‘Majority of Marketing Departments Rely on Outdated Data and Analytics Practices’ Says Report

• Adverity research highlights a disconnect between how analytically advanced marketers think they are and how advanced they actually are
• 77% of marketing professionals who say they are analytically mature still don’t have a single source of truth and 68% still use spreadsheets for reporting
• Despite this, 61% of marketing departments say they aim to achieve predictive analytics in 2022

The majority of marketing departments still rely on outdated practices when it comes to marketing data and analytics, according to a new report from Adverity. Of the almost two-thirds of marketers who believe their company is analytically mature, some 77% have yet to achieve a single unified view of their marketing performance while 68% still depend on spreadsheets for reporting.

At the same time, although 61% of marketing departments see developing predictive analytics as a key strategic aim in 2022, more than a third of those still struggle with manual data integration and some 48% say they do not trust the accuracy of their marketing data.

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“While the confidence of marketing departments in their analytical capabilities is commendable, that so many businesses are actually still struggling with the basics tells a very different story,” says Adverity CMO, Harriet Durnford-Smith.

Conducted by Sirkin Research, the report surveyed almost 1,000 marketers and data analysts from around the world about their current data capabilities and aspirations for 2022.  Alongside businesses’ aspirations for predictive analytics, the research also revealed a worrying disconnect between analysts and marketers when it comes to understanding what their business’s current capabilities are. For example, 60% of marketing data analysts say their organization already has the capacity to run predictive models, and yet only 42% of marketers agree. Similarly, although the majority (59%) of analysts say their company has a centralized data warehouse, only 43% of marketers say that’s the case.

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“Data analysts spend far more time working closely with the data and so are more likely to understand their capabilities,” says Jeff Sirkin, CEO of Sirkin Research, “Yet, it’s the marketers who are actually the ones who should be utilizing those capabilities to make decisions and determine where budget is spent. If they don’t know what their company’s current capabilities are, this not only hinders their effectiveness, it is also a waste of money for the business. As such, bridging this divide should be a top priority for CMOs in 2022.”

The new research comes on the heels of Adverity’s “Marketing Analytics State of Play 2022: Challenges and Priorities” research report, which outlined the pain points facing modern marketers and data analysts–most notably, a lack of trust in the data. This new report builds out further how marketers can reflect on the challenges that they currently face and helps to identify solutions that will provide guidance for how to prioritize modernization in 2022. Marketers should use the beginning of 2022 to prepare for predictive analytics and modernize their current systems, creating efficiencies and a streamlined workflow that saves the company time and resources, while also being more cost-efficient. To accomplish this goal, marketers and analysts need to collaborate to achieve a unified view of their systems and approaches to maximize each of their processes.

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