5 Statistics That Show it's Time for Marketers to Get Real – Lessons from #eTailEast Day 1

According to UrbanDictionary.com "When someone tells you to get real, they want you to get a reality check and to stop behaving as though you're living in a fantasy world." The phrase "get real" is incredibly apropos given the five stats I will share with you below.

The stats were part of a presentation my colleague, Group VP Pat Galvin made yesterday during day 1 of the eTailEast conference in Boston. The title of his presentation was Three Steps to Adaptive Marketing in Retail and right off the bat he introduced the attendees to the notion of the Rise of Digital Darwinism, specifically how retail customers evolve faster than marketing itself.

The fact is customers are moving faster than most modern day companies can keep pace and Pat included in his opening slide a stat via MIT: 80% of consumers have done research online before entering retail store. You can consider this a bonus stat to go with the five below.

5 Statistics That Show it's Time for Marketers to Get Real

Here are the stats along with the translation and rationale behind why each one is so important and should awaken every marketer from the fantasy world they live in.

1. 42% of customers are always addressable, accessing information across multiple devices, from multiple locations, many times per day. – Forrester.

Translation: Nearly half - HALF of customers, AKA people, are "on" - meaning they are online, they are connected, and if by chance they are "off" rest assured they're never far from being "on" again. You can bet your KPI this number is only going to increase. Marketers must never, ever lose sight of the always-connected-consumer.

2. 12% of marketers believe their marketing is real-time enough to drive adequate business results. – Econsultancy

Translation: I would think the word "real" is enough rationale to explain why this particular stat is so relevant when it comes to keeping it real. Consumers want what they want when they want it so if only 1 in 10 marketers are saying they can meet the "real" needs of their consumers... well for one thing it opens up massive opportunities to those marketers who CAN deliver real-time marketing.

3. 11% of marketers have high confidence in the audience they’re targeting – Nielsen

4. 82% of marketers lack a synchronized view of customer data. – Forrester

Translation: I rolled #3 & 4 together for they essentially speak to the same issue just using opposite numbers/percentages. Obviously if so many marketers lack a synchronized view of customer data, then it stands to reason that so few will have any kind of confidence in their audience to begin with.

5. 85% of CMOs say data spread across disparate sources prevents cross-channel consistency. – The CMO Club

Translation: This stat speaks directly to a certain four-letter word that has been and continues to be the death knell for brands far and wide: S*I*L*O. As long as silos exist, in this context, data silos, companies will either never be successful or those who are successful will never be AS successful as they could be. It's that simple.

The bottom line in all of this is that for marketers to “keep it real” they need technology that provides them with the capability to address all the stats, AKA concerns and roadblocks they are dealing with every day.

And speaking of cross-channel, be sure to download the Modern Marketing Essentials Guide to Cross-Channel Marketing and you too can start creating the most cohesive, valuable and frictionless customer experience possible.