I was recently catching up with some fellow marketers when someone brought up their biggest issue and concern was data.
“I can’t get what I want from our IT team,” she lamented. “I know we’re collecting a ton of it but what good is it when it’s not easily accessible?”
Soon, others were chiming in. “I know what you mean,” said one. Heads were nodding and it was obvious she wasn’t the only marketers with this frustration.
“We have too much data available to us,” said another. “I know pretty much everything worth not knowing about our leads! I’m at a loss with what to do with it all. Where do I even start?”
“Our data is old,” another chimed in. “I’m scared to death to use it.”
Our group quickly began to discuss the types of data we, as marketers, wanted access to and needed to fuel our marketing tactics. This led to a discussion on marketing strategy for 2015 and goals for the New Year. The more we talked, the more obvious it became that whether we had no data or too much data, we are all focused on data driven marketing. And we’re not the only ones!
According to Infogroup, which surveyed about 600 attendees on-site at DMA 2014, 47 percent of marketers polled say they’re seeing a positive ROI on data-related marketing investments made over the past few years. Compare that to only 39 percent in 2013!
Another 15 percent of marketers surveyed said they expect to see a positive ROI in 2015 and a quarter of respondents anticipate a return within five years. In fact, 62 percent of respondents have already begun investing in data-driven marketing solutions.
I was surprised to learn more than half of the marketers surveyed thought they didn’t collect enough data and only 10 percent thought they collected “too much.” For most, top challenges included data analysis and data implementation.
For me, this indicates marketers are relying on third party agencies and platforms now more than ever (or at least they should be) to help them collect, analyze and interpret their data. Especially if the data is collected from various sources such as CRMs, POS systems, website analytics, social media platforms and lead management tools.
Right On Interactive works with CRMs, POS, Google Analytics, Facebook and Twitter to provide marketers with a 360 degree view of their leads and customers. After all, to have truly actionable data, you need to have access to and visibility into all of it. This allows for more personalized and customized communication, which leads to improved engagement, shorter sales cycles, satisfied customers, repeat buyers and even brand advocacy.
While data remains a challenge for most marketers today, it’s uplifting to see most are embracing data driven marketing and understand the value it brings to their organization. I’m going to go out on a limb here and declare 2015 will be the year of data driven marketing. Just as in previous years when the focus was on big data and marketing content; I believe in 2015, marketers will tie the two together and we will see an increase in content bringing about real ROI as it will be sent to the people and businesses who need it most instead of just blasting it out to the world.
Who’s with me?
