Data-driven marketing tops the lists of priorities for 55% of marketers. This is according to research by eConsultancy and Adobe. According to survey respondents, 42% also stated improving customer intelligence for a holistic customer view and integration of marketing tools for greater efficiencies as important areas of focus for this year.
Furthermore, data-driven marketing that specifically focuses on the individual was regarded as the single most exciting opportunity.
Which one area is the single most exciting opportunity for your organization in 2019? (Respondents 1,421)
More recent research (Ascend2, 2020) shows that brands are moving forward to put data-driven strategies in place. Approximately one-third (32%) of marketers surveyed report that a strategy is planned to have unified marketing data and 45% stated they are already operating with a strategy in place.
Brands seek to increase customer loyalty and conversion rates as well as optimize the customer journey with their data-driven marketing efforts.
Driving loyalty is of particular importance today. The pandemic brought many changes in shopping behavior including significant changes in the percentage of consumers who are switching brands and changing their shopping behaviors altogether. 75% of consumers have tried a new shopping behavior and will continue to do so post-pandemic.
So what types of data are marketers using to drive their loyalty program success? In a survey by Merkle, 62% of marketers say their loyalty programs are fully integrated with their CRM data.
However, there are big gaps in the data being used for overall marketing efforts and the data being used for loyalty programs. For example, 86% of marketers are using demographics in their marketing efforts but only 39% are using demographics for their loyalty programs.
The types of data that marketers are using the most for their loyalty programs are customer account/history (57%), preference data (46%) and email responses (45%).
In Ascend2’s research, increasing customer loyalty was also a challenge for marketers. When asked, what are the critical challenges of a strategy for using data to make decisions, respondents answered:
- 42% – Increasing customer loyalty
- 39% – Increasing conversion rates
- 35% – Increasing content engagement
In the year ahead, 47% of marketers said data-driven personalization would be a priority followed by the customer journey at 46%.
Effectiveness of Data-Driven Marketing
So just how effective is data-driven marketing?
A study by Forbes showed that 64% of executives “strongly agree” that data-driven marketing provides a competitive edge in deciding on how to compete with other companies in the same field.
According to Media Math, 53% of digital marketers said “a demand to deliver more relevant communications/be more ‘customer-centric’” is one of the top driving factors for companies who are investing in data-driven marketing.
According to Attomdata, companies with data-driven marketing are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year and 75% of companies see increased engagement when they use data-driven marketing.
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