Data. It sits at the heart of the marketing function. Without it, marketers would be blind.
The old era of marketing was often dictated by gut-feel and creativity, or so the legend goes. Marketers guessed what their customers wanted, and weren’t held accountable for measuring success. However, the age of push marketing is at an end, and brands failing to adopt a data-first approach will be left with their thumbs up by the wayside.
It’s a cliché we’re all familiar with, but the internet has revolutionised the way marketers work. Instead of basing their labour on conjecture, marketers now rely – and rightly so – on the dialogue between themselves and their customers. And what underpins every single one of those conversations? Data.
Yet herein lies the problem: data and marketing haven’t always been considered traditional bedfellows. Marketers conventionally aren’t data people, but that’s changing. The best marketers today will have an understanding of analytics, data and the tech used to process and manage it.
As Richard Whale, head of marketing, international, Avention OneSource Solutions, points out: “Data used to be an afterthought; marketers would produce and design programmes before actually looking at the data needed to execute them.
“Today’s landscape is very different: with technology now an essential part of marketing, this technology lives and dies on the quality and breadth of the data that underpins it.”
Marketing automation
It’s a commonly cited fact that the first person on the scene of a potential deal is going to win that customer 50% of the time, and this is where marketing automation (MA) really shines.
Through MA, the marketing department is able to nurture leads and pass them to sales in real-time. Sales receive alerts when their prospect is engaging in marketing activities and can subsequently take the appropriate action.
"Keep it [MA] simple and employ the fewest number of platforms possible, otherwise you’ll risk burn time and effort managing them all..."
After all, as Shannon Duffy, VP marketing, Pardot at Salesforce, warns: “B2B customers want to be communicated to in an adaptive and contextual manner and companies that aren’t doing that will be left behind.”
But however effective MA may be, it’s not the silver bullet of marketing tech. It would be foolish to utterly rely on MA to provide quick fixes and flawless results. Rather, MA success is dictated by a deep understanding of the customer, combined with high-quality, engaging content. As Whale supports: “It’s a big mistake for a business to assume that MA will solve all of its problems, since without clear objectives and sensible implementation, it will cause more work and headaches.”
He adds: “This is just asking for trouble, since many of these companies don’t have the data and insight to support this complexity, not to mention the resources to deliver a constant stream of relevant content.”
Yet despite its potential pitfalls, the pervading truth is this: if marketers persist in employing antiquated techniques – and stubbornly refuse to employ a data-first mindset through technologies such as MA – their organisation won’t acquire the speed and agility required to communicate effectively with its prospects.
A wealth of martech opportunity
With such a myriad of marketing tech to choose from, it can often be difficult for B2B companies to establish the most effective blend to maximise their returns.
Many brands are guilty of panic-buying non-complementary and inappropriate marketing technologies. The effect of this, as Whale explains, can be extremely detrimental to the marketing function: “Keep it simple and employ the fewest number of platforms possible, otherwise you’ll risk burn time and effort managing them all and be spending time on internal processes rather than engaging your customers.”
Marketing and data as a marriage is not a new conversation; most are already on board. But how do you convince reticent colleagues to adopt a data-first approach?
Whale argues marketers shouldn’t set unrealistic targets. “It’s important to set small milestones as part of the transformation,” he affirms. “Doing something to point your business in the right direction is far more positive than doing nothing at all.”
Yet, what should these milestones look like? How do you prove data is an invaluable commodity to the rest of your company? Regrettably, vanity metrics should be taken at face value. Click throughs, open rates and MQLs are all well and good, and typify what marketers enjoy about marketing, but, as Whale explains: “Success still boils down to two simple but hard to achieve outcomes: driving incremental revenue for your business, and delivering relevant, valuable experiences to your customers and prospects.”
Every marketing decision needs to revolve around data, and adopting a data-first mindset is vital to achieving marketing success. The digital revolution is over and its victory is complete. Ignore data at your peril.
