Technology Works Better With the Right Balance of Data and People

As a product management professional, I’m obviously focused on delivering great products. But after more than a decade using and managing technology and data products, I see the big picture of where they fit into a successful marketing plan and what companies need to do to get the most out of these important investments. 

In the race to deliver excellent digital marketing experiences, many companies have invested in data and technology, including AI, CDPs, marketing automation, and data-driven targeting. Data and technology can only get marketers so far if they are not maximizing their value with the right balance of human expertise, and too often, this critical element doesn’t make it on to the budget.

A recent study by the Content Marketing Institute illustrates the issue. In the study, an incredible 24 percent don’t have anyone dedicated to content marketing, not even an external consultant, yet they all have content marketing technology. That’s an expensive product investment that is not being well leveraged.

Despite this obvious lack of human capital to manage the products that marketers are paying for, many marketers are focused on finding better tech, rather than finding a way to better use the tech they have by hiring an expert or working with consultants. The same study finds that only 28 percent of marketers think they have the right technology, while many who do say they have the right technology aren’t using it effectively. With the majority of marketers looking to make technology changes in 2025, there is a big risk that they end up buying something new without the people power to get value out of it.

Budgeting for People Power

Forrester reports that many B2B marketers will have a tight budget in 2025, with only a third claiming that their budgets will increase by 5 percent or more. Although the report offers plenty of good advice about focusing on customer needs, there is another way that B2B marketers can improve their outputs as they put together their 2025 plan—focus on getting more out of the data and tech they’re investing in by tapping into people power.

For 2025, marketers should start the planning process by assessing what they want to do and then building a budget that maximizes the value of tech and data products. One way to build out this plan is to look not only at what marketers want to do, but what it will take to get there, manage and maintain, and measure results. These steps will expose the areas that need budgets earmarked for services such as technology integrations, data cleansing, campaign management, and analytics.

Here are some of the places where budgeting for people power delivers the greatest increases in performance:

Integration. When marketers invest in new technology, they also need to invest in a ramp-up phase to integrate that technology with their entire tech stack. This may require custom integrations as well as work to ensure data flows back and forth properly and reporting works accurately. This is a critical step that can make or break how effective a new technology is at delivering on its promise. For example, a triggered marketing tool won’t be able to reach people at the right time if it doesn’t have access to real-time behavioral data. Budgeting in the work needed to get the technology up and running correctly will deliver dividends in 2025.

Data hygiene. Too many companies build a data-driven marketing strategy on low-quality data. As a first step, marketers should budget for someone either internal or external with the expertise to clean and curate data. Data gets old, partnerships evolve, and datasets need to be merged and compared in different ways over time. A good test is to query the data and see what kind of information comes back. If it’s not logical and there are not logical conclusions in the data, then it’s time to make improvements. If that’s too difficult to do with internal resources, many consultancies and companies will run a test on data, and they’ll analyze it and report if it’s in good shape. 

Campaign execution. Buying new technology without investing in people to use it is like buying a car that no one will drive. It’s a waste. Marketers are better off sticking with the technology they have and investing in people to actually use it well than buying something that no one will be focused on.

Analytical models. Out-of-the-box models work for some small, simple businesses but most companies need something custom. Many systems like CDPs and marketing automation systems have some level of baked-in analytics including charts that show what lift they are predicting, but those charts are useless if the model isn’t accurately reflecting the company’s business. Again, it’s beneficial to have an expert test the models against certain hypotheses such as an expectation of some specific ROI or improvement over time. If it’s not possible to gather the right insight, marketers either need to better clean up their data or build more accurate models. Especially for businesses in a niche space with narrow hard to define customers, like a dentist that also owns their own practice, it’s worth the investment in building additional signals where an off-the-shelf solution doesn't offer it. 

Building dashboards. A lot of dashboards out of the box simply don’t report on the KPIs that matter most for marketers in a specialized industry. Business intelligence platforms can help for an extra fee or marketers can hire someone to come in an build dashboards to get more accurate picture of business

Right-Sizing for the Organization You Are

B2B marketers can also get more out of their 2025 budgets if they optimize for the business they have, not the one that’s featured in articles and case studies. A small business with only a few products and limited customers does not need a CDP or a CRM system; Excel is just fine. A midsize business might invest in a CDP and marketing automation, but not have the scale that necessitates AI-based modeling and dedicated data intelligence. Enterprises likely need all of these things. All three types of companies must prioritize balancing human expertise with data and tech investments to ensure they get the most from their unique marketing stack. After all, if marketers plan on investing in expensive products in 2025, they should get the most out of them.

Anna Nielsen is director of product management at Anteriad.