New Research Shows Five-Year High in Reported Sales Revenue, Marketing Expenditure Growth
NEW YORK CITY (PRWEB) February 08, 2018 -- In the newly-released Data & Marketing Association (DMA) Business Report, U.S. marketers reported the highest levels of sales revenue growth since 2011. This was reported alongside equally significant increases in data-driven marketing expenditures, which grew at the highest rate in 5 years. The survey, conducted by Winterberry Group in January 2018, also found that over 70% of marketers say investments are driven by customer expectations of more personalized and relevant brand interactions.
“Marketers are hearing directly from their customers about the importance of personalization and relevant messages,” said Neil O’Keefe, DMA’s SVP of Content & Marketing. “Utilizing data to deliver a positive customer experience has now become a foundation of marketing, and it’s clear that businesses are making the investments needed to tackle that personalization challenge. Continued efforts to learn and collaborate across the data and marketing industry will only raise the bar further for relevant, informed marketing and advertising.”
”For many years, marketers have advocated for the delivery of better customer experiences as a means of building better, more profitable relationships,” added Jonathan Margulies, a managing director at Winterberry Group. “Now, we can clearly see that the relationship between ‘experience’ and growth is more than just theoretical. Data-driven marketers are seeing their performance accelerate at precisely the same time they are placing new emphasis on personalization and recognition as the underpinnings of their customer engagement strategies.”
DMA’s Business Report reinforces that customer experience is emerging as a key business priority, not just a marketing action item. Over three quarters of respondents (76.6 percent) said “elevating the customer experience” is a key business priority for their organization, with 57 percent calling it a “top” priority.
Notably, marketers grew investments in all addressable media, including traditional and digital channels. Web content continued to capture the most pronounced expenditure growth, reflecting marketers’ drive to prioritize the development and delivery of enhanced experiences for their customers.
Survey respondents also say that data management, personalization and content represent the three most critical components to delivering a best-in-class customer experience. Next week, DMA (in partnership with IAB and Winterberry Group) will release “The Data-Centric Organization 2018,” a refresh of a 2016 survey by the same name, which further explores the challenges and opportunities U.S. marketers and publishers are encountering in their efforts to become “data-centric” across all facets of their interactions.
About DMA’s Business Report
The Data & Marketing Association Business Report is published biannually by the Data & Marketing Association, with research and analysis provided by Winterberry Group, a New York-based strategic consulting firm serving the advertising, marketing services, media and information industries. Its conclusions are based on results from an online survey of DMA members, deployed in January 2018. BBR survey data is comprised of the responses of 455 survey respondents, including 156 marketers and 215 marketing services (including agency services) and technology providers.
About Winterberry Group
Winterberry Group is a unique strategic consulting firm that supports the growth of advertising, marketing, media, information and technology organizations. Affiliated with Petsky Prunier LLC—a leading investment bank providing merger and acquisition advisory services to companies in the same sectors—the Firm offers its clients strategic perspective that is unparalleled in its addressable industries, while PPLLC maintains exceptional relationships with industry executives and business owners. This combination of market intelligence, research and strategic operating experience provides an educated outside perspective that we bring to each engagement. For more information, please visit http://www.winterberrygroup.com.
About DMA (http://www.thedma.org):
Founded in 1917 and driving the data and marketing agenda for a full century, the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) champions deeper consumer engagement and business value through the innovative and responsible use of data-driven marketing. DMA’s brand-leading membership is made up of over 1,400 organizations that are today’s innovative tech and data firms, marketers, agencies, service providers and media companies. By representing the entire marketing ecosystem—demand side and supply side—and engaging more than 100,000 industry professionals annually, DMA is uniquely positioned to convene and guide the industry to bring win/win solutions to the market, and ensure that innovative and disruptive marketing technology and techniques can be quickly applied for ROI.
DMA advances the data-driven marketing industry and serves its members through four principal pillars of leadership: advocating for marketers’ ability to responsibly gather and refine detailed data to identify and fulfill customer needs and interests; innovating to bring solutions forward to the data & marketing ecosystem’s most vexing challenges; educating today’s members of the data & marketing ecosystem to grow and lead marketing organizations in the ever-increasing omnichannel world; and connecting industry participants to stay current, learn best practices and gain access to emerging solutions through &THEN – the largest global event for data-driven marketing – and DMA’s portfolio of other live events.
Mike Uehlein, DMA, http://thedma.org, +1 (202) 861-2441, [email protected]
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