The struggle with insights

Why becoming data-driven is easier said than done

The tech marketer's
insights struggle

Tech marketers have not yet mastered the art and science of turning data into meaningful insights to drive business

Whether on the hunt for a new pair of headphones or a new customer data platform, people today have little patience with a poor purchasing experience.

The B2C industry has long caught on to the importance of customer experience (CX) with the likes of Apple paving the way, but as we kick off the new decade their B2B counterparts are at last equally focused on providing standout experiences. A recent survey by AdWeek and Dun&Bradstreet saw 80% of B2B marketers say delivering a consistent customer experience across channels is extremely or very important to their companies.

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tech marketers struggle to gain insights from user interactions with content to support the selling process

The biggest obstacle to achieving CX success? Properly leveraging the data companies have access to. Almost 40% of tech marketers struggle to structure insights appropriately.

Poorly structured data and insights block marketers from providing the business with the kind of information needed to drive a customer-centered culture as well as what's required for marketers themselves to effectively execute omnichannel strategies.

"In order to provide exceptional customer experiences, data silos must be unified to gain a complete view of the customer," says Larisa Bedgood, VP of marketing for V12 Data. "Brands must be in control of their data at all times to derive insights into their customers’ likes, dislikes, behaviors, and potential purchases."

A third of tech companies surveyed by Forrester are struggling to connect a buyer's early interest to a specific product need, which means they can’t tailor the nurture path or sales conversations to the particular company or buying unit involved until further discovery has been undertaken. Making this connection early on could otherwise help shorten sales cycles and potentially increase customer value.

In fact, sales teams in many tech companies are inadequately supported across the sales cycle by insights from marketing.

More than half of those surveyed (55%) say marketing is not delivering useful outcomes, data or insights to help sales teams during early-stage prospecting. Two in five said the same about the stage when leads are being contacted and qualified and again at the stage of closing the sale.

With so many challenges gaining insights, it’s no surprise that more than a third of technology companies struggle to translate past buyer behavior to a predictable model of future buyer behavior.

No ROI without insights

Content ROI has become a growing priority across industries in recent years, but remains elusive for 2 in 5 technology companies surveyed by Forrester, as teams struggle to determine which content assets are most impactful in a buyer’s journey. This kind of insight is critical for:

Demonstrating the business value of content activities in order to claim more budget or objectively validate the role and value of content to the business
Prioritizing and creating more of the kinds of content that impact buyers the most

The desire to become insights-driven is universal, but so is the struggle to execute

Gene Leganza, Vice President, Research Director, Forrester

Why the struggle?

The main challenges facing technology marketers fall into three categories...

1. Architecture

Collecting data and insights is not in itself an issue for tech marketers. Challenges arise when it comes to structuring the insights in a meaningful way, as discussed, and drawing a connection between what is being consumed and who exactly is consuming it. This points to an inadequately architected martech infrastructure.

System architecture challenges go beyond marketing operations. 54% of B2B leaders agreed in a survey by Episerver that their disparate/disjointed technology systems are holding their companies back from their digital agility goals.

2. Resource

Whether it’s time, skill, or money, the question of resource is another key challenge when it comes to generating insights from content. Two in five tech marketers surveyed by Forrester said they are unable to design the kinds of experiences that capture buyer feedback without the support of a developer.

Similarly, another 38% identified a lack of time or expertise to adequately go through buyer insights as a barrier. Data expertise has become critical, yet Gartner predicted that half of all organizations would lack sufficient AI and data literacy skills to achieve business value going into 2020.

3. Process

Inadequate processes within tech companies are another barrier identified by respondents. How can marketing generate insights from content if they are disconnected from how content is delivered to the end reader, as reported by another two in five respondents surveyed (38%)? The same number noted that they do not tag their content in a way that creates insights through analytics or marketing platforms.