B2B sales and marketing professionals know that data is the key to growing revenue, according to a new study by Dun & Bradstreet, which found that 89% of respondents believe data quality drives the right B2B sales and marketing campaigns.
Yet, only 11% of the 250 U.S. B2B sales and marketing professionals (director level and up) who took the survey said they were extremely confident in their company’s data quality. Conversely, a whopping 50% said they are not confident in the quality of their company’s data, which is resulting in slower adoption of strategic B2B marketing and sales initiatives. Most notable among them: account-based marketing and content personalization.
“I was surprised at the significant gap between what marketing leaders are saying and what many are actually doing—or not doing,” said Josh Mueller, Dun & Bradstreet’s SVP of global marketing. “[The majority] of respondents acknowledge that great data quality is critical for improved performance, but many have not taken the steps required to ensure they have great data quality. Because of that, omnichannel marketing, account-based marketing, and personalization are simply buzzwords for many [B2B] organizations instead of an integral part of their marketing strategy.”
If you are a B2B organization, an account-based marketing strategy becomes imperative, according to the report. However, just 38% of the B2B marketers surveyed said that account-based marketing (ABM) is part of their go-to-market strategies. Respondents cited needing to get their data in order before they can commit to executing such a massive shift in both their strategies and how they measure success. ABM requires a coordinated effort across multiple channels; a single, accurate, and current view of the customer; and executive alignment between the sales and marketing department.
“Data is foundational to B2B marketing,” Mueller said. “Without the right data, all other investments are suboptimized. To enable world-class customer experiences and improve company performance, implementing the tools necessary for the most accurate and reliable data isn’t a luxury–it is a requirement.”
Originally published at cmo.com
— Published in DATA QUALITY on September 12, 2018
