From Forbes: 7 Data-Driven Principles Shaping B2B Marketing ROI in 2026

B2B marketers are swimming in data, yet many still struggle to connect that data to measurable business growth. At the same time, the martech landscape continues to expand, with more than 15,000 solutions now available worldwide.

When data lives in silos across customer relationship management (CRM) systems, automation platforms, analytics tools and identity solutions, it creates confusion instead of clarity. As the founder and CEO of a performance marketing agency specializing in B2B2C data, my perspective is that the B2B leaders outperforming peers in ROI aren't collecting more data; they're building smarter, connected ecosystems where insights continuously inform action.

Recently in Forbes, I authored an article that outlined these core data principles that will shape how B2B marketers define and achieve ROI in the year ahead:

1. Audit and reset your marketing data ecosystem.

Before you can improve outcomes, you must first understand your current data reality. According to Ascend2’s 2024 Data-Driven Marketing Survey, just 15% of respondents said their data is completely integrated. Although an increasing number of marketers are focusing on centralizing data and removing silos, the ongoing challenge of turning information into clarity remains significant. 

Unifying data across systems gives organizations a single source of truth that eliminates conflicting records and fragmented customer views. When teams operate from the same accurate, integrated dataset, they are better positioned to spot trends, understand behaviors and make decisions with confidence. Data unification also strengthens collaboration across sales, marketing and operations—reducing friction and enabling faster, more aligned execution.

To get started with data unification, map every platform that stores or touches customer data—your CRM, customer data platform (CDP), marketing-automation platform and analytics stack—and identify redundancies or blind spots. This will be more than just a technical exercise; it will be a full-on operational reset.

2. Integrate for visibility.

Your first ROI breakthrough often doesn’t come from acquiring new data, but from unifying and activating what you already have. Integration turns data fragments into a single, actionable view of your audience. By connecting systems, you eliminate duplicate records, streamline reporting and enable predictive insight across the funnel.

When CRM and automation data align, marketing and sales gain the same visibility into buying signals. Integration also enables performance benchmarking, so you can track which channels or segments drive actual business impact. With this knowledge, marketers are better able to achieve end-to-end visibility, which is widely believed to lead to shorter sales cycles and higher marketing efficiency.

3. Enrich for relevance.

Our agency leaders know from experience that data enrichment ensures campaigns are guided by context and relevance, not guesswork. Integration drives completeness, but enrichment delivers precision. Static data quickly becomes outdated, especially in B2B, where job and company changes are constant. Adding verified contact, firmographic, social, domain or intent data enhances accuracy, reach and ROI.

You can enrich your data by enhancing existing customer or prospect records with new, verified information that provides deeper context—such as updated firmographics, job role changes, digital behaviors or intent signals. Enrichment is typically achieved by matching internal records against high-quality third-party data sources or identity graphs. This process fills gaps, corrects inaccuracies and adds new attributes so that segmentation and targeting are always based on the most current and complete view of your audience.

Go here to read the rest of the article and view all seven principles. We also invite you to connect with our team for guidance on the critical data strategies fueling your 2026 marketing. We’re confident our high-quality data and audience-building services will elevate your marketing ROI. Check out our case studies.