Data Marketing or Data-Driven Marketing is a tool that has revolutionized how customer acquisition and retention are practiced in a modern sense while still managing to leave many small and large businesses behind as they struggle to understand how this tool can work for them and how to harness the power of big data sets without having to undertake extensive training programs, realignment and learning new models. In fact, it is the perceived complexity of data-driven marketing that has stood in the path of a wider spread adoption rather than the inherent difficulty of implementing these strategies themselves.
In short, it looks hard and it sounds harder so companies choose to ignore the benefits in favor of more antiquated ‘tried and true’ methodology, with mixed success. But, truth be told, data-driven marketing is a lot less scary than it looks and a lot more powerful than it gets credit for. If you want to know more about AI Marketing, you can attend Data Marketing Event.
The power behind marketing campaigns lies entirely in their ability to analyze and optimize the customer experience from beginning to end. Utilizing all the data sources available to businesses of any size and combining those to deliver a clear and consistent, preferably dynamic, view of the target customer base can make the difference in conversion and retention in the hundreds of percent. In fact, one company reported that by optimizing their data collection and heeding the answers it provided they achieved a 200% conversion rate increase.
Simply by reading the sheets and understand how to parse that data, the company made itself 200% more profitable. That’s true power and even better, most businesses already have all this data available to them. It doesn’t require a Herculean effort to gather the information needed to create a competitive advantage but it does require the knowledge of what to do with all that information, sitting around cluttering up storage space and hard drives.
Making Marketing Campaigns More Effective
Data-driven marketing makes the difference between an average marketing campaign and a targeted campaign that speaks directly a specific customer segment, identifying their needs, anticipating their response and position itself to provide the solution immediately. The old model of dumping as many leads as possible into the funnel and shaking loose the uninterested, the indifferent and those that have no immediate need for the product is wasteful and according to a large percentage of customers annoying, which decreases brand loyalty and lowers the chances of interaction in the future.
Targeting ads that speak directly to the customers who are interested in buying, right now whether they were aware of it or not is the superpower of data-driven marketing. An effective campaign is one that relies less on what’s going on in the market now and focuses on where the market will be. By leveraging data sets en masse marketers are able to place themselves in the path of incoming trends to maximize exposure and benefit from even the most subtle moves in the marketplace.
Identifying New Customers
When a marketing department isn’t analyzing results, tailoring services and following up on existing customers, they are spending every available minute finding and attracting new customers. Data-driven marketing lowers the hurdle that makes customer acquisition such a time suck.
Utilizing personalized market and demographic segmentation based on advanced AI models and forecasting it’s easier than ever to handpick the ideal audience and drive conversion percentages through the roof. No more wasting time sifting through oceans of irrelevant leads. Leveraging the power of data-backed analytics, businesses of all sizes can find, speak directly to and tailor their services to only the most qualified leads. The resources saved on dead-end campaigns alone make a difference worth justifying the conversion process.
Personalizing customer experience
The real strength of data-driven marketing in an ever-changing market lies in the ability to complete personalized, ideal customer experience from the beginning that dynamically shifts when necessary to take advantage of current trends, to anticipate disruptions in the market and to understand emerging opportunities before they make it to the greatest marketplace.
Personalizing a customer experience per group, based on previous trends and anticipated behaviors gives a company the advantage of tailoring services for the greatest benefit to the customer which increases loyalty over time and establishes authority in a niche quicker and more effectively than previous methods. Data-driven marketing analyzes and delivers only the most key information on every customer that interacts with a business’s web portal, POS, email form and social platform to guarantee the value proposition being presented is one that speaks directly to the needs of each customer at the point of contact.
Increasing Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is perhaps the most sought-after side effect of a positive sales experience. Creating a customer for life is more valuable than a sheet full of potential leads. Data-driven marketing excels at customer loyalty by giving companies an opportunity to understand their client’s needs on a more intimate level. One that goes beyond superficial buying trends and understands what a customer sees, what they want to see, how they perceive their experience and what they expect in the future to continue making purchases at one vendor over another.
Big data allows reports based on birthdates and previous history but also on such nuanced features like time of day, weather reports, hobbies, habits and even cultural information. Having a limitless stream of data to spot trends makes it possible for businesses to pivot as needed to take advantage of opportunities that might otherwise be missed, providing a distinct advantage over the competition with less foresight. This level of personalization helps to build a lasting customer relationship built on providing the right solutions to issues customers face as they arise in real time.
Predicting Future Trends
A real strength of data-driven marketing is anticipating the future. While AI and machine learning may not quite be able to pick winning lotto numbers, they excel at analyzing trends in increasingly granular ways to uncover patterns that extend beyond obscure data sets into a bigger picture that is difficult to see without the benefit of extreme computer power. Data management analysis tools that pull, parse and deliver pertinent details, discarding irrelevant data prevents the resource-intensive task of chasing down false positives.
By comparing a large swath of information from multiple resources data-driven marketing can help determine what trends are widespread, supported and actionable and which are aberrations that require no further attention. This kind of management saves time frees up teams to focus where their energy can make a difference and most importantly allows a business to pivot into positions that are most likely to deliver the desired results.
Measuring Campaign Results
Data-driven marketing doesn’t stop at anticipation. Marketing campaigns rely on feedback and big data pools allow for a thorough investigation into what is working and more importantly what isn’t. Identifying at the most specific levels where campaigns are finding traction provides the opportunity to refocus efforts and eliminate wasted time and resources that refine and improve a campaign literally in minutes. The result is a digital strategy that can coalesce several data sources into a single omnichannel web marketing platform that can turn data exploitation into an actionable plan for obtaining more customers, identifying weak points in current plans and putting the entire automation to work improving on itself dynamically.
Data-driven marketing may seem like a scary proposition for businesses, especially small businesses that have little time or training available to make the conversion but chances are the infrastructure is already in place. Most companies have tons of data at their disposal with no system in place to take advantage of that resource. Leaving it to expire without taking action is leaving money on the table. Two thirds of marketers readily admit that utilizing data-driven market tools increases ROI and makes their jobs more effective. This reduction in effort for results is a net win for any company and the increased level of customer loyalty that results from a well-targeted campaign can continue to pay dividends for years. Data sets tend to scale, meaning small companies can begin parsing information with relatively little cost and greater ease while larger companies likely already have the teams in place to take advantage of their data, lacking only the basic structure to begin doing so.