'Old school' digital strategies holding back marketers

Marketing teams are being held back by outdated digital experience strategies, with nearly a quarter (23%) of UK marketers admitting that their approach to digital marketing and delivering digital experiences is stuck in the past.

That is according to new research from Optimizely, which also found that the majority of marketers (61%) do not believe their teams are progressive or willing to try new techniques.

The Culture of Experimentation report, based on a survey of 200 UK in-house marketers, reveals that just over a quarter (27%) of UK marketing teams take a fixed approach to delivering digital experiences, with a further one in ten having no digital experience strategy in place at all.

The report also reveals the extent to which marketers are using experimentation to drive continuous improvement for the customer experience.

One in five (22%) say they use experimentation all the time and around half (47%) say digital experimentation plays a key role in their marketing strategy. However, when asked about how experimentation is implemented by their marketing teams, around two in five (37%) admit to taking an ad-hoc, unstructured approach.

Looking at the overarching goals of marketers, the top drivers for focusing on digital experience strategies are linked to overall business success: increasing market share, changing brand perceptions and creating a more customer-centric business.

Optimizely chief marketing officer Kirsten Allegri Williams believes more needs to be done to formalise and streamline the use of techniques like experimentation to help marketers achieve these ambitions.

She added: “Marketing teams are under pressure to stand out from their peers, but current strategies aren’t set to deliver against their ambitions to increase market share and change brand perceptions.

“Embedded into the marketing strategy, continuous experimentation can drive informed, data-driven decisions that will create stand-out digital customer experiences.”