After a decade, marketers still have a difficult time funneling customer engagement into revenue, the CMO Council and Sendwithus reported Tuesday.

In 2008, the CMO Council asked brands if they were fully realizing the revenue potential of customers, to which 76 percent said no. The question was posed again in a March study but 77 percent of marketers still said no and 10 percent say they are not even sure.

The new report, Gaining Traction With Every Digital Interaction, found that marketers aren’t confident in using digital communication to drive revenue. In fact, only 47 percent feel they are only “doing okay” in their digital communication efforts.

Marketers are optimistic about the practice, overall, with 94 percent of the respondents believing individual digital communications will help them reach their customer experience goals. Despite faith in digital communications overall, only 13 percent said they are drawing the full possible revenue from their customers.

Part of this uncertainty may be tied to a lack of collaboration. According to 34 percent of marketers, transactional emails are not leveraged as a relationship and revenue driver because they are created outside of marketing, with little opportunity to collaborate or align across functional areas.

The CMO Council asserts that that collaboration around the channels of choice for the customer is critical to turning an automated touchpoint into a revenue-producing opportunity.

This lack of involvement with digital communication efforts might explain why just only 36 percent of respondents see transactional emails as an opportunity to reinforce consumer relationships. The survey found that 30 percent use them only to confirm choices such as a password reset or receipt—not to further engagement.

Marketers were asked to detail the state of collaboration across key stakeholders in customer experience. Just over a quarter of respondents said that that collaboration is left to team leaders who collect input and feedback as needed. Just under a third of marketers indicated that collaboration comes in the form of meetings to align on strategies and timelines.

Looking forward, marketers indicated plans to realize revenue by optimizing profitable consumer relationships. Sixty-four percent said they are personalizing communications across all touchpoints, and identifying new ways to improve up-sell/cross-sell opportunities with existing customers.