7 Survey Results Showing How Companies Tackle Customer Data

Without a doubt, 2013 is the year of data. For the past several years, data has been gaining steam as a marketing tool. Today, it’s hard to talk about marketing without some mention of data. The two have become that intertwined. This year may well be the tipping point—the moment when analyzing and applying data becomes an essential part of any serious marketing effort.

While more businesses and nonprofits have embraced and adopted data-driven marketing, the sheer amount of customer information (data) available remains a challenge. And so does the complex process of pulling valuable insights from that data and putting them to use. Organizations are investing more in data, but most are still a ways off from having established best practices for the collection, analysis and application of data.

Survey Results: How Marketers Approach Data

In today’s blog post, we share some interesting stats from the new report Data-Rich and Insight-Poor by Infogroup Targeting Solutions and Yesmail Interactive. This report shows where companies are currently at when it comes to data marketing based on results from a survey of over 700 of the world’s top marketers. Here are some of the insights they shared:

Planning, hiring, and protecting data

68% of marketers expect data-related expenditures to increase in 2013

56% plan on hiring new employees to handle data collection or analysis

84% say protecting customer data and privacy is a priority in 2013

47% perform regular quality control (weekly or monthly) to clean customer data

 

Data analysis, application and challenges

How often do you customize your messaging for each channel based on data insights such as demographics?

46% Often

15% Always

31% Rarely

8% Never

In which of these channels are you currently using insights from customer data to drive marketing campaigns for your company or typical client?

83% Website

72% Email

59% Social media

47% Display

47% Direct mail

32% Print

30% Telemarketing

17% SMS

2% None of the above

What do you think is the biggest challenge marketers will face in 2013 as it relates to the use of data?

25% Analyzing data

20% Applying data

13% Cleaning data

12% Protecting customer data and privacy

11% Collecting data

11% Real-time data collection

8% Hiring qualified employees

 

Conclusion: Collect Data to Create Insights

It’s important for businesses and nonprofits just getting their data marketing efforts rolling to remember that it’s less about numbers than it is about applicable insights. Yes, you want to collect data and work hard to analyze it to find valuable patterns and indicators. But you also have to be able to apply that data in a way that makes your marketing more effective. Just having the numbers is not enough, you have to be able to use them to achieve better results.

Here are a few quick tips to enhance your data marketing efforts:

• Make sure you have a process in place for cleaning and maintaining your data (inaccurate or outdated data will not do you a lot of good),
• Invest in both people who can pull insights from data AND people who can apply data to make your marketing efforts more personalized and effective.
• Use data to better connect with people across multiple channels. Determine individual channel preferences and use them to your advantage.

 
Need a hand to analyze, maintain or apply your data? Find out how eleventy can help.