Let’s Talk Turkey: 7 Savory Data Stats to Chew On

Ah, the holidays, a time to gather with the ones we love and have deep conversations about the things that really matter. Naturally, we’re referring to all the end of the year meetings with your team to discuss data-driven marketing results. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we’ve gathered together a few of the latest stats on data that you can use as conversation-starters once everyone is seated at the table.

1. 87% of marketers say data is their company’s most under-utilized asset.

Want to hear something crazy? Although 87 percent of marketers confess their data is not being used as well as it should be, the same survey found that 64 percent of those marketers declare data-driven marketing to be crucial to their company’s economic well-being. So what’s behind this data paradox in which companies admit a critical need to be data-driven, but have trouble maxing out their data’s potential? An all too common malady known as data blindness. It doesn’t matter if you have the most amazing martech tools in the universe – if you can’t view your data in real-time or generate instant data reports (without bugging IT), you’ll never join the 13 percent of marketing movers and shakers, who are getting the most from their data. Luckily, there is a cure for data blindness that allows you to view data across your enterprise on-demand. This in turn empowers you to glean and share insights in real-time, and make the most of all that underutilized data that’s lying around like it’s in a Turkey-induced tryptophan coma.

2. 33% of marketers say having the right technologies for data collection and analysis is critical to understanding customers. 

It is vital to know who it is you are selling to, what their needs are, and how they prefer to interact with your company. Without this information, you run the risk of basing your marketing and sales strategies on assumptions. However, guesswork and hunches are not the basis for data-driven results. While it can be overwhelming to make sense of the deluge of data that every last single one of your tools is producing, a good marketing data dashboard simplifies your quest by providing real-time data visibility from a central access point. It also helps you share insights by graphically visualizing data for on-demand reports.

3.  54% of marketers say an inadequate budget was the biggest obstacle to using data-driven marketing strategies.

Making the case for a budget increase is never fun, but there’s some great data out there that you can use to support your mission. For example, a study by Forbes found that companies that pursue data-driven marketing are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year. In addition, 75 percent of companies see an increase in customer engagement when using data-driven marketing strategies.

4.  Businesses that use data-driven personalization gained five to eight times the ROI on their marketing spend.

Technology has forever blurred the lines between the B2B and B2C experience. B2B customers now expect your marketing to personally address them and their needs. In fact, 65% of B2B buyers say they’re likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t personalize communications to them. If you find scaling personalized campaigns across all channels to be a laborious endeavor, adding an automated data personalization tool to your stack is a good idea. These versatile tools work wonders with data stored throughout your organization by automating the processes involved with pulling custom content, adding it to campaigns, and sending it across channels. More importantly, they help ensure the data used to personalize campaigns is clean, complete and (like you at your in-laws’ Thanksgiving) ready to go at a moment’s notice.

5.  88% of marketers use third party data to enhance their understanding of their customers.

Sometimes it is not enough to have clean and complete data, although don’t get us wrong – both are essential. However, there is much to be gained from enriching your data with all the little details that matter. A few benefits of investing in third party data include: discovering new target markets, creating stronger marketing segments, and gaining new insights on current customers residing in your database.

6.  55% of marketers report that their segmentation strategy has improved conversion rates.

How you divide your customers is important. Placing people of similar interests in the right categories will reduce the cost and efforts associated with custom content. Of course, before you can develop an awesome segmentation strategy, you must first be able to see your segment data – in real time. Alas, there’s much to be said about the benefits of developing a solid segmentation strategy, so much that we’ve written a two-part blog: 6 Steps to a Stellar B2B Segmentation Strategy.

7.  According to a recent survey from Econsultancy, the top priorities of B2B marketers engaging in data-driven strategies in 2019 were:

• 21% focused on creating marketing pieces for individuals (personalization/ABM)
• 19% sought to optimize the customer experience (CX)
• 13% pursued the development of more compelling content

The remaining priorities that made the list include: increasing automation, expanding multi-channel marketing efforts, and engaging in more social marketing.  Successfully delivering on all of these priorities requires an ongoing commitment to clean, complete and enriched data from well-connected sources throughout your enterprise.

Bonus: 100% of the folks at Sureshot wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

Here at Sureshot, we are thankful to do what we love, which is helping B2B marketers get the full value from their martech through enhanced data visibility, automated content personalization across channels, and drastically reduced manual marketing processes. If those are things you are hungry for, pull up a chair and talk to us.