ON24 Survey Finds B2B Marketers Plan to Double Down on Analytics in 2015

SAN FRANCISCO, March 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ON24, the global leader in webinar marketing solutions that drive demand generation and customer engagement, today announced the results of its new survey of B2B marketers. It finds that enterprises and SMBs alike are driving business value from implementing analytics and are planning to increase their investment in these tools in 2015. Specifically, the results demonstrate that an overwhelming 97 percent of marketers find that using analytics has made their businesses more successful, and 87 percent of the participants said they plan to increase their spend in marketing analytics this year.

The survey, commissioned by ON24, shines a light on the growing need for marketers to incorporate analytics into all of their marketing campaigns. Sixty-five percent of respondents claim they have just the right amount of data to be useful. Conversely, big data still remains largely elusive, with 77 percent noting that it remains a promise, not a reality. These responses indicate that marketers are relying more on bite-sized, manageable chunks of "small data," steering away from the overhyped big data movement and instead focusing on the smaller sets of data they know they can use.

"As marketers continue to rely on increasingly sophisticated tools, the integral role of data on all facets of marketing becomes more evident," said Ken Robinson, chief marketing officer for ON24. "The results of our latest survey underscore the opportunity for all marketers to tap into the data available to them for enhanced lead generation programs that positively impact their bottom line."

In addition to analyzing overall usage of marketing analytics, the study also looked at ways marketers are using data and what the priorities are in marketing technology investments.  

Use of marketing analytics

• Ninety-seven percent of respondents believe that using marketing analytics has made their business more successful
• The vast majority of respondents (87 percent) plan to increase their investment in marketing analytics
• Forty percent of enterprise respondents always see tangible results from marketing analytics, compared to 24 percent for SMBs
• The majority of the respondents (56 percent) say that marketing analytics tools enable them to make more strategic decisions

How marketers are using data

• Webcasts deliver higher-quality customer data than email marketing or social media (35 percent compared to 31 percent for email marketing and 31 percent for social media)
• Seventy-seven percent of respondents said that big data remains a promise, not a reality, but most (65 percent) said they have just the right amount of data to be useful
• SMBs rely less on hard data (31 percent) than their enterprise counterparts (48 percent) when making key decisions, turning instead to intuition and past experience
• Eighty-six percent of marketers are able to measure how customers are interacting with their content

Priorities in marketing technology investments

• Marketers are less concerned with getting the most sophisticated technology (36 percent) and more focused on getting easy-to-understand data (60 percent) and a solution that is easy to implement and use (53 percent)

Additional conclusions
The survey results indicate that B2B marketers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their utilization of marketing technology. Whether the goal is making more strategic decisions, monitoring performance, improving lead generation or raising overall company awareness, analytics are informing the decisions today's data-driven marketer makes.

Marketing technology platforms such as ON24's provide valuable analytics and are often integrated with marketing automation and CRM solutions to significantly improve lead qualification. Businesses of all sizes have the opportunity to use this data to increase marketing results, helping to level the playing field for marketers with fewer resources or smaller budgets.

Survey methodology
The survey was commissioned and designed by ON24 and carried out by Redshift Research. The research objective was to measure respondents' usage, behavior and attitudes about marketing analytics. The research was conducted using an email invitation and an online survey, among 221 U.S.-based B2B marketers who have had prior experience with marketing analytics.

About ON24, Inc.

ON24 is the global leader in webinar marketing solutions that drive demand generation and customer engagement. Its patented cloud-based platform features an interactive and immersive user interface and industry-leading webinar analytics for events, campaigns and benchmarking. Providing one-click access from any device, ON24's award-winning solutions are integrated with leading CRM and marketing automation platforms, enabling marketers to optimize demand generation, enhance lead qualification and accelerate sales pipeline opportunities.

Additional applications for the ON24 product portfolio include virtual training, talent development and town hall meetings. More than 1,000 enterprises of all sizes rely on ON24, including IBM, CA Technologies, Merck, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Credit Suisse and SAP. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit http://www.on24.com.

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SOURCE ON24

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