It’s a tough life at the top. Working in the C-suite comes with a lot of pressures, and according to our latest research, C-level marketers and analysts are twice as likely to identify and highlight major business challenges as those in management positions.
Read on to find out what challenges the C-suite is currently up against, or check out the full report here for insights from 964 marketers and data analysts.
C-level challenge #1: Data wrangling
On average, the top challenge for the C-suite is manual data wrangling. Even though it’s often lower-level employees who end up wrestling with spreadsheets, C-level marketers and analysts are keenly aware that it’s taking up time and resources across their organization.
Too many businesses genuinely believe that they are data-driven when it comes to marketing, yet still have to fill out a spreadsheet for every routine marketing report request.
Harriet Durnford Smith, Chief Marketing Officer at Adverity
“The number of marketing professionals still facing the challenge of manual data wrangling shows as an industry we still have a long way to go when it comes to becoming truly data-driven.” Says Harriet Durnford Smith, CMO at Adverity.
Dependency on manual data wrangling impedes visibility, slows reaction times to optimize campaigns, and increases human error. Despite this, over half of marketers still build routine marketing reports on spreadsheets.
“Too many businesses genuinely believe that they are data-driven when it comes to marketing, yet still have to fill out a spreadsheet for every routine marketing report request. If you're serious about having a data-driven marketing strategy, then first thing's first: it's time to ditch the spreadsheets — and the errors and inconsistencies that come with them.”
C-level challenge #2: Getting value from data
The next highest-ranked challenge for the C-suite is a lack of data-driven insights to drive marketing strategy.
The C-suite wants clear guidance on what actions to take based on the data. In short, they want value from their data. Unfortunately, their analysts are too busy scaling mountains of data, and manually integrating a growing number of data sources. The majority of their time is spoken for, leaving few moments for analysis that highlights valuable and actionable recommendations.
C-level challenge #3: Visibility
One in four C-level respondents say lack of visibility over marketing data is a major challenge, making this the most commonly reported major challenge for the C-suite.
For CMOs and CDOs, lack of visibility is hugely frustrating. Stakeholders and board members respond to facts and figures. However, without a complete overview of their marketing operations, putting a long-term strategy in place often means making decisions based on a gut feeling.
Marketers are working across so many different platforms, channels, and touchpoints that it can become difficult to keep track of campaign performance in real-time.
Harriet Durnford Smith, Chief Marketing Officer at Adverity
“That 70% of C-level marketing professionals are saying they lack visibility across all their marketing activity is particularly problematic. Though not entirely surprising.” Said Harriet Durnford Smith, CMO at Adverity.
“Marketers are working across so many different platforms, channels, and touchpoints that it can become difficult to keep track of campaign performance in real-time. The modern marketing department can no longer rely on manual data wrangling to bring data into one place. You need a proper platform to do it for you.”
Check out the full report for insights from 964 marketers and data analysts.
