Study: As Data Volume Increases, So Does Data Pollution

DALLAS — September 9, 2019 — According to a new commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Infogroup, the average amount of marketing dollars spent on customer data and analytics has nearly doubled over the past two years. Yet over two-thirds of sales and marketing professionals claim that they experience challenges in all four stages of the data process: collecting the right types of data, compiling and organizing collected data, analyzing data and finding meaningful insights and turning data insights into effective activation.

The study, which took place in April 2019, surveyed 300 customer data/analytics decision makers in the U.S. Respondents indicated that two years ago their data and analytics programs accounted for an average of 9% of their overall marketing budgets. Today, that number has risen to 16%, and it is expected to rise to 22% within the next two years. However, 90% have had marketing campaigns negatively affected by poor or polluted data in the past two years, leading them to see decreases in both revenue and customer engagement.
The study uncovered the top five elements of data pollution:

• Poor data quality, which can create data contamination and consistency issues
• Inadequate data fluency, that largely stems from lack of the right internal resources and technology
• Ineffective data management, which may come from unconnected sources throughout the marketing ecosystem
• Inaccurate data, that goes hand in hand with poor data quality
• An ineffective data culture, trying to change the current organization into a data driven one

“Companies understand the importance of data and are investing accordingly,” said Infogroup Chairman and CEO, Michael Iaccarino. “But firms are struggling to sift good data from bad and meaningful insights from white noise. Whether it’s gathering data, analyzing it, or acting on its insights, companies need to address these challenges if they want to thrive in the Age of Data.”

A free copy of the full study, “Marketers Need to Confront the Inconvenient Truth of Data Pollution,” is available at this link: http://bit.ly/305JmUh

About Infogroup

Infogroup is a leading provider of data and data-driven marketing solutions for salespeople, marketers, and professionals. The company’s solutions are powered by its proprietary business and consumer databases and supplemented by client and 3rd party data. Clients range from Fortune 500 enterprises and local businesses, to not-for-profit and political organizations. Infogroup’s cloud-based Data Axle technology allows for real-time updates to its business and consumer data files, and also provides clients with a real-time API delivery platform for the most accurate and up-to-date information to support their marketing and business needs. Infogroup has 45+ years of history creating its own data and makes 24+ million verification calls per year to ensure data quality. For more information, visit www.infogroup.com.