According to a survey by Heidrick & Struggles International and Digital Scientists last December, chief marketing officers (CMOs) are extremely intrigued by the amount of information available online about consumers. They are also frustrated by their inability to do something more with it despite spending increasing sums marketing online.
Interestingly, many CMOs see themselves as ahead of the companies when it comes to digital marketing. Nearly three-quarters of respondents saw themselves as "at the cutting edge" or "right where they should be," while 60 percent said their companies were "behind the curve."
"Companies realize that they're in the midst of digital man-to-man combat to acquire consumer dollars, but they're frustrated that they're not very good at it," said Lynne Seid, partner at Heidrick & Struggles' Global Marketing Officers Practice, in a press release.
Many CMOs don't think they have been able to quantify and qualify return on investment and other metrics for their digital efforts. Survey respondents rated analyzing return on investment (ROI), website activity, customer relationship management (CRM) and search engine optimization (SEO) as the top four items on their digital marketing tactics list. Fewer than 20 percent of CMOs were "very satisfied" with their ROI analysis while only 13 percent felt good about their CRM efforts and 19 percent were pleased on the SEO front.
"CMOs confront intense pressure to deliver financial results," said Tom Klein, managing partner and chief scientist of Digital Scientists. "With digital marketing, they finally have the tools to answer the oldest question in marketing - what's working and what's not. However, they don't have the internal digital marketing skill sets they need to get the job done."
Discussion Question: Where do you see the greatest opportunities and challenges for marketers looking to realize the full potential of online marketing? Do you agree that CMOs and companies today do not have the marketing skill sets to answer what is working and not in their digital marketing programs?