Businesses ramp up investment in data-driven marketing

Around the world, business leaders are taking a greater interest in data quality, as they're realizing the full extent of what they can accomplish when armed with more information about their targeted consumers. If they have comprehensive knowledge of their key demographics, that's a commodity that can easily be monetized and capitalized upon.

Now that corporate professionals - marketers especially - are virtually assured of a high return on their marketing data investments, they're showing a willingness to spend more. There's plenty of data to back this up. Ko Marketing Associates, for instance, recently reported on the results of a notable study showing that quarter by quarter, investment in analytics is on the rise.

The Direct Marketing Association and the Winterberry Group jointly discovered that across the business world collectively, funding for data-driven marketing increased from 38.4 percent of companies' budgets during the first quarter of 2013 to 40 percent during the same period this year. This is only a small incremental nudge, but it appears to be making a significant impact - the researchers believe this spending is leading directly to an uptick in revenue.

"About 45 percent of study respondents reported revenue increases from quarter to quarter," the report stated. "Respondents also remained positive revenues, and profitability will grow going into Q2 2014. Nearly 60 percent expected a rise in these areas, too."

The report speculated that a number of factors are responsible for this increase in spending - most notably, a rise in digital and mobile opportunities for connecting with consumers. More interactions means more data being shared, and this represents a valuable opportunity for companies to capitalize. The DMA projected that in 2014, direct digital marketing campaigns are set to surpass direct mail, and companies are also quickly realizing they can use data enrichment to get more value out of these interactions.