Chief Marketing Officers & Marketers Must Become Data-Driven

Early in 2015, Lisa Arthur, author of Big Data Marketing, urged marketers everywhere to do what they should have done a long time ago: become data-driven.A longtime believer in data-driven marketing, Arthur’s plea was inspired by recent trends captured in Teradata’s 2015 Global Survey. According to Teradata, 78% of marketers feel pressure to become more data-driven — and so they should.In an article for Forbes, Arthur picked out Teradata’s key findings: 59% of those polled said they were able to make and implement decisions faster using data, and 67% reported data-driven decisions as more accurate. Strikingly, 90% of marketers named individualized marketing a priority, and as Arthur insists, “Data-driven marketing is the sole means to the end of gaining clear individualized insights.”

Much More Than Your Flavor of the Week

Fads come and go -- especially in this emerging digital world -- but Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2015: the fusion of business and IT anticipates how technology and analytics will only “play a more impactful role” moving forward. The report quotes Gartner analyst Adam Sarner (“Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing, 2014”) explaining why “the hype around data-driven marketing is largely justified.”Data-driven marketing, Sarner says, “will help make marketing better, faster, and more cost-effective while better aligning marketers with the marketplace, not to mention enterprise objectives, through richer, more reliable metrics.”Connecting marketers to reliable metrics and thus embracing data-driven marketing is an empowering move. Data can and should prove the success and relevance of a given marketing program. The opportunity to consolidate every element of said program into a single application stands to streamline every aspect of business, from customer experience to sales, and should be taken under consideration by the most powerful minds in the company.In 2014, Sarner saw “digital marketing leaders under increased pressure to find and exploit new growth opportunities,” but despite that pressure, many marketers and CMOs still aren’t utilizing data to the extent they know they could.

There’s Saying it, and Then There’s Doing it

In Forbes, Arthur charts how the number of companies incorporating data-driven marketing has more than doubled in 18 months. However, in surveying the landscape she acknowledges that “only 50% of marketers [polled] routinely apply data to individualize their messages and offers,” that “80% said silos within marketing itself still prevent an omni-channel view of campaigns,” and that “44% reported achieving consistency in omni-channel marketing remains a challenge.”45% of those Teradata surveyed agree that data is “the most underutilized asset in the marketing organization.” Across the board, the numbers say that more marketers acknowledge the importance of data than feel they are able to implement a fully data-driven program.Arthur frames her response to Teradata’s Survey as an invitation for marketers to make good on a belated New Year’s resolution, and the parallel is apt. Marketers are aware by now that data-driven marketing is what stands between them and progress.It’s time to seize the opportunity that today’s technology presents -- in large part because the technology will only become more involved. At this point, we may be getting a little far from New Year’s, but this is one resolution that doesn’t have to wait for Q1.