In August 2018, SEMrush commissioned Forrester consulting to explore how organizations are using their various types of marketing research data across channels. They suspected that the marketing research was only being used within one area of the organization, rather than across multiple areas.

We’ve seen this repeatedly with CVBs and DMOs, as well – even with smaller offices. Data gleaned from search research, email marketing campaigns, visitor types, etc are not being used across the entire marketing effort.

Here are highlights from this report:

  • Marketing strategy and decisions are suffering because of the siloed sharing or application of marketing research
  • When the data is applied across all channels, the result is improved brand image and a higher ROI
  • The most common types of channel data include the following (ranked by importance)
    • SEO (89% ranked this in their top 3)
    • PPC (75%)
    • Social (61%)
    • Programmatic Display (51%)
    • PR (25%)
  • How they are using (or want to use) marketing data to improve their marketing efforts:
    • Guide the overall strategy (75%)
    • Ad targeting strategy (71%)
    • Optimize consumer targeting (70%)
    • Create content for the website (64%)
    • Drive topics and themes for messaging (63%)
    • Drive more efficient media spend (61%)
  • Businesses are saying that the research is important, but they are failing to actually leverage the data that is out there
    • SEO research (understanding the keywords and topics most important to customers) is only used in about 50% of marketing campaigns – even though 89% of businesses say it’s MOST important
    • PPC research – 47%
    • Social data – 56%
    • Ad data – 54%
    • PR data – 55%

Overall, SEO data is being shared most (though still less than 50% of the time) – HOWEVER, data from other silos is being shared back to the SEO team only 20-25% of the time. The impact?
• A less comprehensive view of the customer
• Poor customer experiences
• Lower expectations
• Lack of trust in the QUALITY of the data being shared

WHY is this happening?
Many companies attribute these challenges to an overall lack of tools and defined processes.

HOW to fix the problem?
1. Improve communication across siloes (increase communication across teams)
2. Opening up access to data across channels (sharing technology access across teams)

Let us help!

Sunstone Digital’s BluePrint shares a comprehensive view of where your website stands in the rankings, how it is perceived in search engines, what the SEO gaps are, and what associations are being made by visitors.

Once this report is complete, we use this data to formulate a recommendation strategy for your website, social media, influencer, and PR efforts.

Our report is a cross-silo marketing research analysis that is your first step in breaking the chains of siloed strategy building.