New Study Points To Missed Engagement Opportunities For Marketers Throughout The Customer Life Cycle
- Published in Industry News
Sitecore, a Web content management and digital marketing software company, has announced the results to its recent marketing industry study: “The Multichannel Maturity Mandate.” The report, conducted with Forrester, includes responses from more than 270 marketing professionals across a wide range of industries and geographic regions.
The study indicates that senior level marketers need to adopt a multichannel customer engagement model to increase marketing performance, according to a company release. Most (77%) of marketers agree they will drive more sales and profit by evolving into an effective multichannel organization, while a smaller but significant number (35%) said they have lost business because they are not able to integrate customer interactions across digital, social, mobile and offline channels.
Forrester’s study yielded five key findings that impact today’s marketers:
· Marketers have accepted multichannel marketing as common practice – 40% of respondents assessed themselves as mature practitioners of multichannel marketing.
· A skills gap impedes efforts – Despite seeing the value in a multichannel marketing strategy, some respondents are not moving forward due to a lack of knowledge and skills.
· Mature practitioners have realized significant business gains – Benefits ranged from improved campaign performance to higher return on marketing investment (ROMI).
· Significantly different multichannel practices are in place – Although in spite of these differences, veteran multichannel marketers tend to collaboratively engage with sales, aggressively adopt technology and work in close partnership with IT.
· There are significant opportunities to improve – Some of these opportunities include better organizational alignment, process definition and technology integration.
“Marketers continue to struggle with measuring digital strategies and marketing campaigns and their impact on strategic objectives and business success,” said Darren Guarnaccia, Product Marketing SVP at Sitecore. “This study highlights the gains in revenue and customer satisfaction that mature multichannel marketers can achieve, yet many still need help to meet the expectations and demands of the multichannel customer.”
An important part of the study highlighted how mature multichannel marketers improved tactical results which, in turn, drive strategic outcomes:
- 40% reported a very significant increase in marketing-attributed revenues;
60% reported a significant reduction in the average sales cycle;
40% were more likely to collaborate with sales on field programs;
60% reported a significant increase in return on marketing investment; and
69% gained more than 10% in customer satisfaction scores.
Click here to read additional results of the study, and follow this link to access the infographic.