A recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Acoustic reveals significant gaps in brands' first-party data strategies, impacting their ability to personalise experiences throughout the customer journey.

This research comes at a time when third-party cookies are deprecating and the privacy landscape is constantly evolving, making the findings particularly significant.

Over 1,200 global marketing decision-makers participated in the study, delivering some eye-opening findings. A striking 75% of participants responded that collecting real-time experience data is critically essential to the business. However, less than half currently collect this kind of data. The study also revealed that only 45% of the respondents are using customer behavioural signals for journey orchestration.

When faced with the top challenges, respondents pointed to personalising customer outreach (67%) and analysing customer data and signals (66%). Marketing automation was cited as a concern by 73% of participants whilst 69% struggled with audience management and segmentation. These findings signal the fact that marketers may lack the crucial tools required to create personalised customer experiences based on user behaviour.

As brands strive for in-depth visibility into customer engagement with the aim of enhancing customer lifetime value, the ability to collect behavioural data and derive insights from it is paramount to optimizing the customer journey. However, as the study revealed, marketers encounter difficulty in leveraging this data at all stages of the customer journey, thereby limiting personalisation capabilities.

"Three-quarters of respondents say collecting real-time experience data is essential to the business, but less than half are currently doing so. By understanding customer behaviours in the moment, marketers can better meet their needs at the right time in their purchase journey." said a Forrester spokesperson. The study also reported that only 45% of respondents were orchestrating any form of journey using customer behavioural signals, leaving a noteworthy gap in creating data-driven experiences at every touchpoint with a brand.

Commenting on the study's revelations, Mark Cattini, CEO of Acoustic, expressed that "as brands attempt to navigate the changing privacy landscape, investing in first-party data strategies that enable privacy-compliant personalisation is crucial. Yet Forrester's findings demonstrate that marketers continue to struggle with collecting and leveraging customer behavioural signals throughout the customer journey."

Cattini further warned that "without the right technology and strategy in place, this gap will only widen 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 enabling marketers to collect first-party behavioural data in real time and act on those signals from a single solution."

The study, commissioned by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Acoustic, underscores the untapped potential of first-party behavioural data in the age of digital customer engagement and privacy changes, shining a light on the imperative to bring data strategies up to speed for marketers globally.