by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, February 22, 2017

The good news is that marketers are overall more confident than they were a year ago. The bad news is that they are losing confidence in the ability of their organizations to achieve some of the most vital goals in marketing, especially that they are investing in reaching the right customers, according to the 2017 edition of the American Marketing Association’s Marketers Confidence Index.

Overall confidence improved six points to an index of 69 (out of 100 possible points) in 2017.

That said, 30% of marketers say they are more concerned their organization is not investing in the right customers, a decrease of 13 points from 2016.

The findings are based on an online survey of 304 U.S. marketers conducted by Kantar Vermeer measuring the degree of optimism on the state of the economy.

The survey also revealed nearly a third (32%) of marketers have lost confidence in their team’s abilities to understand the ROI of marketing plans. That’s down 11% from a year ago.

Only 25% of respondents felt their team had the right tools and processes in place, which is down 8% from 2016.

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