Marketers divided on the importance of analytics

Technology means that marketers are able to collect more information on customers and their purchasing habits than ever before.

But a new study shows that there's a divide on how important using that information is going to be. The survey by marketing software company Marketo reveals that while 57 percent of all respondents in the US believe predictive analytics will be the primary technology they use to engage with their customers, only 11 percent of international marketers think the same.

The survey of respondents from Australia, France, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom identifies the internet of things (IoT), machine learning, predictive analytics, and virtual reality as the top technologies they and their customers will leverage in 2017. However, there’s disagreement on priorities.

Although 31 percent of international marketers believe IoT will be the primary means of interacting with customers in 2017, while only 16 percent of US marketers think the same. Half of US marketers think their customers will be utilizing machine learning in the next year, while only a quarter of international marketers share this view.

As marketers come under pressure to prove demonstrable value and return on investment, they cite reporting and analytics as a critical need, with 37 percent of everyone surveyed listing it as a top priority. Interestingly though, US marketers feel more strongly about this need than their international counterparts (42 percent as against 34 percent).

"Marketers are grappling with an unprecedented amount of data and interactions across an increasingly complex digital landscape, so it's no surprise predictive analytics are at the top of their list for 2017," says Chandar Pattabhiram, CMO at Marketo. "As emerging technologies like IoT and virtual reality are increasingly adopted by consumers and businesses -- bringing massive data volumes with them -- we'll see the need for analytics continue to grow".

Overall the survey shows that American marketers are more pessimistic about the impact of new touch points on their engagement with customers, with only 48 percent saying they are excited compared to 62 percent of marketers around the world. 26 percent of US respondents feel they don't have a handle on existing touch points, compared to only 14 percent of international marketers reporting the same concern. This may be due to the fact that 26 percent of US respondents see a need for better cross-channel communication in order to manage multiple data sources.

You can find more detail on the findings on the Marketo website and there's a summary of some of the key findings in the infographic below.

Graphic by Engagement Marketing Software by Marketo

Image Credit: donskarpo / Shutterstock