Global tech media, data, and marketing firm IDG Communications Inc. has released a new report “Digital Insights 2019: How marketers confront the obstacles of digital customer engagement”, prepared on behalf of Siteimprove, a global Software-as-a-Service company.
Based on responses from over 100 marketers worldwide, working at companies with at least 1000 employees in various industries, the report overwhelmingly found that despite a desire by marketers to confront the obstacles of digital customer engagement, they are struggling with the basics.
While statistics from Google and Kelton Global that 78 per cent of consumers spend more time researching a brand online than they do in a store, a whopping 84 per cent of companies said the main function of their website was merely to act as an online brochure.
In contrast to this finding, 73 per cent of those surveyed also reported poor online engagement and low conversation rates as major pain points indicates most marketers struggle to see the relationship between crafting a well-developed website with targeted relevant content and an increase in engagement and conversion rates. The inability to develop well-targeted and relevant content was identified by respondents as their number-one digital challenge.
“We know consumers expect brands to not only provide them with all the information they need online, but also the ability to purchase from, and interact with the brand. Considering the majority surveyed completely underestimate the purpose of their site and fail to regularly update it they have a long way to go before they are utilizing their strongest digital weapon,” said Jesper Termansen, Siteimprove’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
Given the struggles marketers are facing in finding time and resources to properly confront the obstacles of digital customer engagement, the report suggests that companies should investigate in automation to increase in-house capacity.
This sentiment was shared by Martin Veech, Editor at IDG, saying, “At a time when the website and mobile app have become the new front doors of business, every company needs to have a comprehensive digital strategy and continuous improvement plan for their digital presences. Constant refinement, analysis, listening, creativity and appetite for change will go a long way to separating the winners from the losers in this race.”
