Data is at the core of direct marketing. At least it should be. According to a study by CEB, marketers use data for a mere 11% of customer-related decisions. And IBM's “State of Marketing 2012” study found that 51% of marketers surveyed aren't using available social data when making decisions about offers and messaging. In the same survey, less than 20% of respondents said they use online data to determine what promotions to offer via traditional channels.
But as marketers work to improve their use of data, they're faced with such ongoing challenges as data integration, quality, and scope. As important as understanding and harnessing Big Data may be, it has become such a distraction for some marketers that there's potential to overlook other significant data-related issues.
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