Study Reveals the Untapped Potential of First-Party Behavioral Data in Customer Engagement Strategies

Acoustic's commissioned study finds 75% of marketers say collecting real-time experience data is critical to the business, but less than half are currently collecting this data

CONWAY, Ark., April 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Acoustic, a global marketing and customer engagement provider for B2C brands, today announced the results of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Acoustic, which finds there are significant gaps in brands' customer data strategies amid the turbulent privacy landscape. The study, Strengthen Customer Retention And Engagement With Behavioral Data, explores how over 1,200 marketing decision-makers collect customer behavioral signals and apply the data to their brands' customer engagement and retention strategies.

As brands look to gain visibility into customer engagement and grow customer lifetime value, being able to collect behavioral data and derive insights from it is critical to optimizing the customer journey. Yet the study found that marketers struggle to leverage this data at all stages of the customer journey, limiting the personalization they can provide. Forrester's key findings include:

Three-quarters of respondents (75%) say collecting real-time experience data is critical to the business, but less than half (47%) are currently collecting this data. By understanding customer behaviors in the moment, marketers can better meet their needs at the right time in their purchase journey. Only 45% of respondents are doing any kind of journey orchestration using customer behavioral signals. With marketers mostly focusing on the early stages of the customer journey, this leaves a substantial gap in creating data-driven experiences at each touchpoint with a brand. Personalizing customer outreach (67%) and analyzing customer data and signals (66%) are among the top challenges facing marketers today. Notably, respondents are also concerned with marketing automation (73%) and audience management and segmentation (69%). This indicates that marketers lack the necessary tools to create personalized customer experiences based on consumers' behaviors.

"As brands attempt to navigate the changing privacy landscape, investing in first-party data strategies that enable privacy-compliant personalization is critical. Yet Forrester's findings demonstrate that marketers continue to struggle with collecting and leveraging customer behavioral signals throughout the customer journey," said Mark Cattini, CEO of Acoustic. "Without the right technology and strategy in place, this gap will only grow as third-party cookies deprecate and marketers lose visibility into customer engagement. To address this need and enable brands to strengthen their customer relationships, we developed Acoustic Connect, a customer engagement platform that illuminates the full customer journey by empowering marketers to collect first-party behavioral data in real time and act on those signals from a single solution."

To learn more about the results from the commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Acoustic, download the full study: https://go.acoustic.com/forrester-behavioral-data-study.

Forrester VP and Principal Analyst, Joe Stanhope, will also join Acoustic as a guest speaker to discuss key insights from the study during an upcoming webinar, Unlocking Customer Engagement & Retention: A Deep Dive Featuring Forrester. Register for the event here: https://go.acoustic.com/webinar-unlock-customer-engagement.

Survey Methodology
Forrester conducted an online survey of 1,203 customer engagement decision-makers at organizations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America to evaluate the collection and use of customer behavioral data in marketing and customer engagement strategies. Survey participants included decision-makers in multiple departments. Questions provided to the participants asked about their current customer behavioral data strategy. Respondents were offered a small incentive as a thank-you for time spent on the survey. The study began and was completed in January 2024. 

About Acoustic, L.P.
Acoustic, L.P. helps brands build closer, lasting, more rewarding customer connections through data-driven visibility and personal, relevant, and frictionless engagement. Our diverse range of solutions includes unified marketing and digital customer experience insights, campaign execution, behavioral experience analytics, and optimized pricing, promotion, markdown, and collaboration technology. With the help of our award-winning technology and unbeatable client success teams, businesses across industries can drive customer lifetime value. Learn more about the Acoustic portfolio at www.acoustic.com. 

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