Less than a fifth of UK marketers use data for decision making

The survey also revealed that 71% of marketers plan activity on an annual or ad hoc basis and that 84% of marketers are using gut feelings when it comes to making strategic decisions.

Some 10 out of 20 of ecommerce marketing managers/directors surveyed say they struggle to pinpoint growth opportunities due to lack of analytical insight. Of these, some 92% say it’s because of lack of people, time or tools.

Meanwhile, 45% of marketing leaders do not have a formal process to set goals. Of those that do set goals, 80% are using KPIs, SMART or OKRs. Half ( 50%) of respondents said they did not consider themselves to be working in an agile way.

“The term ‘agile digital marketing’ is often misunderstood”, said Yard chief executive Collette Easton. “Truly agile marketing is a series of processes that allows marketers to experiment and learn. Our long relationship with data means we are guided by the value that data provides. There is still a long way to go for our industry to be truly data-driven, but it looks like the tide is starting to shift.”

Yard and Cubed commissioned YouGov to conduct an online survey of 1,000 marketing decision makers in the UK. The sample was derived of respondents from 800,000+ individuals who have agreed to take part in YouGov surveys. Emails were sent to panellists selected at random from the base sample. The survey was conducted from 29 July-6 Aug; the gender split was 69% male/31% female and the majority of respondents were aged over 55.

The survey, and subsequent whitepaper, is the first of what is intended to be an annual state of marketing planning report, according to Yard.