L'article
The digital transformation of businesses, combined with the rise of generative AI, has placed data at the core of marketing and sales performance.
However, the direct impact of data on revenue also exposes companies to new risks with significant financial and reputational consequences: cyber threats, non-compliance with current regulations, underperformance due to unreliable data, and more. Let’s break it down…
Data, more critical than ever for B2B performance
Data is more central than ever to B2B performance. On one hand, companies are gradually completing their digital transformation, leading to a major shift: digital marketing now reaches the vast majority of target audiences, even in traditionally conservative sectors like industry.
On the other hand, the marketing campaigns that stand out in an age of information overload and constant solicitation are those built on qualified and intent-based databases. Mass approaches are losing their impact, with target audiences becoming increasingly unresponsive, and untargeted email campaigns experiencing declining open rates.
Mass emailing is also facing new restrictions from Google and Yahoo! on bulk sends, directly affecting the deliverability of campaigns that fail to comply with the updated rules (including a reduced spam report threshold, now set at 0.3%).
Generative AI now enables marketers to harness data insights
The most decisive impact on the role of data likely comes from the widespread adoption of AI in businesses.
Historically, B2B marketers and sales professionals have been among the least trained in data analysis. According to Gartner, 51% of them have “well-below-average” data skills.
Now, they can rely on intuitive AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to interpret data and (finally) align their marketing campaigns with a continuous improvement approach.
For instance, AI can instantly identify overperforming segments, detect anomalies in KPIs, and adjust investments in near real-time.
Data, an asset that also exposes B2B companies to major risks
The omnipresence of data in B2B decision-making processes—marketing campaigns, product development, and sales efforts—has introduced a new form of vulnerability for businesses. The more performance depends on the quality and quantity of data, the more critical the consequences of a flawed data strategy become.
This vulnerability manifests in several ways:
The obvious risk of marketing and sales under-performance in the absence of reliable data;
Regulatory non-compliance risk, with financial penalties, can threaten a company’s competitiveness or even its survival. This includes regulations such as the GDPR (fines of up to 4% of global turnover), as well as the Data Act, the Data Governance Act, the NIS 2 directive on cybersecurity, and more.
Cyberthreats, which are skyrocketing in France. In 2023, more than half of French companies (53 %)experienced a successful cyberattack. Decision-makers now consider cyber threats to be “the primary risk to business performance”, according to a global study that includes France.
Reputational risk that comes with any data privacy incident, impacts customer trust and the confidence of other business partners.
Where B2B could historically afford some flexibility in its data governance (since the GDPR does not require opt-in in B2B), the direct impact of data on business performance now demands a structured and rigorous data policy with three key objectives:
Collect and use all the data required for marketing and sales performance;
Ensure and maintain compliance of the Data policy with current regulations;
Protecting yourself against the cyber threat.
Best practice in securing corporate data
Cybersecurity: The essentials for protection
With the digital transformation of businesses, cybersecurity now permeates across the entire organization and can no longer be solely the responsibility of the IT department (or an external service provider).
Employees are the main entry points for cyberattacks: phishing, ransomware through email attachments, connecting to unsecured public Wi-Fi networks (remote work), using personal devices for work (BYOD), and more.
Here are the essentials for protection:
End-to-end encryption of customer and prospect databases. Historically reserved for financial and HR data, this measure has become critical in the face of increasing rebound attacks targeting SMEs to reach their large corporate clients (or suppliers).
The deployment of multi-factor authentication (MFA) across the entire information system, particularly for SaaS solutions such as CRM, Marketing Automation tools, and collaborative platforms.
A robust backup policy with a 3-2-1 strategy: three copies of critical data on two different media, with one copy stored off-site.
A rigorous access control management based on the principle of least privilege: each employee only accesses the data strictly necessary for their role.
Team training: a profitable investment in the face of the threat
The average cost of a data breach in France ($4.8 million in 2024) far outweighs the cost of an ongoing training program for employees. Awareness sessions should cover at least three key areas:
Daily best practices: recognizing fraudulent emails, managing passwords, and following protocols in case of an incident, among others.
Regulatory compliance: understanding the fundamental principles of GDPR, data retention periods, individual rights, and internal procedures to follow.
Ethical and effective data use: leveraging analytics tools, cross-referencing data sources, interpreting KPIs, and best practices for enriching databases.
Short and regular formats (micro-learning) are generally more effective than lengthy training sessions. They help instil good habits over time and quickly adapt to new threats and regulatory changes.
This upskilling of marketing and sales teams in data management also directly enhances business performance: improved use of customer data, more targeted campaigns, and better-managed risks.
A compliance management platform
This type of solution addresses three major challenges: the increasing number of regulations, the complexity of legal obligations, and the duty of care that large companies have toward their third parties (suppliers, subcontractors, service providers, etc.).
Compliance management platforms enable companies to:
Map all sensitive data: identify the type of data collected, the purpose of collection, retention period, sensitivity level, etc.
Automate compliance processes: manage rights requests (access, rectification, deletion), consent management, and breach notifications, among others.
Monitor compliance in real-time: use synthetic dashboards to track gaps and risks, enabling teams to prioritize corrective actions.
Document compliance: including third-party compliance, to meet GDPR requirements such as maintaining a processing register, providing proof of consent, and conducting impact assessments (PIAs).
Leverage an external, GDPR-compliant database
Given the complexity of data challenges (performance, compliance, security), more and more B2B companies are choosing to rely on experts who already maintain a qualified, intent-driven, and GDPR-compliant database. This approach offers several significant advantages:
Time savings: The expert has already undertaken the work of data collection, compliance, and qualification. This allows the company to focus on its core business activities.
Risk reduction: The expert assumes part of the responsibility for data compliance and security. They typically have the necessary certifications in place.
Immediate marketing performance: No need to wait months to build a qualified database. The expert already has intent-driven data on the desired profiles.
Controlled budget: The cost of acquisition through an expert is often lower than an in-house collection strategy, not to mention the investments required in tools and training.
The expert also brings methodological expertise to effectively utilize data, maximizing the ROI of marketing and sales campaigns.
Infopro Data, the leading B2B database in France
Infopro Digital Media offers the B2B database in France featuring 4 million intent-driven contacts.
This proprietary and exclusive database originates entirely from the Infopro Digital ecosystem, encompassing the entirety of the French economy with over 4 million active businesses. It provides data that is:
Immediately actionable;
GDPR Compliant;
Continuously enriched, powered by over one billion behavioural web data points.
Backed by more than 70 industry experts, this unique expertise in France empowers B2B companies to maximize the ROI of their campaigns, enhance their commercial performance, and maintain controlled marketing pressure (limited to two sends per contact per month).