Commentary

Big Data Overload? B2B Marketers Get An 'F' For Real-Time Info Delivery

A new study has revealed that real-time marketers might not be so good at the whole real-time thing, after all.

In fact, the CMO Council study gives "Real-Time Delivery of Sales Intelligence and Breaking News" a big, fat "F" for a grade. And it's not even close to "D" range.

Just 9% of B2B marketers say they are getting current customer information in real-time. Nearly half (46%) say they aren't, while 21% say "somewhat," 20% say "working on this," and 4% say they don't know.

In other words, one out of every 10 B2B marketers is getting updated consumer data in real-time. One out of every 20 knows as much about the newness of their data as your dog. I spy a problem.

Let's break away from advanced automation -- meaning automating and delivering information in real-time -- and talk about automation in general for a second. A full 63% of respondents say their customer intelligence systems do not automatically notify sales or support teams about developments. I spy another problem.

"Not only is sales operating in the dark specific to having access to a total view of the customer, but they are also flying blindly without access to real-time intelligence that could mean the difference between an opportunity and a missed quota," The CMO Council report reads.

The problem in delivering real-time insights and intelligence lies in a company's ability to mesh internal structured data with unstructured data, such as news and media commentary or social data, the report reasons.

Perhaps Big Data has gotten so big that it's causing marketers to be slower rather than faster -- a diminishing return of sorts. I would think it's only a matter of time before Big Data is managed more effectively across the board, and eventually in real-time. But at the same time, I can't help but think the results of this survey would have been different had everyone's company been attached to their answers.

The CMO Council conducted a survey on over 230 B2B marketing execs from North America to receive this data. They are offering a free look at the executive summary of the report here.

2 comments about "Big Data Overload? B2B Marketers Get An 'F' For Real-Time Info Delivery".
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  1. Pete Austin from Fresh Relevance, November 15, 2013 at 5:13 a.m.

    Bit harsh to say B2B Marketers *get* an 'F' when it's not their fault. Would be more accurate to say they *give* a 'F'.

  2. Jean Borgman from J Borgman & Associates, November 18, 2013 at 12:36 p.m.

    Marketers spend $45B/year trying to get customers to convert online, but conversion rates are less than 2 percent. Furthermore, the odds of contacting a lead drops 100-times by not responding within 5 minutes. Businesses need to act in an automated way on leads in real time on the main channel where they interact with prospects and customers: their websites. By enabling real-time marketing via dynamically personalized website messaging and content, Evergage is empowering both B2B and B2C marketers to turn their websites into their best consultative salespeople and optimize conversions throughout the customer lifecycle. For more on how to market in the most relevant moment, see this white paper: http://on.evergage.com/real-time-marketing-white-paper/

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