By David Crane, Marketing Technology Strategist, Integrate
Marketers are showing signs of embracing data-driven strategies to identify prospects, deliver a better customer experience and improve overall marketing results. However, in my conversations with CMOs and Marketing Ops pros, most organizations struggle to unlock data’s true value. Data quality directly influences its effectiveness. Yet, 60% of companies have an overall data health of “unreliable,” and 25% of the average B2B database is inaccurate, according to marketing ops research firm SiriusDecisions. As the adage goes, “garbage in, garbage out,” but some marketers aren’t even able to get the bad data out.
By David Crane, Marketing Technology Strategist, Integrate
Marketers are showing signs of embracing data-driven strategies to identify prospects, deliver a better customer experience and improve overall marketing results. However, in my conversations with CMOs and Marketing Ops pros, most organizations struggle to unlock data’s true value. Data quality directly influences its effectiveness. Yet, 60% of companies have an overall data health of “unreliable,” and 25% of the average B2B database is inaccurate, according to marketing ops research firm SiriusDecisions. As the adage goes, “garbage in, garbage out,” but some marketers aren’t even able to get the bad data out.
One of the most effective ways to unlock the value of data is to embrace a “data fluidity” mindset. The data fluidity concept focuses on creating accurate, accessible, and actionable data. While all roles within a marketing organization should be cognizant of data fluidity, Marketing Operations has become marketing’s nerve center, controlling systems and processes to influence, measure and manage all things marketing. Marketing Operations is the right group to govern data — campaign data, prospect data and business data. Unless this data is properly refined (for standardization and accuracy), easily accessed and actionable, marketers cannot perform at their full potential and the company’s performance suffers. Simply stated, data fluidity must be a priority.
Here are data fluidity’s three core components, which empower marketers to wring the most out of their data:
Accuracy + Standardization — Marketing’s ability to perform is only as good as the data fueling it. Clear decisions never result from confused information. And successful strategies aren’t derived from erroneous data. Cleansing and logically organizing data is the first requisite element of an optimized marketing operation. The importance of standardized and accurate data isn’t profound or new — but neither is it typically obtained to the standards needed in the post-digital era.
Velocity + Flexibility — Velocity refers to the movement of prospect data from marketers’ demand generation and media programs to their internal database or sales and marketing automation systems. Flexibility is geared towards data’s ability to flow between numerous systems seamlessly. Without these two things, marketing can’t properly measure, compare and analyze key information to derive actionable insights.
Usability — The final element of data fluidity concerns action. Standardized and accurate data that flows quickly and seamlessly through all marketing systems is vital, but it matters very little if marketing can’t act on the data swiftly enough to capitalize on opportunities. Additional research from SiriusDecisions shows that customers are already 70% through the buying cycle by the time they begin conversations with sales. This means marketing-driven prospect experiences are pivotal to acquiring new customers. To achieve this marketing mandate, organizations must be able to provide customers the information they need when they need it.
There are several steps marketers can take to ensure the components of data fluidity are achieved. For instance, utilizing data governance software can standardize and drastically improve data accuracy while also automating processes. Not only does this result in cleaner and more precise data, but it eliminates many manual tasks typically associated with data processing, such as lead scrubbing and spreadsheet consolidation.
To achieve the desired velocity and flexibility, closed-loop systems integration is key. By automating data delivery, integrations transmit valuable information in real time, rather than requiring marketers to wait for and manually import batch email files. Integrations also ensure the flexibility of data for effective analysis by bringing siloed media information and other offline data into the marketing technology fold.
Lastly, by implementing analytics and process-automating solutions on a tactical level, Marketing Operations can ensure the precise and efficient implementation of its holistic, data-driven strategies. This requires an alignment of the people, processes and technology that make up the entire prospect-to-customer lifecycle. Only then can marketing effectively close the loop, from prospect data acquisition to customer data analysis to the use of such analytical insights.
Ultimately, achieving data fluidity starts with a solid understanding of your current systems and processes and a clear plan for improvement. Integrating systems, governing data, and automating processes are the pivotal changes that must be made, and each is dependent on an organization’s focused, data-driven mindset. The impact of poor-quality, unactionable data is felt by internal stakeholders and customers alike. Marketers who commit to improving their data fluidity will see major benefits to their marketing performance and bottom line. Those that don’t will continue to run with the pack – and so will their results.
David Crane is a Marketing Technology Strategist at Integrate, working with marketers to align systems and processes for better performance and measurement. He also helps guide the company’s thought leadership and writes regularly for the Integrate blog. Follow David on Twitter @davidfcrane.
