with 55% resulting in lost revenue for the business.

The analysis is based on a survey of hundreds of U.S. marketers responsible for their company's customer experience tools.

Marketers say analytics is important, but still unrealized, with 74% expecting to find insights in buying requirements within the data, but do  not. The lack of integration creates problems when trying to use the data.

About 59% of marketers who rely on a poorly integrated environment experience delays in launch, resulting in 55% citing lost revenue for their business.

Some 68% of respondents with a well-integrated technology stack reported improved brand reputation from good customer experiences, 68% cited increased revenue from shortened campaign time to market, 67% saw increased ease of use for end users, and 59% cited the ability to analyze data in the app.

Marketers also face operational challenges in using customer data. Some 57% manually analyze data for actional insights across tools, 52% find it difficult to test and optimize campaigns, 52% also find trouble tracking and optimizing customer preferences, 51% cited security vulnerabilities, and 49% have difficulty building holistic customer profiles.