Over the past fifty years, B2B marketing has seen some game-changing innovations: cold calling, the rise of the internet, and the accessibility of data. While the first two are pretty much accepted and used everywhere, let’s talk a bit more about the last one.
Consider this: each person on this planet churns out 1.7 MB of data every single second. That’s like storing 850 pages of a book every second! The sheer amount of information people willingly share online holds enormous, mostly untapped potential for B2B organizations.
When companies have the right data at their fingertips, they can hit the mark with their audience, refine their marketing and sales strategies, and make big improvements across the board. The key to achieving this lies in accessing high-quality data, which comes in two forms: static and dynamic.
While we’re familiar with static data in the B2B world, dynamic data is a bit newer on the scene. To figure out which one is the real game-changer for modern marketers, let’s break down what each of these data types brings to the table.
Table of Contents
What is Static Data?
Static data refers to information that remains unchanged over time and is stored in its original recorded format. Essentially, it encompasses data collected at a specific point in the past, which may not necessarily reflect current conditions. While static data can be manually updated for increased accuracy, its overall format remains consistent.
If we’re talking about the B2B sector, examples of static data include annual reports, company research, presentations, and similar sources. These repositories contain a wealth of insights that can enhance business operations. However, once static data is published, its relevance diminishes over time unless someone is tasked with manually updating it.
What is Dynamic Data?
Dynamic data functions as a live stream of information that updates automatically, providing the latest insights in real-time. When changes occur, the entire dataset refreshes, ensuring you’re always working with the most current information. This ensures that your decision-making is based on fresh insights, leading to smoother business operations.
For example, Google Analytics delivers up-to-the-minute insights into website traffic, offering real-time visibility into ongoing activity. Similarly, certain customer relationship management tools (CRMs) support dynamic data collection, keeping you informed with immediate, relevant information for your marketing efforts.
Statics vs. Dynamic Data in B2B: Breaking Down the Differences
In comparing static and dynamic B2B data, they usually cover similar details about prospects: names, emails, phone numbers, job titles, company sizes, and industries. But when it comes to how they gather info, that’s where they differ:
1. Data Collection Types
The big difference is in their approach to information. Static data sticks to fixed facts, while dynamic data grabs evolving details. You can try keeping static data up to date, but once you hit refresh, it’s already behind the curve.
2. Data Collection Approaches
When it comes to gathering audience data, static data collection is often seen as straightforward; it’s typically done manually by team members or external services. You gather information from sources like LinkedIn profiles or company websites, jotting down important details in a central database. Once you’ve gathered enough, you analyze it to inform decision-making.
On the other hand, dynamic data collection is automated. Because B2B marketing involves ongoing tasks beyond just gathering data, relying solely on manual updates isn’t always practical. Dynamic data is usually gathered using CRMs or specialized sales software that can adapt over time. Once set up, it runs on its own, needing little attention for ongoing data collection.
3. The Essence of Data Collection
Static data acts like your reliable history book, helping you analyze past events that still impact today’s business decisions. For example, it’s useful for understanding which leads from last quarter performed the best and which channels were most effective.
On the other hand, dynamic data serves as your problem-solving companion. With its ability to reflect changes in real-time, it’s perfect for addressing present-day challenges. Whether you need to decide who to contact next or which outreach channel to use in a specific industry, dynamic data provides immediate answers to your daily questions.
Static vs. Dynamic Data Structure: Understanding How Information is Handled
When it comes to storing and utilizing collected information, the data structure plays a crucial role. It can either be rigidly fixed or incredibly flexible, depending on what works best for your business.
With static data structure, simplicity is key. It’s typically straightforward, with a set number of columns and rows determined by your team. The dataset size stays the same even after updates. When dealing with static data, researchers usually have a clear idea of how much information they need to sift through, whether it’s pages, LinkedIn profiles, or cases, and the types of data they’re looking for.
On the flip side, dynamic data structure is all about adaptability. The number of data points to collect can vary, and the structure needs to be flexible enough to accommodate this. Dynamic data structures adjust in real-time to reflect the latest changes. They can grow as more information is added and shrink when certain inputs become outdated.
Why Dynamic Data Prevails in B2B Marketing
While static data collection is still common practice, dynamic data emerges as the future of marketing and sales operations. In the static vs. dynamic data debate in B2B marketing, the latter takes the lead for several compelling reasons. Here are some of the most significant ones:
1. Real-Time Access to High-Quality Data
The quality of data is crucial for the success of any data-driven marketing strategy. Incorrect information can lead to losing customers, running ineffective outreach campaigns, and damaging your reputation.
According to research from Harvard Business Review, nearly half of all data records contain at least one critical error, with only a small fraction meeting acceptable standards. This highlights the difficulty of maintaining high-quality data.
Static data, often collected manually, is prone to human errors, making it challenging to ensure accuracy. Furthermore, maintaining data hygiene requires continuously updating the database to remove outdated information. Imagine managing a lead list of 10,000 contacts, it would be a time-consuming task with static data, whereas dynamic data automates this process for you, ensuring your data is always up to date.
2. Evolving ICPs
When it comes to B2B lead generation, hitting the mark with relevant ideal customer profiles (ICP) is key. As industries shift, people switch roles, and businesses tackle new challenges, your data needs to keep pace with these changes. Dynamic data offers a complete picture, allowing you to adjust your ICP based on the latest developments. With static data, you’re essentially targeting the ICP of the past, while dynamic data empowers you to focus on the ICP of today.
3. Strengthened Collaboration Between Sales & Marketing Teams
Sales and marketing teams both aim for the same goal: boosting conversion rates. Marketo suggests that when these teams align better, it can lead to a remarkable increase in revenue—up to 209%—and a significant boost in conversions by 67%.
With static data, information tends to be siloed within different departments, leading to fragmented approaches. However, dynamic data changes the game by providing both teams access to the same updated dataset in real-time. This fosters smoother communication and collaboration between teams, ultimately enhancing alignment and driving better results.
Conclusion
Even though dynamic data offers clear advantages over static data, many B2B companies still cling to the latter. However, in today’s fast-paced business world, static data simply can’t keep up. The significant transformations businesses have experienced in recent years demand access to timely insights to fuel informed, data-driven decisions.
By adopting dynamic data, you can revolutionize your sales operations and empower your team to achieve better results faster than ever before. Don’t let outdated data hold your campaigns back. Reach out to us at [email protected] for high-quality B2B data that will supercharge your campaign efforts and drive unparalleled success.
