New IDG report finds marketers struggle to confront digital obstacles

Copenhagen, DENMARK – 8 October 2019 - IDG Communications, Inc. – the world’s leading tech media, data, and marketing services company, has released a new report ‘Digital Insights 2019: How marketers confront the obstacles of digital customer engagement’ on behalf of Siteimprove, a global award-winning Software-as-a-Service company.

Based on responses from over 100 marketeers 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.

Despite statistics from Google and Kelton Global that 78% of consumers spend more time researching a brand online than they do in a store, a whopping 84% of companies said the main function of their website was merely to act as an online brochure.

In serious contrast to this finding, 73% 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.

Indeed, the inability to develop well-targeted and relevant content was identified by respondents as their number-one digital challenge. For Jesper Termansen, Siteimprove’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), these findings indicate a serious lack of understanding amongst marketers about how best to utilize a key element of their MarTech stack.   

“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.”

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. A sentiment shared by Martin Veech, Editor at IDG.

“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.”

Unlock the full finding of the report ‘Digital Insights 2019: How marketers confront the obstacles of digital customer engagement’.

Media Contact
Jessica O’Sullivan-Munck
Siteimprove, Global Public Relations & Affairs Manager
jos@siteimprove.com