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Global Marketers Channel by RuthFeb 7, 2020

Three barriers to B2B data-driven marketing

Ask any business marketer about the importance of data, and you’ll get plenty of good answers.  "It’s essential," they’ll say.  "Data drives everything we do."  And that’s a good thing, since marketers are under increasing pressure to manage, collect and make use of data, according to a CMO Club/Gartner study.  But in my experience, answers like this are just lip service.  Most B2B marketers really struggle to get their arms around the reality of customer and prospect information.  There are at least three obstacles standing in their way.

Of particular importance to data and data-driven marketing are these issues:

1. Inattention to data and the database

While most senior marketers and other executives will talk about the importance of customer information, it’s rare that they understand what is in their databases, and how to maintain and improve it consistently.  Neither do they invest in the resources, human or otherwise, to manage the data properly.  As noted by Derek Slayton, CMO of Terminus, "Even companies with data scientists on staff tend to ignore the nuts and bolts of minding the database itself.  It’s like they have the back pain, but they aren’t doing the exercises that would keep the pain at a manageable level."

2. Organization and process

Taking advantage of the power of customer data requires deliberate consideration of goals and measurement systems to manage the desired outcomes of effective data management.  Jim Bampos, when he was VP of quality at EMC, explained in DMNews that his group transformed their organization around data to enhance the customer experience.  They built a business case, established a partnership with their IT counterparts, and created a roadmap for the systems needed for data access and analytics.  Bampos credits enabling technology, organizational and process changes for their success in transforming the EMC’s Total Customer Experience program.

3. Everything old is new again

Database marketing, also known as data-driven marketing, is being used across the B2B go-to-market process today─but it’s very likely called something different.  It may be "predictive analytics," or "CRM," or "Big Data," or a zillion other buzzwords.  So classically trained practitioners need to go with the flow and adjust to the new vocabulary.  Ken Lomasney, COO of the DRUM agency, provides a handy illustration of this phenomenon.  With his clients, Ken never says "marketing database."  Instead, he says "knowledge platform," to position the tool as something that provides real value, becomes smarter over time, and comprises an important company asset.  A repositioning we might all learn from.

If you are reading this article, you are already convinced of the importance of data in B2B sales and marketing.  As Alex Kantrowitz of Advertising Age puts it, data is the "new oil" that provides insight, efficiency and scale.  For this century’s marketers, it is a new form of currency that gives marketing a seat at the executive table, and the ability to drive shareholder value.