Chief marketing officers are prioritising customer acquisition efforts despite an urgent need to engage and retain the customers they work so hard to win, new research has revealed.

According to a new CMO Solution Guide released today by The CMO Club in partnership with Signal, the majority of CMOs say they are unsatisfied with customer retention rates (61 per cent), customer lifetime value (58 per cent) and Net Promoter Scores (53 per cent).

Despite these stats, the research found that most CMOs aren’t doing enough to decrease churn and capture increased consumer wallet share, with 44 per cent of CMOs saying they spend 30 to 50 per cent of their budgets on retention and loyalty, while another 33 per cent spend only 10 to 30 per cent of their budgets on existing customers.

According to the research, CMOs realise that the key to delighting customers with positive, relationship-building experiences is truly knowing customers across touchpoints and time.

Research respondents ranked customer identity data as the most important asset for delivering a tailored experience. Integrating identity data – which is often siloed across tools, platforms and vendors – into a single customer view was also ranked by respondents as most critical to delivering relevant experiences.

Most respondents said they do not yet have the technology in place to harness the power of identity.

Only 33 per cent say they have integrated disparate platforms to create holistic customer profiles. Additionally, just 25 per cent can combine historical data and real-time customer context across platforms, and a mere 19 per cent say they are able to identify the customer across all touchpoints.

Respondents reported that organisational issues are one of the biggest challenges in tackling customer identity. Creating a customer-first mindset, aligning with the CIO, and creating internal focus groups are among the steps marketing leaders are taking to overcome organisational barriers.

“One of the top conversations at CMO Club Dinners is the fact that consumers today are faced with so many choices that loyalty and retention can be challenging for marketers to foster,” Pete Krainik, CEO and founder of the The CMO Club, said.

“Consumers can be very fickle, and while CMOs might not be satisfied with where they are at in retaining customers, acquisition is sometimes easier to tackle.

“This study reveals that CMOs increasingly realise that retention is the path to business success, and the tools to help them deliver great, loyalty-building experiences do exist, with customer identity as the underlying layer to fuel it.”

Signal CEO Mike Sands said: “The fate of brands lies in the marketers’ ability to identify customers – their wants, needs and place in the buyer’s journey – and reach them with contextual relevance at all critical marketing moments.

“In the age of the customer, when loyalty is critical and churn is a costly risk, the brands left standing will be those that prioritise identity across the enterprise. With identity, marketers gain control, flexibility, and knowledge from a strategic foundation that can power all experiences.”