Fifty-nine percent of database marketers surveyed last month by Forrester report that their budgets were up this year, and 63% expect increases for 2004.
Eric Schmitt, a senior analyst with Forrester, reported these findings during a keynote session Monday at the National Center for Database Marketing conference in San Francisco.
No enterprise coordination of customer contact strategy was cited by 57% of the 49 marketers surveyed as a major pain point, while 45% said a lack of skilled staff and/or available talent was a problem. Getting campaigns out the door fast enough was mentioned by 57% as a headache.
As mass media continues to fragment, said Schmitt, there is a shift towards ‘left brain’ marketing. While creative will always play a part, he continued, marketing will become more science and less art. For example, statistical modeling will become more important than focus groups.
The scope of database marketing is constantly changing, noted Schmitt. In 1995, database initiatives were organized by line of business; today, many are under corporate guidance. Likewise, nine years ago, small groups of power users were most likely involved in the project. In 2004, most database projects have multiple users who are likely less technical.
Programs a decade ago were run on a fixed schedule with fewer segments, he said. Now, most companies run a higher volume of database-driven programs, with greater velocity. Analytics were run in separate environments in 1995; in 2004, inline integration is the order of the day.
Most importantly from a direct marketing perspective, in the mid- 1990s, direct mail and telemarketing were the primary vehicles for database marketing campaigns, Schmitt noted. Today, the scope of such campaigns extends no only to those traditional mediums but to e-mail, inbound call centers, online marketing and, ever increasingly, to television.
NCDM continues through Wednesday.
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