Bad Data Handling Is Holding Marketers Back, Survey Reveals
Poor data handling is costing businesses millions on resources and lost opportunity, with less than a third of CMOs feel the industry has the right skills to deal with customer data privacy, anew surveyrevealed.Lack of skills in data privacy compound the problem and form part of a subset of growing issues to do with a lack of internal capability and capacity.
Silverbullet’s new report Whose data is it anyway? How UK marketers navigate data management as consumer privacy concerns grow, surveyed 100 UK CMOs and a wealth of consumers to uncover the ongoing concernswith brands who use data to provide a service.
It found thathalf of UK CMOs estimate poor data handling skills are costing their business between £250,000 ($USD300,000) and £5 million ($USD6.4m) every year. Alarmingly, only 27% of CMOs say the industry is ‘ahead of the game’ with having the skills needed to deal with customer data privacy.
CMOs are under more pressure than ever before to ‘get it right.’ On one hand, CMOs are under the pump to invest in the right people, resources, and technology to drive Digital Transformation. On the other hand, the pressure is on to keep BAU ticking over and meet both ROI targets and rapid shifts in customer expectations. But in the big scheme of things, there’s no ‘utopian way’ any marketer is really achieving all this, and everyone seems to be looking at each other for the secret sauce.
In the age of GDPR, tighter regulation, Cambridge Analytica scandals, and the ‘crumbling cookie,’ throwing money at the MarTech stack, then ‘worrying about data privacy later,’ simply isn’t going to work. There’s no point in jumping on the MarTech bandwagon, without first getting your ‘data ducks in a row.’ And yet we see this mistake being made by marketers time and time again.
There’s a lot of talk about monetizing data, unlocking its ‘value’ and data being the ‘new oil.’ But despite the hard fact that data can be a highly valuable asset to drive better business decision-making, our survey found over half (55%) of CMOs believe they are tapping into just 40% or less of their first-party data’s potential.
Data Management Platforms (DMPs) and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are a powerful way for marketers to be able to leverage first-party data tounderstand their audiences better and to deliver better, more customized experiences. However, it’s surprising how many marketers still don’t understand what DMPs are, or how they are different to CDPs.
