Almost all marketers say they are succeeding with their use of data despite critical challenges in getting there -- including driving loyalty, according to Using Marketing Data To Make Better
Decisions, a study by Ascend2.
Of the firms polled, 31% say they are very successful, or best in class, while 63% say they are somewhat successful and 6% deem themselves unsuccessful.
As data drives successful marketing via email, and every channel, the study offers a snapshot of current trends.
For example, 25% always use data in the decision-making process, and 44%
study it 44% of the time. In contrast, 26% use data for this purpose some of the time, and 5% never.
Moreover, most brands almost half of all brands are budgeting more or data, 13%
significantly and 35% moderately. Another 37% are maintaining their spend level, and 15% are decreasing it, only 3% by large margins.
But different types have varying value. Here are the types
of data deemed most helpful when making marketing decisions:
- Engagement — 47%
- Customer retention rate — 46%
- Conversion rates — 45%
- Customer lifetime value — 40%
- Customer acquisition cost — 33%
- Multi-touch attribution — 17%
- Funnel/pipeline — 16%
What do marketers hope to get out of data use? Their primary objectives are:
- Increasing customer loyalty — 46%
- Increasing conversion rates — 43%
- Optimizing customer journey — 42%
- Increasing content engagement — 35%
- Defining appropriate channels — 28%
- Eliminating ad waste —
21%
- Integrating disparate data — 16%
- Improving multi-touch attribution — 11%
Those goals are mostly in sync with the critical challenges marketers
face:
- Increasing customer loyalty — 42%
- Increasing conversion rates — 39%
- Increasing content engagement — 35%
- Optimizing customer journey
— 29%
- Defining appropriate channels — 26%
- Integrating disparate channels — 26%
- Eliminating ad waste — 25%
- Improving multi-touch
attribution — 19%
What do brands see a critical data trends for the year ahead? (Note: This study was done on April 6 during the height of the COVID-19 crisis0. They
cite:
- Data-driven personalization — 47%
- Customer journey — 46%
- Predictive analytics — 38%
- Aligning online and offline data —
33%
- Omnichannel marketing — 21
- AI/machine learning — 21%
- Programmatic advertising — 20%
Ascemd2 and its Research Partners
surveyed 277 marketers. Of those, 38% were B2B, 39% B2C and 23% both equally.