If there’s one thing marketers can be sure of, both now and for the foreseeable future, it’s that data rules everything. Or, at least it should. The sheer amount of data available today is immeasurable and the collection of it is similarly open-ended. But that seems to be where the dream stops for many.
In fact, rather than using data to improve the customer experience, over one in three marketers admit that their teams spend more time collecting or distilling information than executing against it.
Data lakes are the pits
Raise your hand if you’re a marketer who collects a myriad of customer data, yet much of this data isn’t used to improve the customer experience. This reality isn’t a surprising one. Data certainly has the power to deepen customer insight and enable more precise marketing, but only when it’s harnessed effectively. Today’s speed, volume, and variety in which it’s generated create a real challenge: data perpetually changes, which means insights have a brief shelf life.
While data warehouses, DMPs, CRMs, and even CDPs have been great tools for a variety of use cases, they ultimately don’t provide the right level of access, connectivity, or speed to make marketing effective enough to satisfy today’s customer.
First things first: fix your foundation
Data is at the heart of all marketing systems, so implementing a scalable and solid foundation is a crucial first step to fixing the core of any martech stack. Thankfully, the existing imbalance between gathering and leveraging it isn’t totally lost on marketers. Whether the roadblock is a technology problem or a lack of know-how, marketers are placing a strong emphasis on improving data processes and utilization going forward.
In fact, 58% say their organization believes it’s extremely important to enhance their systems for collecting and managing data. And the benefits can’t be ignored — including an 81% increase in ROI.
Chart Title: The benefits realized from using more advanced data and marketing technologies to improve the customer experience*
Infuse your foundation with data activation
Realizing incredible ROI and achieving your most lofty goals doesn’t take a huge team or endless resources — just the right technology partner. Brands of all shapes and sizes have seen comparable success by activating their customer information for 1:1 marketing across every channel. Blueshift’s Customer Data Activation Platform (CDAP) has enabled marketers to do more with less and see 781% ROI in the process. Blueshift’s unique approach to customers allows brands to fix their broken, fragmented stacks and create a real-time single view of customers that in turn powers personalized marketing.
Want to learn what could be stopping your team from success? Download the full Marketer vs. Martech report to discover what could be impeding your tech stack and what can be done to repair it. Or, reach out to our team for a hands-on demo and see what our CDAP is all about.
