It’s been considered part of conventional wisdom for a few years now that data analytics are a key element in the future of marketing. By putting more effort into information management and data quality, companies in all industries can better attract consumers by targeting the right people in the right demographics.
There’s a big difference, however, between believing in this movement and being willing to invest in it. Everyone’s talking about big data, that’s for sure – but how many executives are actually putting investment into this area? That’s a tougher question to answer.
It appears that when it comes to financing big data analytics, marketers are only now beginning to take the plunge. BlueKai, a company that markets an enterprise data activation solution for intelligent marketing, recently released a report on this change in funding.
The firm found that of more than 100 surveyed marketing executives, 36% now say that at least one-fifth of their marketing budgets are data driven. In December 2012, that same figure was at just 11%, meaning that funding for data driven initiatives has leapt by a staggering 227% in just six months.
“Big data and data-infused marketing has been a hot topic for some time, but mostly in terms of display targeting,” said Cory Treffiletti, senior vice president of marketing at BlueKai. “What we’re seeing now is that marketers are becoming more intelligent about how they use data for more than serving ads. They are looking to customize the entire user experience based on what they know about their audience.”
With more space in their budgets for data-driven initiatives, marketers are beginning to diversify their strategies. They’re exploring a number of different channels for customer communications, including phone, email, websites, social media and mobile apps. They’re using all of these avenues to gather more information, making them smarter than ever about their marketing activities.
It’s also important to note that with more money dedicated to analytics, companies will also need to make greater investments in data quality. The more information they collect from the more sources, the more susceptible to data collection mistakes they become. The material in their databases might be outdated, misspelled, duplicated or otherwise inaccurate. More money for big data is great, but with it should come a greater emphasis on quality.
Learn more about the author, Erin Haselkorn