• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 5, 2021

Brands are getting better at data-driven marketing, finding it especially useful when sending email. And they plan to spend more money on it.

But it’s not easy to succeed, judging by Data-Driven Marketing: A Research-Based Guide for Marketers, a study by Ascend2. 

Marketers face such challenges as: 

• Collecting quality data — 50%
• Identifying/utilizing appropriate solutions — 33%
• Interpreting and applying data — 33% 
• Allocating adequate resources — 30%
• Utilizing real-time data — 25% 
• Normalizing data — 18% 
• Creating infrastructure — 17% 
• Obtaining organization buy-in — 16%
• Centralizing data/removing siloes — 15%

Moreover, they say the field has been affected by these factors in the past year: 

• Changing consumer behaviors — 48%
• Changing quality of data — 34%
• Data and privacy regulations — 27%
• Dedicated budget modifications — 25%
• Historical data relevancy — 25%
• Changing number of touchpoints — 20%
• Artificial intelligence availability — 17%

Overall, only 29% rate themselves as very successful, or best-in-class at data-driven marketing. But 62% say they are somewhat successful, and 9% acknowledge they are unsuccessful.

While 79% are satisfied with the quality of decisions they make based on customer data, only 25% are very much so. Another 17% say they are unsatisfied, and 4% are unsure. 

But they are trying:  24% say customer data is always a driving factor in their decision making and 36% say it is most of the time, while 28% say it is some of the time, 8% say very little and 3% say it is never a factor.

The most useful data-driven marketing applications are:

• Personalization — 42%
• Email marketing — 38% 
• Content marketing strategy — 36%
• Product/services development — 36%
• Paid advertising — 30%
• Campaign planning — 25%
• Customer journey mapping — 22%
• Attribution — 11% 

Meanwhile, 17% plan to significantly increase their data-driven marketing budgets in the year ahead. Another 65% foresee more moderate hikes. And 17% are decreasing their spends, 3% substantially. 

What could help them improve their data-driven strategies? Here are their top initiatives for the year ahead: 

• Improving personalization — 45% 
• Improving data quality — 45%
• Utilizing more available data — 38%
• Mapping customer journey — 27%
• Identifying touchpoints — 22% 
• Improving segmentation — 21%
• Improving attribution — 21%
• Consolidating technology stack — 13%
• Removing data siloes — 13%

Ascend2 and its Research Partners surveyed 385 marketers from September 20-28, 2021.

Of these, 25% were B2B, 52% B2C and 23% B2B and B2C equally.

In addition, 48% were at the owner/partner/C-level, 25% vice president/director/manager and 27% non-management professionals.