B2B marketers fail to put big data to use

Less than half (42%) of US and Western European senior decision-makers believe their organisations are up to the task of putting big data to use, according to a recent Intershop study.

The survey of 400 B2B decision-makers also found that a huge 85% expect big data to become more important to their roles in the coming 12 months, while 84% said it is already having a positive impact on their business’s operations.

Perhaps this lack of effectiveness is about to change: 54% of senior-level respondents said that the area of big data will be their next big investment.  

Some of the key challenges around big data are cleanliness and disparate sources, with more than half (56%) of executives saying poor data has contributed to lost sales for their businesses. 

There are many motives behind the investment in big data: respondents identified customers as looking for personalisation (42%), post-sale support (40%) and search functionality (29%).