94% of B2B Companies See Sales and Marketing Improve from Data Quality Investments

Data and analytics have made it easier for marketers to target customers and prospects, and new research shows that B2B organizations remain dedicated to utilizing this information at their fingertips.

Dun and Bradstreet recently published its “7th Annual B2B Marketing Data Report,” and statistics showed that 100% of the B2B companies that increased their investment in data quality saw overall performance gains. About 94% reported that their sales and marketing performance has improved as well.

Out of the companies that decreased their investment in data quality, 100% saw no improvement in sales or marketing performance, and 75% actually saw a decline.

For the remainder of the year, 18% of B2B organizations “strongly” expect to increase their investment in data and analytics. About 75% predict an increase in some respect, with only 1% stating that they predict their investment will decrease.

Maintaining Marketing Data and Analytics

Despite the continued investment in data and analytics, marketers are still having trouble maintaining the accuracy of this information, according to previous research.

Experian released its “2020 Global Data Management Research” report, which showed that marketers believe 28% of their current customer/prospect data is inaccurate in some way. Only 51% of respondents said the current state of their CRM/ERP data is clean and leverageable.

“That level of inaccuracy affects the organization in a broad number of ways,” wrote the authors of the report. “Organizations see traditional issues like wasted resources and an inability to rely on analytics. However, it also affects the organization in terms of its key initiatives. Poor data negatively impacts the customer experience and the success of new data-driven programs.”