Do you have a Digital Marketing Testing Strategy in place? Many European companies don’t

New research reveals low-adoption of testing and recommends best practices for People, Processes and Tools

Getting the most from Digital marketing is increasingly about testing since marketing is increasingly becoming a science, driven by data. Gone are the days when an ad campaign involved developing a great ad, buying some pages in a magazine and maybe some TV time for the larger organisations and waiting to see if a bump in sales. Advertisers are now using vast amounts of data to prove their campaign ROI through 'in-flight' testing and marketers are now optimising their sites conversion rates. These types of optimisation are essential so that the investments in new IT infrastructure, marketing automation software, content and web design are paying off. Yet this new research from PAC reveals that only 18 per cent of European businesses have a digital testing strategy in place.

The study, supported by Accenture, HP, TestPlant, Applause and Worksoft, found that 26% of organizations in the region have formulated a digital testing strategy but have not yet implemented it. A further 35% plan to develop a digital testing strategy in the next year.

PAC interviewed senior IT and testing executives at 200 large businesses (Over 500 employees) in Europe, as part of the study.

Multi-channel testing a challenge

The biggest obstacle in implementing digital testing strategies is in taking a consistent approach to testing across multiple channels of engagement, an issue cited by almost half of all participants. To paraphrase the late, great, Notorious B.I.G; Mo' channels, Mo' problems.

The second biggest issue, unsurprisingly is that of integrating digital into legacy systems, which was regarded as a ‘primary’ challenge by 39% of participants.

Differences in digital testing adoption across Europe

There is currently a major divergence in how advanced large businesses in Europe are when it comes to digital testing. The Nordics lead in many ways, as 88% currently monitor end users experience and get user feedback, whilst France lags behind with just 23% doing so. The UK is slightly above average for the continent, with one-quarter businesses having implemented their digital testing strategy, yet there is still a long way to go. Only 34% of UK companies test digital apps in production, compared to a rate of 65% in Germany.

Failing to plan is planning to fail, and it is clear more companies across Europe need to put digital testing strategies in place and implement them in full. It is important to ensure you have the right team and processes in place.

For more research on testing strategy for digital marketing, view the full report from PAC.

 

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