Very few European marketers profile as having an “Advanced” level of digital maturity, instead most commonly being “Proficient” or “Intermediate,” according to The State of Digital Maturity in Europe [download page] study from ON24 in partnership with Market2Marketers.
The survey included 14 questions used to assess levels of digital maturity across 5 key areas: Strategy, process and people; Data and measurement; Driving action and engagement; Tech adoption and use; and Experiences and personalization.
The results indicate that respondents in the Nordic region are the most likely to score as either advanced or proficient (52% combined) in digital maturity, ahead of those in France (43%) and Southern Europe, which includes Italy, Spain and Portugal (41%). The latter, however, had the highest share of respondents with an advanced maturity score (8%).
The report also found ascending levels of digital proficiency alongside company size, although that correlation ended with the largest companies (with 10,000+ employees), which were the most apt to have a maturity score in both the Advanced and Novice levels.
Turning to the 5 areas of digital maturity, the report indicates that European marketers are most advanced with strategy, process and people, scoring at 70% of the maximum possible score. That was closely followed by data and measurement, in which they scored 69% of the total possible.
By contrast, B2B marketers in Europe are only about halfway there in terms of tech adoption and use, for which they scored 51% out of the maximum possible score. This brings to mind recent research in which marketers in the US have felt more confident than those in the UK and EU in their martech utilization and ability to deliver their marketing strategy with the current level of marketing technology capability in the business.
For example, only about 4 in 10 (39% of) respondents in the ON24 study reported having a marketing automation platform. On a more encouraging note, 8 in 10 reported that it’s either “very easy” or “somewhat easy” for them to use technology to improve the buyer experience.
Interestingly, marketing technology isn’t seen as a big obstacle to success in marketing efforts; in fact, it ranks as the least-cited challenge. Instead, the biggest challenge currently faced by European B2B marketers is hiring the right people, following by lack of alignment between marketing and sales.
Staffing also emerges as the top barrier to improving marketing performance, this time ahead of IT or development roadblocks.
For more, download the report here.
About the Data: The results are based on a survey of 863 B2B marketers in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, and Italy.
