THE STATE OF B2B MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT 2016 BENCHMARK RESEARCH REPORT
TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary Most Important Strategic Goals Basing Decisions on Marketing Data Marketing Data Management Success Most Significant Barriers to Success Balancing Goals and Barriers Marketing Data Management Resources Effective Uses of Marketing Data How the Effectiveness of Data Usage is Increasing Marketing Data Management Responsibility About the Researchers 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 2 State of B2B Marketing Data Management, Openprise and Ascend2, April 2016
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As marketing technologies become increasingly sophisticated, data the foundation that supports these new advanced technologies holds vital importance. In this report, we ll take a closer look at marketing data management, the unsung hero in the MarTech ecosystem, and the emerging market trends and best practices. METHODOLOGY A total of 183 B2B marketing professionals from 101 organizations participated in the survey, representing the following company sizes and roles: READ THE FULL REPORT TO DISCOVER: The most strategic goals, as well as the most significant hurdles, for B2B marketing data management SiriusDecisions advice on how to measure the impact data quality has on revenue the right way How data influences marketing decisions Where clean, segmented data matters the most 50-500 24% NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES FEWER THAN 50 45% MORE THAN 500 31% How data skills are considered both a significant barrier to success and a low priority How to bridge the gap in data management skills How to share the responsibilities for marketing data management OWNER / PARTNER / CXO 39% ROLE IN MARKETING VP/ DIRECTOR / MANAGER 50% 11% INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR 3
MOST IMPORTANT STRATEGIC GOALS Measuring ROI to directly tie revenue to marketing data management investment is a top priority. Improving the quality and accessibility of marketing data are also top goals. IMPROVE ROI MEASURABILTY WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT GOALS OF A MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT STRATEGY? 72% While proving ROI is a priority, be careful about drawing the line straight from better data management practices to an increase in sales since there are many things that contribute to moving the revenue needle, cautions John Donlon, Research Director of Marketing Operations and Strategies at SiriusDecisions. Instead, first measure the readiness of the data (quality, volume, decrease in duplicates, etc.), then the effect it has on the activities that rely on that data (better deliverability rates, fewer leads disqualified for bad contact data, e.g.), and then finally the output from those activities. No doubt, better data management impacts revenue, but that s the final connection in a long string of cause-and-effect relationships. Marketing operations leaders can build better credibility and better understand the causal relationships by telling the entire story end-to-end. IMPROVE DATA QUALITY INCREASE DATA USE / ACCESSIBILITY IMPROVE DATABASE INTEGRATION IMPROVE DATA RICHNESS REDUCE DATA SKILLS GAP INCREASE BUDGET PRIORITY 65% 63% 29% 26% 0% 25% 50% 75% 4
BASING DECISIONS ON MARKETING DATA For over half of the B2B companies, the biggest benefit of data is that it enables them to make more accurate, better informed decisions. 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% WHICH IS THE MOST VALUABLE BENEFIT OF BASING DECISIONS ON MARKETING DATA? 60% 0% MORE ACCURATE DECISIONS 19% MORE COST-EFFICIENT DECISIONS 15% MORE COMPETITIVE DECISIONS 6% MORE RAPID DECISIONS Without clean data, your MarTech stack is a house of cards. But it goes beyond that. At a high level, bad data hurts your business as a whole, as it makes good decisions nearly impossible. Ed King CEO Openprise 5
MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT SUCCESS WHICH BEST DESCRIBES THE SUCCESS OF YOUR MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT STRATEGY COMPARED TO COMPETITORS? How much of your demand generation and marketing operation teams daily effort is spent on struggling with poor quality data? 50% 40% 51% 35% High-quality sales and marketing data can fundamentally change how teams operate and improve the return on all your marketing initiatives. Data is fundamental to every marketing activity. 30% 20% 0% VERY SUCCESSFUL (best-in-class) SOMEWHAT SUCCESSFUL (above average) SOMEWHAT UNSUCCESSFUL (below average) of B2B companies rate their marketing data management strategy as best-in-class. A total of 61% consider their strategy successful to some extent in comparison to the competition. 5% VERY UNSUCCESSFUL (worst-in-class) A team grappling with poor data spends time, effort, and money manually bridging the data gaps, making guesses, and fighting lead attrition. In contrast, a team with clean and segmented data has more time to spend on strategy, improving engagement models, experimenting with new ideas, and measuring their effectiveness. So unless your data is already in great shape, you need to make data quality a top priority. After all, data is the foundation of data-driven marketing. 6
MOST SIGNIFICANT BARRIERS TO SUCCESS WHAT ARE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BARRIERS TO MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT SUCCESS? POOR DATA USE / ACCESSIBILITY POOR DATA QUALITY LACK OF ROI MEASURABILITY POOR DATABASE INTEGRATION DATA SKILL GAP NOT A BUDGET PRIORITY LACK OF DATA RICHNESS 18% 26% 34% 37% 40% 44% 54% 0% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% I agree that the ability to unify and access data is a huge hurdle for organizations today. Everybody wants insights, but before you can connect the dots, you have to collect the dots. John Donlon Research Director Marketing Operations and Strategies SiriusDecisions 7
