Dive Brief:
- Adoption of marketing tech is falling behind data collection, according to a study by the Direct Marketing Association and Winterberry Group.
- The majority of marketing respondents "strongly agree" or "agree" that aggregating data sources is a high priority, but six out of 10 admit integrating new technology with existing tools is a challenge.
- Marketers are moving in the right direction with six in 10 respondents also planning to purchase new marketing tech within the next year and 53.8% prioritizing staff training on the new technology.
Dive Insight:
With any new technology there is always a learning and adoption curve. Data collection has become simpler to obtain in the digital age, but leveraging that data into something useful is still an obstacle -- especially considering the massive amounts of data coming in.
Over the last two months alone, marketing tech has pulled in a staggering $6.8 billion in acquisitions and investments ($45.2 billion in the last year), securing its position as a "still hot" area and proving marketers are making it a priority.
As eMarketer points out, not putting tech to use and acting on the data compiled puts marketers at a risk of losing dollars spent.