A third of senior marketers have highlighted poor internal communications as impacting them in their challenge to improve campaign effectiveness and customer engagement.
The research from the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) surveyed 300 senior marketers that were of this year’s DMA Awards judging panel, asking them to name the challenges significant to them and any barriers to measuring campaigns effectively.
Poor internal communication was the challenge with the most significant growth of marketers citing it as an issue, with 26% saying this was the case in 2021.
It found that limited budget remains the most significant challenge, cited by 47% of respondents, but this was down from 2021’s research, when more than half (55%) said limited budget was one of their most significant issue.
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Source: DMA
Just behind was a lack of data or silos, cited by 46% of those polled, slightly up on 2021, while limited internal resources were of less concern compared to last year (34% of respondents this year).
The DMA’s Director of Insight Ian Gbbs said: “Poor internal communication continues to become of increasing concern to our industry since the pandemic began. Perhaps this is partly driven by remote working, with less face-to-face meetings and fewer opportunities to ask colleagues questions directly.
“Senior management teams must review this if we are to make a continued success of our new hybrid working models.”
Measurement misalignment
When asked about the barriers for effectiveness measurement, 61% of marketers cited misalignment of measurement and reporting, a similar proportion to last year, while 52% said proving return on marketing investment was a barrier, though this was down from 63% in 2021.
The only increase in barriers to measurement was that of a lack of resources and talent, which 30% said was an issue, up from 25% a year ago.
Meanwhile just 58% of marketers surveyed said their organisation provided ongoing data and marketing-related training – down 10 percentage points from 68% last year.
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Source: DMA
The DMA’s concern about the lack of training provision in the industry has been an ongoing campaign issue, with its micro-upskilling initiative launched earlier this year now being plotted by a number of its members. The initiative sees employees taking part in at least an hour a week of structured online learning and professional development.
Gibbs concluded: “With the upcoming changes to UK GDPR, we’re entering a new phase of data privacy regulation, likely requiring additional learning and training simply to keep up-to-date. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly integral for marketers to be well-versed in best practice of data acquisition, storage, and usage.”
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