Expert: Changes in data challenging marketers

It's no secret that data is more complex not than it was in 2010, and it's no secret that many marketers continue to struggle with both collecting and compiling data. One expert explains the challenges.

by Kristina Knight

Kristina: How has data changed over the past 5 years?

Jeremy Sokolic, VP of Product Management, Sisense: In the last five years, data has become increasingly complex due to both the amount of data that marketers are dealing with, and the amount of data sources. To paint a picture of how fast data is growing, a startup company today has more data than a Fortune 500 company had five years ago - and it will only continue to grow. The sources of where marketers get their data continues to grow as well. This year, marketing technology influencer Scott Brinker released his annual martech landscape with 3,874 solutions - more than double than just a year ago, and a far cry from the 150 solutions that were included in 2011. The need for marketers to manage data from all of these solutions to reveal a 360-degree view of their customer and prospects, is greater than ever before.

Kristina: Are marketers better equipped to manage customer data now?

Jeremy: Technology advancements and innovation in business intelligence are enabling marketers to manage their data more efficiently and quickly than ever before. While data is becoming more complex and can inundate marketers, they also have access to more advanced tools to help them manage and analyze it. Marketers who are adopting tools that enable them to drive quick, accessible insights from data are better equipped, and are driving increased performance and efficiency from their campaigns. Advanced data discovery business analytics tools today provide the ability for marketers to easily mash up data from a plurality of sources, whether structured or unstructured, and gain deep insights into its meaning the same day. Responsiveness, effectiveness and measurability are key tenants of such modern tools.

Kristina: Are brands doing a good enough job of merging martech data so that they have a good view of their customer base?

Jeremy: Consider all of the channels that go into a retail campaign: marketing funnel, social channels, customer data, lead generation data and so on. To manage campaigns effectively, marketers need to see the whole picture and know what data, from which channels are impacting their campaigns.