Welcome to Part II of our data partner New Year’s resolution series, where we get insights on getting better at data-driven marketing. Read Part I here.
Get better at marketing during uncertain times
I’ve worked through many election cycles in the Internet age and election years almost always create a slowdown in disruption. Things don’t change in an election year— they change the year AFTER the elections. Election cycles are about promises and debates. There are promises made and predictions prognosticated, but things rarely change until the new leaders are in place and deliver on those promises. In an election year like 2016, it’s foolish to predict massive change.
For our industry, that means data will continue to become more important. Marketers will continue to become more accountable. Technology will play a greater role in marketing. Dollars will continue to shift from TV to digital, and agencies will continue to evolve around digital strategy and digital engagement. The same buzzwords will be thrown around and the same arguments around ad blocking will be discussed. The status quo will allow us to continue to get better at what we do in an iterative fashion, and enable us to become better, tighter, stronger and more effective partners for marketers. I for one see this as a fantastic opportunity. Don’t you?
— Cory Treffiletti, Vice President, Marketing, Oracle Data Cloud
Stop talking and start doing
According to new research by Forbes Insights, 64 percent of marketing executives surveyed agree that data-driven marketing is crucial to their success. Yet the same report also finds that 72 percent of those respondents are still focused on “knowledge gathering” and are unsure of how to use data-driven marketing. They are basically stuck in the mud.
Your marketing stack better be in order by now—it’s time to fuel the stack with data to maximize your ability to win. With the right tech-savvy team, marketers can understand client behavior across all channels and map to the marketing funnel. Now we know individual roles and seniority behavior, which enables us to personalize—the ole “serving relevant messaging to the right person at the right stage of the buying cycle.” We can use the digital footprints left behind by your existing clients to find new companies and their professionals in-market regardless of their stage in the journey to conversion. Second-party data can become high-performing predictive data to optimize your marketing initiatives. Interestingly, the strategy of targeting senior decision makers is outmoded.
Many studies, including a recent one from Forrester, reveal that a wide variety of roles are involved far into the journey of a B2B buyer decision long before it reaches the C-suite. For instance, an intern could be doing all the research and greatly influencing a company decision. Adding functional areas and titles allows us to customize our messaging to speak their language and to their agenda. We also know certain roles are involved more intensely at certain times than others during the purchase cycle.
The technology is available, and if you’re not embracing your technology, your competition is. You have plenty of data on your clients and how they behaved throughout their journey. Use it! We have plenty of predictive data to help.
— Greg Herbst, VP of Programmatic Data Solutions, Bombara