Big data is the marketing buzz word of the moment. But how important is it to your business? According to research conducted by consulting firm McKinsey, big data led one US company to grow its marketing productivity by 15% for four years running without adding a penny extra to their marketing budget. Big data is definitely big news.
Whilst introducing big data to your company doesn’t come without its challenges, the potential benefits far outweigh them. Big data allows you to glean endless information about your customers, your website and your products, allowing you to make improvements across the board.
Once you have a big data strategy and the right data tools in place, you can start reaping the rewards of big data analysis. Certainly, if you’re experiencing poor marketing ROI, big data has the capacity to change that for you and your business. Here’s how:
Communicate With Customers On Their Terms
Big data can help you to discover where your customers feel at home on the internet. You can learn which websites they regularly frequent, the social media sites they use, the news they consume and even what they’re browsing for. With good analysis, you can reach out to your customers at the time and in the place that will resonate most effectively with them.
Less Spammy Mail Outs
With big data on your side you can break down your customer base much more effectively. Rather than a broad stroke impression, you can create a wonderfully precise customer profile, making tailored mail outs a possibility. This means you no longer need to spam your customers with irrelevant marketing material or content based on rough segmentation. You can ensure that everything reaching their inbox will pique their interest and encourage them to read more.
Keep Up With Your Customers
In a digital age, we’re all increasingly fickle. The website we couldn’t get enough of one month is replaced with another. And our preferences change as technology advances. Are we less resilient to influencer marketing than more traditional methods? And are we more likely to engage with a video than text? Big data helps companies to keep up-to-date with these changes and adapt quickly.
Smaller and Smarter Campaigns
Before big data, companies tended to put all of their marketing eggs in one basket. They wanted to reach a big, wide audience with their campaigns and spent a lot of money trying to do so. With the understanding of your customers, big data affords you to have the opportunity to create niche marketing campaigns. When directed to the right customer groups, these tailored marketing campaigns generated a much higher ROI. They’re both less costly to produce and more effective.
More In-Depth Campaign Analytics
You use big data to tell you about your customers and their requirements. However, it’s also incredibly useful in assessing the success of your marketing campaigns and making decisions about future ones. Your marketing strategy can become ever more honed and effective, generating ever greater ROI, through thorough analysis of campaign strengths and weaknesses. Did your last campaign create any surprising results? Which links were clicked on in your latest marketing email? Did promotion of one product boost sales with another? Use this information to create ever better marketing content next time round.
Taking the first steps in the big data world can be a little intimidating. Get the right tools and the right team at your side to ensure you’re getting the most out of your big data analytics. And once you have a strategy and the operations in place, you can work to improve your marketing ROI, saving you money and generating greater profit in the process.
About the Author
Elizabeth Lee is a business blogger whose main interest lie in finding new and unique ways of engaging customers, thus allowing businesses to grow and expand. With backgrounds in marketing and logistics, Elizabeth is currently supporting PACK & SEND – experts in the field of transportation.
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