A mere 21 per cent of B2B marketers believe their organisations are getting the most out of the customer data in their possession, according to new research published by B2B Marketing and Avention.
Seventy-six per cent of more than 100 B2B marketers surveyed acknowledged they were not extracting sufficient value from the data they have pertaining to customer purchases, preferences and activities, and three per cent admitted they were unsure whether they were or not.
This frank admittance regarding the failure of marketing departments to embrace the well-publicised opportunities of investing in data, analytics and predictive skills and technologies should serve as a wake-up call to marketers across the industry.
In terms of the underlying reasons for these failures, many (34 per cent) lamented a lack of accuracy in the data sets and 33 per cent said the data they do possess is not recorded in ways that make gleaning insight practicable.
The problem is further underlined with the acknowledgement from 59 per cent that they do not have recourse to a single source of truth regarding customer data.
Alex Aspinall, head of content at B2B marketing, said: “This should be the primary concern for anyone struggling to make headway with the data challenge: disparate data sets are of use to no one.
“A concerted effort is required from everyone involved with the recording, analysis and retrieval of customer data within an organisation to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Inter-departmental alignment on data practices and processes must be established, and respected, if progress is to be made in this area.”
These stats are drawn from B2B Marketing and Avention’s Can marketers see what’s coming next? report, available to download now.
