Data has become the most valuable commodity in the world, outranking oil. However, having the most data does not guarantee success. Data needs to be processed into meaningful information that enables organizations to generate the most revenue possible and improve customer satisfaction.

Here are 5 ways Data is changing B2B Marketing, and how you can make data work for your own organization:

1. Improved Targeting. Marketing campaigns are the lifeblood of B2B companies, and having more data attributes attached to contact information, individual or group, improves the quality of marketing campaigns. This enables organizations to spend less on their campaign operations by focusing on a more specific demographic with better response rates rather than casting a wide net with subpar response rates.
2. Personalized Marketing. In relation to Improved Targeting, campaigns can now be better catered to target demographics. With improved profile data, you can offer different content for the same product to an Application Developer and a System Administrator. Likewise, the same product can be marketed to different job levels with differing point of view. This gives you the opportunity to market not just to decision makers, but to administrators, enablers, influencers, and users.

3. Data Science. Inasmuch as analytics can help you identify trends within your historical data, data science can help you identify trends BEFORE they happen. Using machine learning and behavior analysis, data can help determine an organization’s buying cycle, their intent towards a specific technology, or the type of content that will most likely engage its members. And with intent scoring, the capability to rank these organizations and individuals with full intent or just passing interest can be made possible.
4. Multilayered Intent. Companies have been tracking prospect behavior for a while now. The next frontier would be to take single points of behavior and determine relationships with other points of behavior across organizations depending on products and creating a network of relationships with which patterns and tendencies can emerge. Using graph theory, we can map these relationships and determine intent not just on an individual level but also on a group level. Organizational intent is much more meaningful than an individual one, since it shows that interest for a product is high on an enterprise level.

5. Unstructured Data. In this age of Big Data, we have more variety of data being generated at a velocity that is constantly increasing in speed. Streaming data will become the norm in the next few years, eliminating batch processing and allowing for near real-time data analysis. Marketing campaigns must be generated at faster intervals, thereby shortening campaign periods. Nevertheless, this speed will provide opportunities for campaign automation and intelligent marketing.

All told, changes will be the constant if organizations need data about their customers and prospects.  And the demand for data will only grow larger as the world becomes more connected. In the end, success in B2B marketing will be judged by whoever maximizes, enriches and correctly uses the data they possess.