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Giving thanks

As I think of all of the reasons I have to be thankful this year, one is the continued focus on marketing analytics and the value it can provide across industries:

1.  Spend on marketing analytics is expected to increase. Currently analytics represents 6.7% of marketing budgets but it will rise to 11.1% over the next three years according to this CMO survey

2.  Analysts are in demand.  In a list of the hottest skills on LinkedIn, the top was statistical analysis and data mining

2.  Analytics add value by increasing company profits.  According to a McKinsey study, “a one-unit change in the use of marketing analytics … yields a 0.39 percent increase in profits”

I am very thankful that what I love to do is valued and in demand.

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The most ridiculous term

Have you read the recent Ad Age article in which Brad Jakeman from PepsiCo is quoted as saying that “digital marketing” is the “most ridiculous term I’ve ever heard”?   Many marketing departments are silos with separate work streams, separate analytic teams, and separate strategies.  As a joint Marketo and Harvard Business Review report stated, “To address the challenges of the digital age, marketing may have added new departments such as Web, mobile, and digital.  Paradoxically, these new departments often add more silos and slow things down further, making marketing even less equipped to meet customers in their micro-moments.”

Customers expect a unified experience. How can marketers provide a consistent experience when analysis, insights and strategies are not shared or coordinated?  Mr. Jakeman said it best, “There is no such thing as digital marketing. There is marketing — most of which happens to be digital.”

So what are marketing departments to do?  Agree on a common goal, collaborate, integrate insights, and ultimately create a comprehensive customer-centric strategy.