In a world tainted with spammy, impersonal outreach, B2B practitioners are recognizing the importance of 1:1 connections and building the foundation needed to generate and fuel account- and contact-level insights. According to the "2023 Database Strategies & Contact Acquisition Benchmark Survey," 69% of practitioners plan to increase their investment in their database strategies as they look ahead into 2023. And even more promising? They're allocating a higher percentage of their overall budget to refining database information, too.
While last year's survey found that more than half (51%) of respondents were only increasing investment by up to 10% in 2022, more than two-thirds indicated that they're slightly or greatly increasing the budget in 2023. With a plan in place, the specific areas of growth practitioners are targeting include:
Growing their database to add as many new contacts as possible (65%);
Targeting specific segments for better engagement (56%);
Collecting prospective buyer behavior data to boost engagement and messaging (45%);
Reaching total addressable market in defined sectors (41%); and
Identifying key stakeholders within target accounts (35%).
The projections for 2023 represent a marked shift from a purely retention-focused mindset to a balance of retention and acquisition, as practitioner's No. 1 priority in 2022 was generating better engagement. With 69% of marketers planning to increase their investment in database strategies, the 2023 survey report will further highlight the emphasis on improving and refining first-party data collection processes, with a focus on the strategies and guidelines practitioners are putting into place.
