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A new study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of TransUnion has revealed significant challenges facing many marketing teams.
These challenges primarily arise from their complexity marketing technology (martech) stacks.
A study found that a significant 70% of marketers struggle to effectively identify and reach their target audience through various channels.
This difficulty stems from their fragmented nature martech systemsoften involves a multitude of tools.
Two-thirds of marketers surveyed said they use 16 or more martech solutions, significantly increasing the complexity of their operations.
This complexity presents several critical obstacles for marketing teams. These challenges include difficulties in personalizing the customer journeyeffectively scaling marketing efforts, integrating AI capabilities, and ultimately, spending valuable marketing budgets.
In a press release, Matt Spiegel, executive vice president and head of TruAudience marketing solutions at TransUnion, said,
“Marketing leaders know what they need to do – they’re just stuck juggling 16 or more martech solutions, creating incredible complexity.”
He added,
“It’s not about changing your set, it’s about using identity and data tools to connect those disjointed tools. Without this connection, inefficiency becomes a significant problem. Every day we get calls from teams struggling to put it all together. But when they do, the difference is huge.”
However, the research also highlights a promising solution: using identity resolution tools. By integrating their fragmented data sets through these tools, organizations can significantly improve their marketing results.
The study found that organizations that use identity resolution are more likely to meet or exceed their customer experience and understanding goals, improve customer insights, and make more data-driven decisions.
What else can marketing managers do?
In addition to addressing identity, marketers can employ several strategies to effectively identify and reach their target audience through various channels.
Data-driven segmentation plays a crucial role. Instead of relying solely on demographic data, marketers should use a broader range of data, such as purchase history, website behavior, social media engagement and interests, to create highly targeted audience segments.
Customer data platforms (CDPs) can be critical in this process, as they bring together customer data from various sources, providing a single, comprehensive view of each individual, enabling more precise segmentation and personalized messaging.
Multichannel marketing is key to a seamless user experience. Marketers should ensure consistent messaging and experiences across all touchpoints, including email, social media, website, mobile apps and brick-and-mortar stores.
Using multi-channel retargetingwhere customers who have engaged with a brand on one channel are reached through targeted ads on other platforms, reach and engagement can be significantly increased.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) offers a powerful tactic for marketing leaders to recognize and reach your target audience such as conducting audience research and learning more about audience searching for a keyworduse words in your bio or visit a website.
Additionally, focusing on high-quality, original content – this content should match the specific needs and interests of the target audience, while including relevant keywords naturally. Finally, prioritizing user experience (UX), not only for Google, but also for user satisfaction.
Content marketing is another powerful tool that marketing leaders should embrace. This requires conducting in-depth audience research and developing buyer personas and gathering direct feedback from their target audience.
Marketers can implement a content pillar strategy that creates pieces of in-depth content and content to support clusters around them. It then effectively distributes and promotes the content while leveraging social media, email marketing and community building.
Marketing on social networks offers valuable insights and opportunities for engagement. Marketers should conduct in-depth audience research with advanced targeting options – go beyond demographics and use social listening tools understand the needs and preferences of the audience.
They should create engaging content combined with paid advertising and develop shareable content, run targeted ads and work with influencers.
Marketing leaders need to build and engage with online communities and actively participate in conversations, host contests and host live Q&A sessions. Lastly, using influencer marketing by partnering with influencers within your target audience can increase reach and build trust.
Digital Public Relations (PR) provides online promotion to reach target audience such as building relationships with relevant media and journalists. This includes identifying and cultivating relationships with key media outlets and journalists covering topics relevant to their target audience. And creating compelling and newsworthy stories with stories relevant to target audience interests that offer unique insights or perspectives.
Monitoring online conversations and media mentions enables understanding of brand perception, problem solving and identifying opportunities for engagement.
Paid advertising strategies can effectively expand reach, while programmatic advertising enables highly targeted campaigns across channels.
Finally, exploitation Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. is crucial. By making effective use of customer data stored in their CRM systems, marketers can gain valuable insights into customer interactions, preferences and purchase history.
This data can then be used to personalize email campaigns, website experiences and other marketing messages, fostering stronger customer relationships and increasing conversions.
See your customers clearly
The study highlights the key role of identity resolution in streamlining martech operations and achieving better marketing results.
By connecting the dots between their disparate systems, marketers can gain a clearer understanding of their customers, deliver more personalized experiences, and ultimately achieve greater success in their marketing efforts.
Spiegel concluded,
“At the end of the day, it’s important to see your customers clearly. When you connect the dots between systems, you create better experiences for people. And that’s what drives results.”
By implementing the above strategies combined with identity resolution, marketers can gain a deeper understanding of their target audience, deliver more relevant and personalized messages, and ultimately achieve greater success in their marketing campaigns.
About the survey
Forrester Consulting conducted the research on behalf of TransUnion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to assess the current state of martech and identity solutions programs within US enterprises. This survey gathered insights from 325 marketing technology decision makers.
The research focused on understanding the marketing goals and challenges these decision makers face, and was conducted over a two-month period, starting from November 2024 to December 2024.
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