By: Melis Ertem, MMA’s Managing Director MENAT

A decade ago, McKinsey Global Institute called Big Data “The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity”. Since then, the role of data in business has evolved; elevating decision-making, deepening customer understanding and enhancing operational efficiency.

Data maturity is a vital measurement for business. It gauges how advanced a company is at analysing statistical information. With that, comes a sliding scale of adoptoption across the marketing industry. A high level of data maturity signifies a deep integration with data playing a part in every organisational decision often resulting in increased revenue, efficiency and supercharged growth.

What are the benefits of improving organisational data maturity? And what are the challenges marketers are facing?

The power of data for ROI, measurement & attribution

By leveraging data, marketers can make effective decisions, quicker. On a large scale, data collection and analysis, combined with real-time data monitoring increases customer engagement.

Insights from the latest UAE Data Maturity Map from the MMA showed that companies across the UAE are experiencing increased marketing productivity by leveraging data sets. Almost two-thirds of organisations reported “seeing lift in marketing productivity by leveraging data”.

However, the report also showed that “measurement and attribution are challenged and not always continuous or validated”. It’s clear that the process is not always straight-forward, as demonstrated by nearly one-quarter of respondents lacking the tools to measure marketing data efficiency.

The data challenges facing marketers

Handling organisational data remains a barrier for marketers, these include data silos, inconsistent data quality and privacy concerns.

Melis Ertem, Regional Director Turkey & MENA at MMA Global states, “Marketers still face challenges in accessing and using data effectively. There’s a noticeable focus on building first-party data, showing an increased awareness of its value. However, progress in integrating data can be slow, making it difficult to centralise and share data across the organisation.”

Setting up for success

In order to leverage the power of data, marketers must invest in analytics tools. Around 50% of businesses surveyed as part of the UAE Data Maturity Map reported to be actively acquiring marketing technology to support their data strategy. Of the respondents, 38% have already invested in first-class marketing technology, a statistic that is set to increase over the next 12 months.

Understanding the power of data maturity

For marketers, achieving data maturity is a transformational journey. By strategically addressing challenges, embracing advanced technologies and fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making, marketers can leverage the power of data for organisational growth.