The issues marketers face are daunting. Let’s talk about three.

Email.
Response and opt out rates are awful. So we struggle to push thru the noise and stand out. We work to develop a strong list, message, and call-to-action. But we can’t know for certain if our offer will resonate with the recipient. We do our best.

Online ads.
These used to be about volume - interrupt as many as you can, and a few will inevitably click-through. Now, ads need to bring value to the viewer. And that makes sense. We work to segment and target our offers; aligning them to the right publications and the right readers at the right time. But we can’t know for certain if an ad will be accepted as well-timed information or loathed as a disruption. We do our best.

Website.
Almost every new sale begins with a Google search. But being on the first results page does not mean you’ve won; it only means you get to play in round two. We work to get people to our site and make it easy for them to find the information they need once they arrive. But we don’t know for certain if the content we have or the way we present it is hitting the mark. We do our best.

Or do we?

A new report from the CMO Council and Accenture reveals that nearly “one-third of marketers and IT executives alike” report that they are “either having difficulty integrating critical analytics capabilities or believe they are not integrated at all.” Does that sound like “our best” to you?

Doing our best means realizing that our gut isn’t going to help much in the digital marketing era. Our best demands we employ every tool we have to better serve our customers. Customer data. Math. Analytics. Optimization. Segmentation models. This is where the new-best begins.

Success with Email? The best way forward is to be ruthless in the application of analytics and optimize lists of contacts who are actually interested in your current message.

Success with online ads? Segmentation models that match ads and offers to the best possible readers are what’s needed here, so that we deliver assistance, not interruption.

Success with your Website? Advanced forms of social media and web analytics that track mentions and website visitors and analyze behaviors, allowing us to improve customer experience and serve up the right offer of content at the right time.

Marketing is quickly becoming an analytically driven discipline. Do you welcome the explosion of data as a gold mine of information? Or do you drown in details you’re unable to harness? Do you have a deep understanding of your customers and the confidence to act? Or do you struggle to deliver campaigns with little benefit of insight or promise of improvement?