Nearly half of global marketers (45%) say the lack of an effective strategy is hampering the success of their marketing automation efforts, according to a recent report from Ascend2.

Other factors seen as major hindrances to marketing automation success include budget limitations (44% of marketers cite as a challenging obstacle), lack of skilled staff (40%), insufficient data quality (34%), lack of management buy-in (23%), and the difficult-to-use interfaces of marketing automation software tools (22%).

Below, additional key findings from the report, which was based on data from a survey of 291 global marketing, sales, and business professionals.

Satisfaction and Goals

• 69% of respondents say their current marketing automation efforts are somewhat successful; 24% say they are very successful; and 7% say they are not successful.
• 45% say improving productivity is one of their top goals for marketing automation; 44% say increasing sales revenue is a top goal.