Marketing Measurement Requires Increasingly Timely, Accurate and Granular Data;99 Percent of Marketing Leaders Are Considering a Person-Based Approach

New research shows marketers are bullish to analyze their campaigns at the person-level — and have implemented or intend to adopt person-level customer data programs to ensure the efficacy of their marketing programs. Although marketers have more customer data at their disposal than ever before, the study also found that 71 percent of marketers are hampered by disconnected measurement approaches and tools, a costly inefficiency in a fiercely competitive landscape.

These findings come from “The Current State of Marketing Measurement and Optimization,” a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Marketing Evolution to evaluate the state of person-level data adoption among marketers.

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Person-level data seeks to optimize every interaction at the user level by collecting and assigning data from any source to an individual. Traditional measurement has inhibited companies from identifying individuals across touchpoints — siloing customer insight by campaign and channel. And while there is still work to be done, companies are maturing their marketing measurement, adopting unified tools that enable person-based data.

The research showed that organizations Forrester identified as mature in their approach to measurement were 14 percentage points more likely to have experienced at least 15 percent revenue growth in 2017 compared to their less-mature peers. Similarly, these firms were 27 percentage points more likely to say they have had fully met all of their business objectives.

“Marketers need to support their decisions with data — and today, have more data than ever at their disposal to measure and optimize their customer interactions,” said Rex Briggs, CEO of Marketing Evolution. “A person-level approach overcomes the most common shortcomings that hamper measurement and attribution. It enables marketers to optimize every customer interaction at the person level — granularity that delivers business-level benefits, today and tomorrow.”

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Among the study’s additional findings:

• Data management challenges persist. The survey found fewer than one-third of organizations meet what Forrester terms “maturity competency standards,” specific criteria to optimize marketing measurement. Decision-makers see data integration (28 percent), data management (26 percent) and cross-silo data management (24 percent) difficulties as key barriers to person-level success.
• Marketers want more data — and to make better use of what they have. While over 70 percent have already implemented or are currently expanding their customer data capabilities, 71 percent are struggling to connect their tools into a more cohesive approach to measurement.
• Marketing will lead the way to person-level data. Marketers’ history of working with customer data makes them uniquely positioned to drive person-level data strategies at organizations. Nearly half of marketers (47 percent) who use personal-level data believe that it has the potential to elevate the prominence of the marketing function — and most concur their company would benefit from having their marketing function spearhead this effort.
• Person-level data helps marketers accomplish their objectives. A large majority of marketers (80 percent) say that access to person-level data would either improve or significantly improve their ability to execute on their high priority initiatives to grow revenue, improve marketing efficiency/ROI, increase brand influence and reach in the market, and better leverage data and analytics in business decision-making.

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