Openprise Publishes 2016 State of B2B Marketing Data Management Report

REDWOOD CITY, CA – (June 14, 2016) – Openprise, the leader in data automation solutions for marketing and sales, today issued its 2016 State of B2B Marketing Data Management Report. Openprise surveyed 183 U.S.-based B2B marketing professionals to identify emerging market trends and best practices for marketing data management. A copy of the report is available at https://go.openprisetech.com/practical-guide-to-B2B-segmentation.html.

The B2B marketing data report takes a look at the data challenges B2B marketers face, how they use data, their sentiments on the effectiveness of data management, and how sales, marketing, and IT teams share data management responsibilities.

Data Management Skills Undervalued

The survey reveals a disparity in how data skills are valued. Just 10% of respondents consider data skills a high priority, yet more than a third believe that data skills (or lack thereof) present a significant barrier to success. This is indicative of how companies realize the importance of data, yet rarely allocate sufficient budget or attention to adequately address the issue. “Over half of the companies surveyed outsource data management. However, many of them depend on manual data management methods via an army of inexpensive offshore labor, and don’t have a good understanding of the price they pay in terms of data quality and the cost of waiting overnight for a potentially hot lead to get processed,” said Allen Pogorzelski, VP of Marketing at Openprise.

Effective Uses of Marketing Data: Advanced Marketing Technologies Still Lagging

Despite the market attention on predictive analytics and Account Based Marketing (ABM), 62% of respondents believe their most effective application of marketing data is still basic campaign targeting, followed by content personalization (51%). This reinforces the notion that some sophisticated marketing technologies haven’t yet gained widespread adoption.

Balancing Goals & Barriers to Data Management

In aggregate, the report highlights the need for deeper investment in data management. Without the requisite data management skills, it’s difficult for survey respondents to achieve their top objectives, including return on investment measurability (72%) and data quality (65%). As organizations better understand how dire the need is to bridge the “data skills” gap, they’re likely to allocate the attention and budget it deserves, either by staffing internally or by engaging an agency with data management expertise.

MarTech Stack a House of Cards Without Solid Data Management Skills

As marketing technologies become increasingly sophisticated, data—the foundation that supports those technologies—holds vital importance. “Without clean data, your MarTech stack is a house of cards,” said Ed King, CEO, Openprise. “This new report offers some great insight into data management, shining a spotlight on this unsung hero in the world of marketing operations, as well as illuminating the various challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for marketing professionals seeking to maximize their MarTech investment.”

Methodology

Openprise’s 2016 State of B2B Marketing Data Management Report is based on an online survey with 183 respondents collected from a pool of more than 100 U.S. based B2B organizations. The survey was conducted in April 2016. Download the full report at https://go.openprisetech.com/practical-guide-to-B2B-segmentation.html.