Customers are interacting with your brand at dozens of touch points. The most basic may be your website, but think about how it branches out from there.

Between social media, apps, emails, ads and other sources, there are more opportunities than ever to collect marketing data about your audience.

Marketers understand – and value – the need to make data-driven decisions. They understand the more they know about their customers, the better they can interact, engage and drive sales. Successful marketers are constantly improving the way they request and collect data.

But many marketers are faced with the challenge of actually implementing a data-driven strategy. In fact, 81% of marketers polled by Campaign Monitor perceived implementing a data-driven approach to be extremely complicated.

There’s a surprising correlation between the objectives and challenges expressed by data-driven marketing hopefuls.

Making data-based decisions

One of the primary objectives of marketers is basing more decisions on data analysis; and yet, they encounter challenges being able to do this confidently. This is a vicious cycle marketers live in, where the challenge is directly holding them back from their goal.

The best way to start making data-based decisions is to develop a strategy to get more data. That’s the first step. Whatever systems, incentives, or creative ideas can be implemented to ethically gather more data should be weighed out and executed.

Improving data quality to get new customers

It was found that gaining new customers was a significant goal, while enriching data quality was a challenge. These two aspects are directly related.

As you gain new customers, your systems in place will (hopefully) collect data on these newer people. This will help build out your data quality and gain a better picture of who’s drawn to your brand.

The challenge of getting better data can also be holding your business back from gaining new customers. As you continue to improve the data you have, you’ll know more about your target audience and you’ll be able to attract new customers better. Both of these objectives and challenges will directly grow the other as each is improved.

Integrating data across platforms

Having comprehensive data in a single place is significant as both a goal and a problem.

Every marketer and company knows the pitfalls of having segmented data. With tons of tools out there to accomplish the variety of marketing needs you have, your data may be getting further and further siloed, causing you to lose track of what you know about your customer base.

This data silo sometimes feels like a status you have to accept, as having all your systems integrated may seem like a dream.

It’s partially a dream because you know how amazing your work would be if your systems were integrated seamlessly. Facing this challenge of integrating is likely worth the pain it takes to overcome it.

What’s next

While it may seem like there are too many challenges, you’ll gain a lot by taking inventory of what you already have, such as a connection with your customers. There are plenty of channels in which you’re already seeing engagement and growth.

Use the below infographic to look at the connection between marketing objectives and challenges, and where you can begin optimising the collection of data:  



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