Spring is the season for deep cleaning. And since dirty data is useless to marketers, spring is the perfect time to see whether their data management strategies need a little sprucing.
Having a well-organized database is essential to effective decision-making. Poor data can lead marketers to make poor choices. According to the “Marketing Data Management Survey Summary Report,” by Ascend2 and its research partners, 54% of the 183 marketers surveyed say data-driven decision making helps them make more accurate choices, and 27% say it allows them to make more cost-efficient judgments. Keeping their database tidy also allows marketers to polish up traditional tactics. Respondents cite campaign targeting (59%), content personalization (48%), and customer journey analysis (44%) as some of the most effective uses of tidy marketing data.
Conversely, unkempt data can lead to real marketing messes. According to the report, marketers polled say poor data use and accessibility (44%), bad data quality (44%), and disordered integration (40%) are the biggest barriers to data management success.
Keeping databases spick and span doesn’t have to be a chore that marketing does alone. Although 57% of respondents say data management responsibility primarily lies within the marketing department, 36% say it’s an interdepartmental partnership; and 57% of marketers rely on a combination of in-house and outsourced resources to manage their marketing data effectively.
So, grab your Swiffer and dust off those databases. It’s time to tidy up your data management strategies, and you can start by consulting the infographic below.
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