Data-Driven Marketing

 

Data-Driven Marketing: Brief summary

Data-driven marketing involves collecting, analyzing and interpreting data for marketing purposes. This information helps us to better understand user behavior, make marketing decisions, and mount data-driven campaigns.

What is Data-Driven Marketing: Detailed summary

Thanks to social media channels and the widespread use of different devices, we live in a data-rich environment. In this age of big data, companies can gather information users leave online to inform and target their marketing communications.

More and more companies are now recognizing the importance of data-driven marketing. According to the Forbes Insights Report on Data Driven and Customer Centric Marketing, 64 percent of companies regard data-centered marketing as essential.

Per an IBM study, companies who have a detailed understanding of their customers perform 60 percent better than their competitors. So, it’s no surprise that 78 percent of marketers now use data systematically while the number of enterprises using insights gained from data-based marketing has more than doubled since 2013.

Data-driven marketing uses information to initiate marketing actions, which can then be better adapted to meet the needs and desires of the customer. The aim is to better understand customer behavior and to base a marketing strategy on that understanding. To achieve this, data is purposefully gathered at all touchpoints on the customer journey (e.g. social media, online store, corporate website) in order to formulate and optimize marketing actions. The challenge is to combine the various customer information streams that are collected on- and offline.

In marketing, data analysis can help to fulfill many purposes, including:

• precisely measuring and improving the results of online marketing campaigns
• personalizing campaigns and thereby achieving improved performance
• optimizing social media communications
• helping to develop content that is relevant to the user
• achieving content marketing that employs targeted topic planning
• improving customer service
• increasing customer satisfaction
• strengthening customer loyalty
• predicting certain events (predictive analytics)
• helping to make more accurate and timely decisions

Tools for gaining data-driven marketing insights

Due to the variety of data being linked together, data-driven marketing is very complex. Therefore, certain analysis and reporting tools can help companies to collect, structure, and evaluate their data. It is essential to monitor the right KPIs on each respective channel.

1. Web analytics tools

Google Analytics is the most common web analytics tool. By integrating Google Analytics, user behavior on a particular website can be analyzed. This includes recording certain KPIs, such as website traffic, number of page views, and length of stay. Other possible alternatives to Google Analytics are E-Tracker, Piwik, and Chart Beat.

2. Tools for social media analysis

Tools for social media monitoring and social listening can not only help to measure the relevant KPIs (such as interactions, mentions, and shares) but also analyze the tone of reports about a brand and identify trends. This in turn contributes to the optimization of communication via social media. Useful tools include Brandwatch, Sysomos, and Vico.

3. Marketing automation tools

Marketing automation tools are software programs that combine web analytics across various communication channels. Personalized marketing campaigns can be planned, set up and analyzed using tools such as Marketo, Hubspot, and Silverpop. These operations gather data on users who, for example, visit certain online store or landing pages, and these expressions of interest can be used to formulate appropriately targeted campaigns based on this behavior. In addition, marketing automation tools can assist with lead management and can also be integrated with social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

4. Customer relationship management systems (CRM)

Data generated by marketing automation tools is often linked to a CRM system. These are software programs that help to manage customer relationships by collecting and storing all the customer data – from addresses right through to purchases – in a central customer database. CRM systems such as Salesforce and Sugar thus help to manage interactions with company customers and deploy targeted customer care. They are generally used by sales, marketing, and customer service departments.

Using these tools and technologies, data can be collected to inform both online marketing and content marketing and effectively manage digital communications. Data helps to provide a clearer understanding of the customer journey and to develop content tailored to the customer’s needs. Data-driven marketing allows interaction with prospective customers, which can be matched to the appropriate phase of their customer journey. In addition, data also facilitates the optimization of KPIs along the customer journey.

Conclusion

For marketers, data is an important decision-making tool and is essential for analyzing and improving marketing performance.

Furthermore, the strategic use of data can contribute to a higher turnover, which is why more than 57 percent of companies in a survey reported that data-driven marketing produced a measurable increase in the ROI of their campaigns.

However, developing data-driven marketing can also be a major challenge. Companies need the right tools and the right staff who can correctly manage, interpret, and integrate their data.

The use of data helps companies to act flexibly and to consistently optimize their content marketing and online marketing campaigns. Marketers should routinely use data to align their offers and products to the needs of their prospective customers.