The data driven marketing represents the latest evolution in the way marketers make decisions and manage our campaigns. Marketing today relies more and more on data analysis and less on experience and intuition. We can know what consumers really care about and predict how they will act more accurately than ever. It’s the age of data marketing , and here’s how it works.
What is and what is not data-driven marketing
The data driven marketing or marketing data is a metología part of the analysis of massive data on consumers to obtain insights to facilitate decision-making.
Collectively, we call this data “big data” that serves as a starting point for analysis. It can be data:
· “Zero-party” (voluntarily contributed by users).
· “First-party” (obtained by the company itself).
· “Third-party” (based on information from third parties, for example, market analysis carried out by consultants).
Keep in mind that data-driven marketing is not the same as data mining or data science. Data-driven marketing has a strategic component: all the data that is collected as a function, and only the data relevant to the business is stored. The ultimate goal is to distill the data necessary to make informed decisions.
What does data-driven marketing bring to companies?
· Better decisions. Traditionally, marketers have relied on a mix of experience with book illustration services and intuition to guide their campaigns, and this remains the modus operandi of many marketers. But data driven marketing allows us to rely on real figures and insights and reduce margins of error.
· Better customer experience. Data marketing focuses on a company’s current and potential customers and uses data analytics to get to know them better. The result is that we can anticipate your needs and create a highly satisfying shopping and knowledge experience.
· Better product development . With data driven marketing, we are basing ourselves on objective information about what the users of our target audience need. Therefore, it is easier for us to anticipate what are the functionalities and features that really value and include them in the product design.
· Better ROI. With the right data on the table, we can know how our budget is being used and what actions are working the best. Thus, we can concentrate the investment in the most effective areas and multiply our return.
· Better customization . The large amounts of information that we handle in data marketing allow us to know users in a highly individualized way. If we combine all this knowledge with technologies such as marketing automation, the result is that we can reach each individual with the right message and at the perfect time to maximize the chances of conversion.
· Better contents. The content marketing is a great investment of time and effort for brands. Using data-driven marketing, we can identify which formats and types of content work best, ensuring that this investment of time and effort pays off. We can also use data analysis to optimize aspects such as images, hashtags or the time of publication in each social network.
· Better predictions . In the end, the insights derived from data marketing allow us to know our target audience in depth and know how they will act at all times, to anticipate their needs with highly effective campaigns and predict the results with great precision.
7 keys to starting data marketing
1. Define your goals . As with any other strategy, data driven marketing only makes sense if we are clear about what we want to achieve. Therefore, the first step is to define a series of objectives that are aligned with the global goals of the business. These objectives will help us to identify a series of key performance indicators or KPIs , and in turn these will tell us what exactly the data we need to collect is.
2. Find the right professionals . Data analysis is a growing discipline in which the demand of companies exceeds the available talent. Therefore, it is necessary to dedicate resources to find the right professionals or to train people on your team.
3. Establish cooperation between teams . Data driven marketing affects all departments of the company, so it is necessary for all of them to collaborate. Not everyone has to be an expert in data marketing, but they do have to understand how to facilitate this task.
4. Find the right tools . It is imperative that you have the appropriate tools to collect the information you need. In the world of data driven marketing, it is essential to have solutions such as Google Analytics, Search Console, SEO tools or CRM systems . Of course, we cannot fall into thinking that the tools are the panacea or that they will do the work for us by themselves. We always have to start from knowing what data we need and looking for the necessary tools to obtain them.
5. Automate . The volume of data that today’s marketers handle can only be properly managed through marketing automation . Once again, having the right tools is what will allow us to be efficient and free up human resources for creativity and decision-making.
6. Organize regular check-ups . Once we have the necessary tools in place and we are collecting the relevant data, it is time to move on to the next step: data analysis. Every so often we have to see what are the figures that we handle and what conclusions we can draw from them.
7. Define a decision-making protocol . The goal of data driven marketing is very simple: make better decisions. In the end, the data analysis should serve to obtain insights that allow us to better understand actual and potential customers and decide the next steps based on their needs.
