Data-driven marketing spending is on the rise, according to respondents to the Direct Marketing Association’s Quarterly Business Review covering Q1 2013. 38.7% of respondents indicated that their spending increased quarter-over-quarter, with another 41.9% reporting a steady level of spending. On a 5-point scale, where 5 indicates a significant increase in spend from the prior quarter, data-driven marketers averaged out at a score of 3.19, up from 3.1 in Q4 2012 and 3.16 in Q3. In turn, 45.9% enjoyed revenue increases from their activities for the quarter, with another 39.4% indicating that revenues stayed flat.
Armed with these positive results, data-driven marketers are even more optimistic about this quarter: 52.9% expect their efforts to drive revenue increases in Q2, and 36.5% expect revenues to remain at current levels. A significant 7 in 10 believe that data-driven marketing practices are primed for future growth – and they’re putting some weight behind this belief, reporting a growth in staffing for the first time since Q4 2010.
Interest in data-driven marketing is also rising, fueled by technology solutions and data availability. In Q1, respondents indicated that the influence of data availability has grown, indexing it at 3.31 on a 5-point scale, where 5 represents a significant driver of activity. That’s up from 3.1 in Q4 2012. Similarly, respondents indexed the availability of technology at 3.26, up from 3.15 the prior quarter.
About the Data: DMA’s Quarterly Business Review (QBR) for the first quarter of 2013 is published by the Direct Marketing Association, with research and analysis provided by Winterberry Group. Its conclusions are based on results from an online survey of DMA members, deployed in April 2013 and focused respectively on marketers and the marketing service and technology solutions providers that work with them to develop, launch and optimize campaigns. Altogether, DMA received 246 usable survey replies, which included 141 marketer respondents and 105 providers of marketing services and technology solutions.
