Today, few brands would question the need to gain a single view of their customers across all channels and touchpoints.
A unified view allows brands to meet sky-high expectations for customer experience, by delivering continuity in the customer journey and seamless interactions across multiple channels. It helps them personalize those interactions, based on the customer’s immediate needs, and powers AI tools that use predictive analytics to deliver relevant messages in real time. And, it helps build trust, as brands can be sure they’re applying each customer’s privacy preferences at every engagement.
As proxy identifiers like third-party cookies and mobile ad IDs continue to lose value, and brands increasingly rely on first-party data, gaining a unified customer view has never been more important.
But something’s getting in the way.
Our new research report, The Mass Martech Modernization, reveals that 68% of brands say they are still struggling with siloed data, and fragmented systems prevent a unified customer view that would enable relevant, personalized experiences.
Martech stacks are outdated and fragmented
Overall, the research – which surveyed executives at 200 brands from the U.S. and U.K. – reveals a picture of a marketing technology landscape in need of modernization. Over half (53%) of brands say some of their martech solutions are no longer fit for purpose, while 44% say elements of their current tech stack are outdated. A massive 99% say they plan to make changes to their martech over the next 12 months, whether that’s adding new applications or replacing existing tools.
When we asked the 99% what they hope to achieve with their martech changes, 35% said they specifically want to improve integration between solutions. What’s more, having existing solutions in the stack that don’t play well together is cited as one of the top three triggers that should persuade brands to upgrade their marketing technology. The other two triggers are: first, current systems hindering the achievement of business goals and, second, security vulnerabilities becoming a significant risk.
Another telling sign that marketers are struggling with siloed data and tech is that they identify attribution as the biggest challenge preventing them from achieving their objectives. When data is scattered across platforms and systems that don’t talk to one another, getting a complete picture of the customer journey and accurately measuring marketing performance simply isn’t possible.
Brands lack clarity in martech ownership
Outdated technology isn’t the only reason data and systems are siloed. It’s often due to a lack of someone internally taking ownership of martech strategy. This results in poor internal communication and collaboration, which in turn leads to redundant technology purchases and incompatible solutions. The report reveals:
- 63% of brands purchase martech across different teams without effective collaboration.
- 53% of brands say they don’t always consider integration with existing systems.
- 66% of brands say tools have overlapping functionality, resulting in unnecessary complexity.
According to the Chief Technology Officer of a U.S. tech company, “A lot of organizations are very siloed. I think there’s a lot of inefficiencies in these businesses where you bring in certain solutions, but there’s a duplication with other solutions. It’s purely a case of weak lines of communication, but at a scale that can cost a business millions.”
Brands are missing out on AI developments
One of the report’s key findings is that the use of AI in marketing is considerably lower than might be expected considering all the hype surrounding the technology. In fact, only 47% of brands have integrated AI into their martech stack, and less than half of those are using it for advanced activities such as customer segmentation. The rest are still using it for simpler tasks such as content recommendation.
Siloed and fragmented tech stacks are one of the key causes of low AI adoption. Two in five (42%) brands say they will need to overhaul their existing martech solutions to make use of future AI developments. The same percentage says they will need to build a martech stack that is interoperable with Al solutions.
As the Director of Marketing at a U.K.-based insurance provider explained, “We’re not using AI anywhere in the business as yet, but it’s definitely something that we’re thinking about. We’ve some concerns around it from a governance perspective. But mainly, we are in such a world of pain trying to fix the stack that we’ve got, trying to add something new in, it just feels like now is not the time.”
Brands need a connected approach
There are steps brands can take today to mitigate the impact of siloed data and systems and work toward that unified customer view.
- Step one: Bring together first-party data from existing systems in a data warehouse and employ data management techniques to ensure customer information is complete, accurate, and up to date.
- Step two: Create a private first-party identity graph, powered by a robust identity resolution solution.
- Step three: Leverage a customer data platform (CDP) for analysis, segmentation, and activation to enable real-time capability and improve marketing effectiveness.
Working with a martech services partner can accelerate this process and help brands realize the benefits of a single customer view more quickly. A partner can support brands in establishing a long-term martech strategy and integrating solutions into a fully functioning stack, running on de-siloed data. Ideally, a services partner will be platform agnostic, so it can help optimize the systems brands already use rather than requiring a complete rip and replace.
As outlined by the Head of Marketing Strategy at a major U.S. bank, “There’s so much dysfunction in delivering on strategic technology investments. That’s why it’s so important to have a strategic partnership with an expert third party because they don’t care if we go with Salesforce or Adobe. But what they can do is bring in their experts to tell you what you better be aware of and make sure you’re checking all those boxes.”
To find out more about what’s driving martech modernization, what brands are hoping to achieve, and what challenges they’re facing, read our new report, The Mass Martech Modernization.
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