Data-driven marketing spending is on the rise, according to respondents to the Direct Marketing Association’s Quarterly Business Review covering Q1 2013. 38.7% of respondents indicated that their spending increased quarter-over-quarter, with another 41.9% reporting a steady level of spending. On a 5-point scale, where 5 indicates a significant increase in spend from the prior quarter, data-driven marketers averaged out at a score of 3.19, up from 3.1 in Q4 2012 and 3.16 in Q3. In turn, 45.9% enjoyed revenue increases from their activities for the quarter, with another 39.4% indicating that revenues stayed flat.
Armed with these positive results, data-driven marketers are even more optimistic about this quarter: 52.9% expect their efforts to drive revenue increases in Q2, and 36.5% expect revenues to remain at current levels. A significant 7 in 10 believe that data-driven marketing practices are primed for future growth – and they’re putting some weight behind this belief, reporting a growth in staffing for the first time since Q4 2010. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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