Report: Marketers are Struggling to Leverage Data for Demand Generation

Demand generation remains a critical objective for marketers, but new research indicates that not all are leveraging data to help them achieve their goals.

Ascend2 recently published its “Using Data to Drive Demand” report, and statistics suggested that the majority of marketers (58%) “moderately agree” that demand generation is significantly improved when a data-driven strategy is used. However, 72% of respondents claim that their existing data-driven marketing strategy is only “somewhat successful” at helping them meet demand generation goals.

Measuring results (38%) is the most challenging aspect of leveraging data to drive demand, followed by identifying target audiences (37%). At the moment, most marketers (55%) say that they only “somewhat” have the data they need to make effective decisions on where to spend marketing and sales resources.

Marketers Now Looking to Improve Data Quality

Customer data, in particular, has proven to be useful for marketers. However, previous research suggests that marketers have struggled to leverage this information to make more impactful decisions.

Ascend2 conducted the “Data-Driven Marketing” report, and statistics indicated that most marketers (54%) have only been “somewhat satisfied” with their ability to make effective decisions based on customer data. Approximately 45% would like to improve data quality, and 38% want to use more of their available data.

The majority of respondents (36%) say that customer data is a driving factor in their marketing decision-making “most of the time.” Marketers find it most useful for personalization (42%), email marketing (38%) and content marketing strategizing (36%).