Despite the drastic shift the internet has caused in the marketing industry, most marketers still use traditional offline data in their offer decisioning, according to [pdf] a new study from marketing technology provider Unica.
75% of Marketers Use Offline Data
Seventy-five percent of respondents currently or plan to use offline data when making decisions about marketing offers. Another 15% do not or have no plans to use offline data, and 10% don’t know.
Marketers Integrate Offline, Online Data
Rather than viewing offline and online data as competing or incompatible information streams, marketers are using them in a complementary fashion. When asked in which channel(s) they are using or plan to use offline data to make decisions, the highest percentage of respondents (72%) said email.
Another 9% plan to use offline data in making decisions about their email offers in the next 12 months, and 3% plan to use it beyond the next 12 months. Only 3% of respondents have no plans to integrate offline data with email offers, and 2% don’t know or aren’t sure.
The second-most-popular channel for offline data usage, direct mail, had similar response rates to email. Seventy percent of respondents currently use offline data in making decisions about direct mail offers, with 9% planning to use it in the next 12 months and 7% planning to use it beyond the next 12 months. Two percent of respondents have no plans to use offline data in making decisions about direct mail and 3% don’t know or aren’t sure.
Onsite personalized web offers are the third-most-popular marketing channel where marketers integrate offline data in decision-making, with the partially offline call center/customer support channel coming in fourth with slightly lower current and planned usage figures.
Only 22% of respondents currently use offline data in making decisions about mobile marketing offers, the least-popular channel. Another 21% expect to use offline data in this channel in the next 12 months and 17% plan to use it beyond the next 12 months, However, almost one-fifth (18%) of respondents have no plans to use offline data in making decisions about mobile marketing offers. The relative newness of the mobile channel may be partially to blame for these figures.
Online Data Usage Figures are Virtually Identical
In another sign marketers see online and offline data as complementary sources of information for their marketing offer decisions, responses to questions about online data usage in offer decision-making in the same Unica survey are virtually identical. Seventy-five percent of respondents currently or plan to use online data. In addition, usage rates of online data to aid decision-making in the five major marketing channels are almost the same for each channel, with the channels ranked in the same order for both data streams.
About the Survey: The Unica Global Marketing Survey was fielded to more than 150 online and direct marketing professionals in partnership with Salloway & Associates. Online surveys were completed in Q4 2009 within two geographic regions among Unica customers and prospective customers. North America represents respondents from the US and Canada. Europe represents respondents from 12 European countries that are large technology markets.
