Online marketing excites and puzzles CEOs

A new survey from the Chief Marketing Officer Council reports C-suite occupants want more out of online marketing — yet the path there is clouded with confusion.

For starters, only 9% of survey respondents say their companies have a “a highly evolved digital marketing model with a proven and clear path of evolution.” Moreover, 23% of respondents, composed of more than 200 marketing officers from businesses worldwide, report top executives at their firms are “still trying to understand where digital marketing fits within their overall business.”

More uncertainty: Barely one-third, 36%, report even a “random embrace of marketing point solutions,” and even those, according to the survey, aren't well integrated or unified.