Teradata Corporation, the global leader in analytic data platforms, applications and services, today released its Teradata Data-Driven Marketing Survey 2013, a global survey into how companies worldwide are using data to drive marketing and create sustainable competitive advantage. The extensive 45-page report, available now for free download, reveals widespread belief among the world's marketers that integrating and analyzing all available enterprise data, and applying the real-time insights such analysis delivers, will ultimately drive a better customer experience, stronger brand differentiation and faster growth.
The survey was conducted by Teradata Applications, a division of Teradata focused on business, marketing and analytical applications and services. More than 2,200 marketers around the world responded to the survey.
What is Data-Driven Marketing?
Teradata views data-driven marketing as the combination of collecting and connecting large amounts of data, rapidly analyzing it and gaining insights, and then bringing those insights to market via marketing interactions tailored to what's relevant for each customer. Here are just some of Teradata's Data-Driven Marketing Survey findings:
- Nearly 50 percent of marketers agree that data is the most underutilized asset in their organization, with less than 10 percent saying they currently use what data they have in a systematic way.
- 71 percent of marketers say they plan to implement a Big Data Analytics solution in the next two years.
- Just 18 percent of marketers say they have a single, integrated view of customer actions, yet it is one of marketers' top priorities for future improvement.
- 75 percent of marketers who try to calculate their Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) encounter problems, mostly in the lack of system integration.
- 42 percent of marketing executives agree that integrating the cross-channel customer experience is a top priority.
- Nearly 65 percent of marketers agree that silos within their marketing department prevent them from having a holistic view of a campaign across channels.
Findings Snapshot: Going Data-Driven Creates High-Impact Marketing Results
Teradata's survey reveals that most companies today are trending toward leveraging their data to drive marketing on a more systematic basis in order to measurably increase profits. Yet as organizations make the transition, they are encountering challenges that have little to do with actual technology adoption, and a lot to do with both the shortage of data analytics skills and the continued use of unrefined marketing processes. In response, many companies are, starting with Marketing, addressing enterprise-wide process implications, and making operational adjustments required by tighter Marketing and IT integration. And it is through addressing people, organizational and process issues that the greatest value of data-driven marketing is being achieved. Big Data analytics skills and digital marketing savvy are increasingly valuable to companies today because together they help drive more revenue, better margins, more efficiency, and ultimately more profits. The belief that these higher-order outcomes can in fact be achieved is what's fueling increased adoption of data-driven marketing solutions by the global business mainstream. Companies are not developing a data-driven marketing strategy so they can use technology to analyze more kinds of data; they are moving to it because it can help them make more money.
"Marketers are most effective in generating revenue when they are able to put all their data to work to deliver the most relevant offers to consumers," said Darryl McDonald, president of Teradata Applications. "Teradata's Data-Driven Marketing solutions help them stop making 'gut-feel' decisions and instead factor in insights from all types of data to gain a deeper understanding of customer preferences. Acting on more informed insights yields better customer engagement, but it all starts with vision, a strategic process, and having the right talent in place."
Teradata Data-Driven Marketing Survey 2013, Global delivers a wealth of informative insights for CMOs, CIOs, indeed all C-suite decision makers, as well as senior and mid-level marketers across all marketing disciplines. A snapshot of key findings appears below and in the accompanying Infographic or go to the survey web page for more information.
Top Line Findings
- Why Adopt a Data-Driven Marketing Strategy? Senior-level Marketing executives in enterprises over $100 million have largely the same priorities as the marketers working under them. The top three reasons companies are adopting data-driven marketing strategies are to:
- Improve Efficiency
- Prove effectiveness with outcomes and metrics, and
- Achieve better cross-channel integration.
- Marketers Feel Pressure: 78% of all marketers report feeling pressure to become more data-driven. The marketers who say they are feeling significant pressure are more likely to be in Campaign Management (39 percent) and Data Sciences (40 percent) roles.
- Strategic Use Will Increase: About half (48 percent) of all marketers are still just using data on an ad hoc basis, while about a third (33 percent) have embedded it systematically or even strategically into their standard processes. In the next 12 months, 56% of marketers expect to be using data to systematically drive their marketing.
- Personalizing the Customer Experience: A little more than a third of companies (36 percent) say they routinely use data-driven marketing to customize messages and offers, in order to improve customer experience and campaign performance. Just 18% of marketers routinely have a single view of the customer but recognizing its importance, marketers say it is a top priority for future improvement.
- Process is Foundational: Forty-two percent of companies say "lack of processes to bring insights into decision making" is their main barrier to using data in decision making. As a result, within two years over 80 percent of marketers will have implemented or begun projects that automate data quality, performance management, and marketing workflow processes.
