Dive Brief:

• "How Predictive Marketing Analytics Boost B2B Performance," a report by Forrester Consulting commissioned by EverString, found that B2B marketers who engaged in predictive analytics were 2.9 times more likely to report above average revenue growth.
• Other key findings included 78% of respondents reporting marketing's role has expanded from demand generation to also include deal acceleration
• "Buyers in today's business-to-business markets are more empowered than ever. They self-educate on your products and your competitors' offerings before they even engage with a salesperson, and as a result of this shift in the buyer's journey, the role of the marketer has become much more complex," Jim Walker, vp of marketing at EverString, said in a statement.

Dive Insight:

Big data isn’t worth much before it’s turned into usable information, but where it gets really valuable is when it’s pressed into service for predictive analytics. The Forrester/EverString report highlights how important marketers find predictive analytics by uncovering that 49% of respondents already use predictive marketing and analytics, and 89% have predictive tools in their roadmap for 2016.

"We believe these survey results further validate what we've seen with our customers. There's an insatiable desire to use data to address these complexities and EverString is focused on providing B2B marketers the most advanced data science-as-a-service technology to take advantage of this shift and identify their best customers," Walker said in the same statement.

One example of the analytic martech available is the recently released Blab:Measure, which offers marketers financial and behavioral performance predictions to help develop campaign strategies. The new service takes data from Blab’s predictive social intelligence platform and mixes in behavioral economic modeling to identify aspects of marketing campaigns that impact performance- and financial-based results.

"Brands want to proactively engage their audiences but often stumble when creating and placing content that will be compelling due to reliance on costly consumer surveys, qualitative and quantitative research that once commissioned are largely out of date," Blab CEO Randy Browning said in a statement.

Blab explained to Marketing Dive, "It establishes a baseline from which informed high-level strategy decisions can be made about the allocation of budget and other resources in order to maximize perception of brand as well as identified returns on investment (ROI)."

Looking toward marketing this year, in December Leadspace CEO Doug Bewsher told Marketing Dive, "In 2016, we’ll see more and more companies adopt predictive analytics to find better prospects and drive more pipeline."