After taking a look at all the predictions for this year, here are five ways marketers can overcome the obstacles ahead of them in the omnichannel space.
As 2014 drew to a close, I reached out to analytics leaders and practitioners for their insights on trends shaping omnichannel marketing, as well as the obstacles standing in the way of our ability to optimize it. I also read the predictions of many respected authors. What I found as interesting as the commentary were the emerging patterns – especially vis-a-vis the commentator’s vantage point. But the most important question I came away with is, “What do we do about it all?”
That’s why I focus this first column of 2015 not on macro and micro trends influencing our world, but on what we can control. What do businesses and marketers need to do differently to take advantage of these omnichannel marketing trends and overcome the obstacles? Here is my take:
Unify Your Data
The difficulty of bringing together first-, second-, and third-party data across channels, vendors, and devices remains the number one challenge for omnichannel marketing. This appears to be the universal consensus among analytics experts and industry leaders. Unifying data, to date, has been easier said than done, as there are some critical questions you must first ask of your platform to ensure it will indeed deliver on the difficult task at hand:
