Marketers Say They’ll Spend More On Data/Analytics In 2013 [Survey]

More than two-thirds of marketers surveyed say they’re planning to spend more on data in 2013, and more than half percent say they’re planning to hire new employees for data/analytics jobs this year.

That’s according to Data Rich & Insight Poor, a new study from Yesmail Interactive and Infogroup Targeting Solutions. The survey involved just over 700 marketers and was done in October 2012, with questions asking about their plans for dealing with data and analytics in 2013.

In the survey, 68 percent of marketers said they’ll increase data-related spending in 2013. Only three percent plan to decrease such spending.

Some of that spending will come from new hiring. Fifty-six percent of survey respondents said they plan on adding new employees to address data collection or analysis. The specific positions they’re planning to add cover a range of needs, from analytics/strategy to data collection and management.

The survey also found that website analytics, email campaigns and social media have become the primary way marketers generate customer data, while display advertising, direct mail, print and telemarketing aren’t nearly as effective.

Likewise, websites, email and social media are where marketers say they most often using customer data to drive campaigns.

Overall, the survey speaks to the fact that marketers have more data opportunities today than ever about customers and their behavior — data from website analytics, social media and email campaigns and more. And they plan to spend more this year to help make better sense out of all that data.

The full report is available here — contact information is required for the free download. There’s also this infographic that highlights some of the survey findings.