BALANCING GOALS AND BARRIERS While data skills presents a significant barrier to success (34%), it s also considered a low priority (). This perfectly illustrates the fact that although companies do realize data is important, they rarely give it its fair share of budget or attention. MOST IMPORTANT GOALS VS MOST SIGNIFICANT SUCCESS BARRIERS 72% ROI MEASURABILITY 40% 65% DATA QUALITY 44% 63% DATA USE / ACCESSIBILITY 54% 29% DATABASE INTEGRATION 37% 26% DATA RICHNESS 18% DATA SKILLS 34% BUDGET PRIORITY 26% 0% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% MOST IMPORTANT GOALS MOST SIGNIFICANT BARRIERS 8
MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT RESOURCES Data management is often the unsung hero in the world of marketing operations, taking a backseat to the hottest new technologies. But clean data is what fuels MarTech. Over half of the companies surveyed outsource data management. However, many of the companies who depend on manual data management methods via an army of seemingly inexpensive offshore labor don t have a good understanding of the price they pay in terms of data quality, and the cost of waiting overnight for a potentially hot lead to get processed. Allen Pogorzelski VP of Marketing Openprise WHICH BEST DESCRIBES THE RESOURCE USED TO MANAGE MARKETING DATA? 3% OUTSOURCED TO A SPECIALIST IN-HOUSE RESOURCES ONLY 43% COMBINATION OF OUTSOURCED AND IN-HOUSE RESOURCES 54% 57% of B2B companies outsource all or part of their marketing data management. In many cases, companies do not have all of the skills required in-house. 9
EFFECTIVE USES OF MARKETING DATA Marketers in the survey view the most effective use of marketing data as something fairly basic campaign targeting despite the spotlight on predictive analytics and account-based marketing. WHAT ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE USES OF MARKETING DATA? CAMPAIGN TARGETING CONTENT PERSONALIZATION 51% 62% This is consistent with the findings of our 2016 MarTech Data Report, where survey respondents admitted adoption of marketing technologies remained basic. SALES ATTRIBUTED TO MARKETING CUSTOMER JOURNEY ANALYTICS 43% 42% PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS 31% ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING 31% MARKET RESEARCH 22% 10
EFFECTIVE USES OF MARKETING DATA GARTNER 11 According to 37% of marketers, successful personalization must have the ability to draw from a single source of customer truth, one that is developed with data drawn from across the organization. In 2018, B2B companies who personalize their sites will be doing 30% better than those without personalization. Predicts 2015: IT Leaders Will Need to Develop a Stronger Relationship with Marketing Personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by. ABERDEEN Email Marketing: Get Personal with Your Customers CMO COUNCIL Marketers Now Taking ROI Personally
HOW THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DATA USAGE IS INCREASING While nearly all (96%) of B2B organizations agree that the effective use of marketing data is increasing, for the majority (57%) it s improving only marginally. 50% 40% 30% 20% TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE EFFECTIVE USE OF MARKETING DATA CHANGING? 39% 57% 0% 3% 1% EFFECTIVE USE IS INCREASING SIGNIFICANTLY EFFECTIVE USE IS INCREASING MARGINALLY EFFECTIVE USE IS DECREASING MARGINALLY EFFECTIVE USE IS DECREASING SIGNIFICANTLY 12
MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITY Interlock among functional teams is essential. The data marketing cares about is everywhere in the organization, and ultimately, the relationships that marketing forms with sales, sales operations, IT, and others will determine how quickly holistic solutions can be built to give marketing access to the information it needs. John Donlon Research Director Marketing Operations and Strategies SiriusDecisions WHERE DOES MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITY PRIMARILY RESIDE? 50% 40% 30% 20% 0% 56% MARKETING DEPARTMENT 37% INTERDEPARTMENTAL PARTNERSHIP For 56% of B2B companies, marketing data management is the responsibility of the marketing department, while 37% rely on an partnership between multiple departments. 4% IT DEPARTMENT 3% SALES DEPARTMENT 13
www.openprisetech.com info@openprisetech.com 888.810.7774 ABOUT THE RESEARCHERS Openprise provides data automation solutions that automate the analysis, cleansing, enhancement, and unification of marketing and sales data so that you can deliver datadriven marketing programs and deploy advanced marketing technologies such as marketing automation, account-based marketing, and predictive marketing solutions. Openprise is designed specifically for marketers, so it contains the data rules and logic all marketers need and seamlessly integrates with marketing and sales automation systems like Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, and Salesforce. Openprise is free for up to 50MB/month. Paid subscriptions start at just $100/month. For more information, please visit www.openprisetech.com. Marketing software and data companies, and digital marketing agencies, partner with Ascend2 to reliably generate demand and supplement marketing content for their firms. Our Research Partner Programs are transparent focusing entirely on your brand and the interests of your market. Learn more at Ascend2.com. 14