We need more marketers with data science skills - right now
Only two per cent of businesses in Australia and New Zealand are implementing data-driven marketing. Although many believe that inability to link technologies like Google and Facebook is a major challenge, a recent study shows that team set-up and lack of talent are also key barriers.
Key points:
- Agencies have strong digital marketing teams. But there’s still a lack of offline and online team collaboration to create a customer-centric mindset
- There are gaps in understanding the power of automation to drive results
- Brands are not leveraging the full potential of technology partners
For all the talk of data-driven marketing, few are actually doing it. The problem is not raw resource, but marketers' inability to unlock data's value.
Customer data is in abundance. More people are turning to “log-in” channels like Amazon to shop and Netflix to binge series. In fact, today I shared my email address to unlock a 10 per cent off coupon at Crust pizza.
So there’s no doubt that brands now have plenty of personally identifiable information about their customers. But they are not always applying it to build marketing strategies. And that’s because marketers lack the expertise on how to use the data.
Like, how to find similar audience based on interest groups. Map a customer path to purchase for better channel planning. Segment by region to inform outdoor activation. Integrate brand customer data with publisher database like Nine Tribe to find viewing patterns.
One could argue that those are tasks scoped in for a dedicated data science team. But there’s no point in investing in data science specialists if the marketers don’t have fundamental knowledge to collaborate.
In Jeff Weiner’s words, “Data really powers everything that we do.”
