Marketers who use data insights to drive marketing campaigns are three times more likely to report competitive advantage in customer loyalty than those who don’t, according to new research.
The study, from Turn in conjunction with Forbes Insights, indicates that while many marketers agree on the use of data in targeting, almost half of marketers consider themselves lagging behind in data-driven marketing strategies.
Other key points from the report include:
• Many marketers who consider themselves ‘laggards’ in data-driven marketing blame siloes across the business
• 74% of marketers considered ‘leaders’ in data-driven marketing achieve the advantage in customer loyalty
• 55% of marketers using a data-driven campaign see increased revenue
• The travel industry and the retail industry are leaders in data-driven marketing
The report looks at leaders in data-driven marketing, compared to executives who see themselves as lagging behind, and finds that almost half of marketing executives believe their efforts are lagging, or siloed across the business making it difficult for them to capture and use a wealth of data insights. It is this use of data from across the business however which is driving significant results across businesses for the ‘leaders’.
Marketers conducting data-driven marketing are more than six times as likely to report an advantage against competitors in terms of profitability (45%) and are three times more likely to have increased revenue than their counterparts not using these insights. 55% of marketers driving a marketing campaign from data insights see increased revenue, compared to 20% of those marketers not conducting data-driven marketing.
Pierre Naggar, MD Europe, Turn says “This report highlights the importance of gathering data and expertise for marketing efforts. Marketers have been employing data in various forms for some time, but recent innovations mean marketers now have more in-depth data sets which match the customer’s exposure to a brand. However, organisations need to invest in methods which can collect this data across the business, and not in siloes as currently happens in many cases. By drawing on resources across the business, such as sales data, customer enquiries and indicators into customer loyalty, marketers can base their decisions, for marketing campaigns as well as to inform wider business decisions, on what their customers really want, rather than rely on guesswork.”
The report reveals that sectors leading in data-driven marketing include the travel industry and the retail industry, while the energy sector lags behind. 67% of travel executives say they have gained competitive advantage in the sector with higher customer loyalty as a result of data and 55% of retail executives agree, compared to only 33% of executives in the energy industry. A further 59% of travel executives are seeing higher customer satisfaction through harnessing data insights, while 52% retail executives thank the use of data-driven marketing tactics for achieving new customers.
Methodology
The survey was fielded in October 2014 and received a total of 331 responses from senior executives. Sixty-four percent of respondents were vice presidents or directors, and 28% were C-level executives or senior vice presidents. Respondents hailed from marketing (26%), and another 26% focused on analytics. Industries represented in the survey included technology (21%), retail (18%), telecommunications (15%) and consumer packaged goods (10%). Other industries included advertising, travel, automotive and banking. Close to half, 48%, came from companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenues, and another 16% had between $500 million and $1 billion in revenues.
www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/data_driven_and_digitally_savvy