Now that brands and businesses across the world have migrated to the digital space, marketing has become data-centric. In some ways, marketing was always hinged on data. It’s just that today, there’s more access to a wider range of data online.
In fact, data has completely transformed marketing. In this day and age where there’s rapid transformation, brands have to be agile and respond accordingly.
A study by Google and Greenberg reveals that 61% of people expect brands to create tailor-made experiences beyond generic first-name personalization. In the past, marketing campaigns were launched without assurance that those initiatives would catch on. Nowadays, however, you need metrics to prove the value in your strategies. You need data to ensure that your marketing efforts are precise and impactful enough to generate brand interest and engagement.
Here are some effective ways to use data to improve your marketing:
Contextualize data
More data doesn’t necessarily equate to more knowledge. With technology improving data analytics, companies are also improving their abilities to translate big data into actionable insights. You must be able to sift through a large amount of data to draw insights relevant to your market. Contextualized customer data helps you understand how consumers are engaging with your marketing campaigns, notifying you of touchpoints that need adjustments.
This use of data allows you to learn about what consumers want based on previous initiatives, too. Search engine optimization manager, Brett Downes, says that it’s essential for businesses to be able to map users’ journeys within the ecosystem of the internet. Doing so gives you a good benchmark of where your brand fits into their journey. You can then find out what marketing channels will help you engage your target audience more effectively, whether that is through email marketing, social media, or content marketing.
Enrich existing data
You collect a lot of data. But it's inevitable that there will be some gaps in what you know about your customers. With data enrichment, you can fill in the gaps to learn more about your customers. Data enrichment lets you connect data collected from other places to your first-party data to make your datasets richer, differentiated, and more comprehensive.
By accessing data from external sources in order to fill gaps in customer profiles, you can obtain higher-quality insights and create hyper-targeted marketing campaigns. It can even help you create a full picture of your audiences, including their buying behavior. In turn, this vastly improves conversion rates.
By using alternative data from numerous data sources at once, you can easily expand your understanding of demographic profiles, interests, and behaviors. With Narrative, you can also evaluate aggregated data before purchasing the data points you need based on certain criteria.
Have the right people on your data team
In the current marketing landscape, companies need people who are specifically skilled at reading, measuring, and understanding the continuous changes within the market. You need data analysts who are capable and well trained in data management, data science, visualization, and presentation.
Today, professionals with data analytics degrees have become highly sought-after. They not only monitor data, but also spot patterns and develop insights and recommendations for your organization. Some data professionals even take continuing education and further training to specialize in analytics for digital marketing.
Data analysts can look at patterns in web traffic to determine the best time to post new content. They can also monitor search terms and trends to better optimize a search advertising campaign. The data specialists you need should be able to help you make tactical decisions and answer ad hoc queries based on accurate insights.
Due to heavy digitalization, marketing is now entwined with data analytics. Indeed, improving how you harness data can lead to better marketing strategies. Another point to consider is the method in which data is acquired. Particularly for marketing, timeliness is essential, so it’s important to get data smoothly and conveniently to be able to harness their full potential.
Want to get a leg up on your data-driven marketing strategy? Schedule a call with a member of our team today.