Cultivated Data Without Green Fingers

A 2019 B2B Marketing Outlook report, launched by Dun & Bradstreet and Adweek, looks at how B2B brand marketers and their agencies are approaching data-driven marketing and advertising. The study also reviews how data can speed up B2B’s longer buying cycle and provide insights into its more complicated customer journey. One key finding is that the „big challenge with data is actually getting to it and using it”. Asked about their top obstacles to data-driven marketing success, a third of marketers pointed to “siloed or inaccessible customer data”.

According to ‘A Complete Guide to Data Driven Marketing’ by PureB2B “Data-driven marketing is about responding to customer needs promptly based on buying behavior and data collected both online and offline.” It can be used for building better relationships, promoting customer loyalty, and improving customer lifetime value.

Marketing needs to be data-driven to be effective. If you know your target user’s behavior, goals and search criteria and then can identify key players in the company you can develop marketing campaigns that cater to their specific needs.

In a Tech Crunch article Bernard Moon defined “cultivated data” as existing data (i.e. ERP data, Google Analytics, public health data, inventory data) that is analyzed and developed into a more usable form than it was before. “This doesn’t have to be the complex data sets using inordinate amounts of computing power that signifies ‘big data’”, he writes „but approaches and techniques to data sets that previously weren’t utilized. Cultivated data isn’t always about volume, variety or velocity of data — it’s more important for the output to be relevant and actionable.” He refers to these trends and developments as „a harbinger that this space will be one of the major gold rushes”.

Some web analytics companies may capitalize on the opportunity by providing gold prospectors with the means to mine. One example is the company Fastbase which takes analytical data from Google search and matches web visitor footprints with data from Fastbase’s comprehensive business database, providing not just data but ‘cultivated data’.

Being able to use first and third-party data effectively can help organizations deliver next-level customer experience. According to Kevin Rodgers (ex-Googler, Head of Global B2B Sales) and now new CEO of Fastbase.“Having a comprehensive data strategy is foundational in today’s business climate. From a digital marketing perspective, first-party data is the most valuable data a company can have. Historically third-party data has been used to help expand your audience and potentially reach new customers but the performance of that data on a CPL/CPA basis is often well behind that of first-party data. What Fastbase has done with their data, and specifically in building the MailAds product, is to offer their customers the ability to use third-party data with a first-party feel to capture more new leads at a cost per comparable to first-party data.”