Email marketing ranks No. 2 among uses for data-driven marketing, surpassed only be personalization, according to Data Driven Marketing: A Research Guide for Marketers, a study by Ascend2. And it
may be that the term ‘personalization’ covers email as well as ad delivery.
The most popular uses for data-driven marketing are:
- Personalization —
42%
- Email marketing — 38%
- Content marketing strategy — 36%
- Product/services development — 36%
- Paid advertising — 30%
- Campaign planning — 30%
- Customer journey mapping —
22%
- Attribution — 11%
First, a definition: Data-driven marketing is the science of making decisions backed by
data.
But it’s not easy. The greatest challenges are:
- Collecting quality data — 50%
- Identifying/utilizing
appropriate solutions — 33%
- Interpreting and applying data — 31%
- Allocating adequate resources —
30%
- Utilizing real-time data — 25%
- Normalizing data — 18%
- Creating infrastructure — 17%
- Obtaining organizational buy-in — 16%
- Centralizing data/removing
silos—10%
Moreover, the discipline itself has been affected by several factors in the past year:
- Changing consumer behaviors
— 48%
- Technology innovation — 36%
- Changing quality of data — 34%
- Changing data and privacy
regulations — 27%
- Dedicated budget modifications — 25%
- Historical data relevancy — 25%
- Changing number of touchpoints — 20%
- AI (artificial intelligence availability)—17%
Despite all that, 62% of marketers say
they’re somewhat successful at data-driven marketing, and 29% claim they’re very good. Only 9% are unsuccessful.
What’s more, 79% are satisfied with their team’s
ability to make effective decisions based on customer data, and 25% very much so.
And 65% say their data-driven marketing budgets are increasing moderately, while 17% expect significant
jumps. But 17% are reducing their spend, with 3% reducing spend significantly.
What do they plan to spend it on? Their top improvement priorities for the year ahead
include:
- Improving personalization — 45%
- Improving data quality — 45%
- Utilizing
more available data — 38%
- Mapping customer journey — 27%
- Identifying touchpoints — 22%
- Improving segmentation — 23%
- Improving attribution — 21%
- Consolidating technology stack — 13%
- Removing data siloes — 13%
How often do brands make use of this asset when making decisions? Of those polled, 24% always do so, and 39% most
of the time. Another 28% say some of the time, 8% very little and 3% never.
Ascend2 and its Research Partners surveyed 485 marketers between from September 20-28, 2021. Of those, 25%
were B2B, 52% were B2C, and 23% were B2B and B2C equally. In addition, 48% described themselves as owners/partners/C-level, 25% vice president/director/manager and 27% non-management
professionals.