• by Jess Nelson , October 12, 2015

Marketers are taking a page from Dell's playbook.

Dell today confirmed the acquisition of EMC for $67 billion -- the largest technology acquisition in history. Dell, a private consumer computer company, will now be an IT solutions provider in the data management and storage industry, capitalizing on the growth of the Big Data market.

Marketers are also capitalizing on opportunities with Big Data. Marketing technology spend is forecast to surpass $32.3 billion by 2018, with a 12.4% compound annual growth rate, according to the IDC.

Much of that money is funneled through email, the leading digital channel with the largest return on investment. Eighty-seven percent of B2B marketers state that email is a top channel for driving leads, according to DemandGen’s 2015 benchmark study.

Yet 59% of B2B marketers note that database management is a top priority for 2015.

One out of five (19.2%) Big Data users state that the quality of data is the biggest problem with their Big Data programs. Almost 40% (38.2%) of all Big Data and analytical applications today are in consumer-facing departments, according to Evans Data Corporation. Marketers are the most common users, and account for 14.4% of Big Data and advanced analytics use.

This is where data scientists come in. A data scientist helps organizations manage data and build complex analytical models based on that data. In email marketing, data scientists can help increase ROI by creating programs that will segment and personalize email content. Consumers are four times more likely to respond to personalized emails, per a recent Silverpop report. 

Almost half (42.1%) of marketing professionals state that more experience or knowledgeable staff could significantly increase the value of data-driven marketing, according to a recent study by Global DMA and Winterberry Group.

Why is data management such a huge priority for email marketers? Marketing data degrades by 3% each moth, according to SiriusDecisions. B2B data decays by over 5% each month, or 70.3% a year, according to Biznology.

The consumer information most likely to change is job/title change (65.8%), followed by phone number (42.9%), permanent address (41.9%), and email (37.3%).

An incorrect email address, and a general lack of updated data, could be huge issues for email marketers and could drastically alter deliverability, open and click rates.

ROI will suffer without database management. Dell knows that — so should email marketers.