Report: Less Than 40% of B2B Marketers Have Advanced Data Strategies

More B2B marketers are investing in data and analytics, but how far have they come in terms of maximizing the potential of these assets?

Radius recently teamed up with the Harvard Business Review to discover how B2B marketers are making the most of their data and analytics. In the “Why Your Data Strategy is Your B2B Growth Strategy” report, one-third of respondents (34 percent) said that their company’s data strategy is just “average.” About 31 percent stated that it was “somewhat advanced,” while 21 percent claimed it was “below average.”

When it came to identifying the key challenges associated with data and analytics, most marketers (55 percent) cited the inability to merge data from disparate sources in a timely manner (data silos). Approximately 33 percent identified a lack of data analytics skills among staff, and 32 percent stated inaccurate, incomplete, or out-of-date data.

“It’s clear that companies want to do better,” wrote the authors of the report. “Sixty-three percent of survey respondents argue that data and analytics will be very influential on their B2B go-to-market activities within the next two years – with 55 percent ranking that either a high or essential priority.”

Marketers Are Committed to Ongoing Investment in Data

Despite the challenges associated with data and analytics, previous research indicates that marketers are still committed to investing in this tactic to see results.

Winterberry Group conducted its “The State of Data 2017” report and found that by the end of 2017, U.S. firms were on pace to invest more than $20.1 billion on third-party audience data and activation solutions.

About $4.3 billion was set to go toward integration, processing and data hygiene by the end of the year.