With talent shortages starting to bite, marketers are increasingly turning to martech to do the heavy lifting. However, the vast majority still use analytics in an “overly passive” way which fails to maximise insight into customer behaviour.
This is according to The State of Marketing Analytics Technology report from Mediahawk, which questioned marketing leaders across a range of industries including retail, automotive, agencies, IT, education, manufacturing, trade, professional services and healthcare.
For the most part, marketers are united on their future goals. Website traffic is a clear priority (86%) with revenue growth (84%) and lead generation (81%) following closely. Improving reporting is also key for most (65%) and a further 47% count martech integration as a key objective.
However, recruitment is still the biggest challenge. 79% of marketers surveyed said that getting the right skills and experience on board is their biggest headache right now, and demand for flexible working has provided new challenges in securing talent.
Marketers spend over 25% of their budgets on their martech stack and have six marketing tools on average, with web analytics (85%), social media (75%), email marketing (67%) and digital advertising tools (67%) making up the top technologies.
Tech stacks are putting a lot of data on the table but highlighting the ever-growing need for proper analysis and implementation of findings. 88% of marketers said they predominantly use their tools to monitor campaign performance. 54% said they use analytics tools to improve conversion rates, while 27% are developing marketing plans using insights from their martech software. However, just 6% said they are using their analytics tools to identify critical customer behaviour trends, such as by conducting user research.
Mediahawk chief executive Michael Morrell said: “Despite teams having fewer people and budgets being streamlined, martech stacks are getting bigger — as companies strive to increase conversion rates and pursue growth.
“But few marketers are unearthing the gold buried in their analytics. With a few deft moves, they could identify the entire customer journey in a meaningful way, spot the most critical touchpoints, and flag up clear opportunities to optimise their next campaigns. Savvy marketers will be making this a priority in the next 12 months.”