Inability to act on data in real time is one of the biggest challenges for Indian marketers

A Resulticks Research Report, finds that marketers rated personalization (75%), a unified 360° customer view (64%), and seamless customer journeys (37%) as the three most critical initiatives for an omnichannel engagement strategy. However, a majority of those marketers also noted that their existing martech platforms underperformed in key omnichannel capabilities such as multichannel execution and data consolidation.

The research, commissioned by Resulticks and conducted by Valuvox, surveyed 414 senior marketing executives across 17 industries spanning multiple business types and sizes.

“As new channels proliferate and consumers become more digitally savvy, India’s businesses are challenged to transform how they engage with their audiences,” said Redickaa Subrammanian, co-founder and CEO of Resulticks. “Those leading the transformation have embraced an integrated, truly omnichannel approach and developed the capabilities and insights to deliver, analyze, and individualize customer journeys in real time and across touchpoints.”

Based on the omnichannel readiness reported by respondents, the research classified them as Leaders, Aspirants, Followers, and Others. Nearly all considered integrated marketing automation solutions and data integration tools as top priorities over the next three years.

When it comes to marketing channels, website and email remain dominant in the Indian marketer’s omnichannel mix, followed by SMS and in-person interactions. The Leaders are adding new elements to their communication mix, which encompasses social media (54%) as well as QR codes and beacons (28%).

With businesses in India exploring possible technology offerings to support an integrated approach to customer engagement, they selected multichannel campaign orchestration (50%), unified view of data across channels (43%), and multi-touch attribution (27%) as key priorities among the most critical platform capabilities.

The report offered recommendations for businesses looking to make a successful transition towards omnichannel marketing. Some of these include:

# Foster a data-driven organizational culture as a first step on the journey towards omnichannel customer engagement
# Adopt a goals-and-means approach to integration efforts and let desired business outcomes shape data and systems integration
# Take a phased approach towards implementing new age digital channels to engage customers