And why should it concern me and my business?

Many companies today are striving to become data-driven and it’s a term we often hear especially with new tech companies and younger more data savvy individuals coming through.

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Data-driven marketing has transformed from an innovative approach to a fundamental part of advertising and business strategy; it can now be defined in several ways, but at the most basic level, it can be explained as follows:

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Data-driven marketing refers to strategies built on real customer insights pulled from the analysis of data, collected through consumer interactions and engagements, to form predictions about future behaviours. This involves understanding the data you already have, the data you can get, and how to organise, analyse, and apply that data to better marketing efforts.

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Although there are many reasons why companies use data-driven marketing, more often than not, its intended goal is to enhance and personalise the customer experience with one aim, to improve your business and its position in the market.

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To provide more clarity around the topic, we’ve outlined key benefits and common challenges of data-driven marketing, in addition to example applications.

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The Benefits of Data-Driven Marketing

Both businesses and customers can gain a lot from taking a data-driven approach to marketing. When data-driven strategies are implemented successfully, benefits include:

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• Personalised Marketing. It’s essential that companies convey the right message, to the right audience, at the right time. Data-driven marketing allows brands to create a customised campaign that converts leads through a deeper understanding of the customer profile.

• Clarity. With a wealth of information in their database, marketers can sift through to determine the most accurate and actionable information about customers and prospects. With a data-driven approach, it becomes much easier to separate and group the target audiences that you’re trying to reach rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach which is often disengaging for the customer.

• Multi-Channel Experience. Marketers can leverage data to extend reach across multiple networks and take communication beyond just email. Distributing data-driven ads across multiple channels, through automated marketing campaigns, will ensure that your message is consistent, aligned, and reaches each recipient in the perfect place and at the perfect time and with a personalised message.

• Refined Customer Experience. Many popular brands use data-driven marketing to enhance their customer experiences. They’ll often orchestrate customer satisfaction surveys and pinpoint specific areas for improvement.

• Better Product Development. Data-driven marketing considerably diminishes product failure rates. Companies can establish a better understanding of their target audiences, which leads to the development of better-suited products for that particular market.

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Discover how our data-driven marketing solutions can improve your business by speaking to one of our friendly data strategists >>

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Challenges of Data-Driven Marketing

Like most valuable business strategies, there are challenges to successful data-driven marketing. Here are some common challenges that can be faced when implementing a data-driven strategy:

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• The Right Team: Due to the niche nature of the job, and the skills required, it can be challenging to attract the right type of staff that specialises in predictive analytics or audience amplification and data science. Learning more about being data-driven (or becoming a data scientist) may benefit you and your team.

• Departmental Silos: The success of data-driven marketing is largely dependent on having high-quality and integrated data, which is easier said than done. Frequently, different departments will acquire data with goals that contradict one another.

• Commitment: being committed is crucial as ultimately being data driven takes a lot of work and focus on detail. But the hard work is worth it and at SWW we appreciate you may already be stretched for time so we can alleviate that and take care of your data-driven approach and show you the results. We are 100% committed to the approach from the start to finish!

• Integration: If a company fails at the integration process, marketers will struggle to gather the right data needed for a unified customer view. For example, making sure sales people enter the right information is crucial – it can be hard to get engagement but in the long run it saves time, builds more successful teams and ultimately businesses. Getting the basics right first is key!

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How to Take a Data-Driven Approach to Marketing

Whether you’re just getting started, or are looking to improve your existing marketing strategy, there are certain elements that should be considered. These include:

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• Automate and Integrate: Integrating new tools and technology into your marketing strategy can be overwhelming at times. By creating an automated process that still allows for personalisation, you’ll stay true to your objectives and avoid complicating results.

• Collaboration Across Teams: Because data is something that needs to be managed across an entire business, marketers must ensure information is being shared across departments and teams.

• Monitor Industry Changes: Keep a close eye on your competition so you can either follow suit, or learn from their mistakes. Like every other area in this industry, data-driven marketing is constantly changing. Staying up-to-date on the latest trends will only help with your own brand strategy.

• Continued Measurement: Data-driven marketing is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It should be constantly monitored and adjusted based on the results (successes or failures) that you’re seeing. This will help identify which tactics are working and encourage buy-in from your team and company.

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Examples of Data-Driven Marketing

If you’re still unsure how data-driven marketing might fit into your business strategy, here are a few examples that should offer some inspiration:

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• Retargeting. Retargeting is important for all digital marketers. If someone has previously purchased from your e-commerce site, or shown significant interest, why not look for them again? Let’s pretend a member of your target audience is a buyer for a builder’s merchants who recently downloaded a blog about your new drill. From this data, you could automatically offer more information on drills, cross sell other relatable equipment, and similar ideas that would appeal to that target audience.

• Dynamic Advertising. Use social media to your advantage by creating ads across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Connect with your audience by allowing them to sign up and receive more information with just one click. By turning your social media outlets into two-way communication channels, you’ve now obtained valuable information that feeds directly into your database.

• Optimised Paid Search. Analyse your preferred customers based on the types of keywords they search for and consider what the competition is targeting as well. Leverage this data to position yourself at the top of the most relevant search results and drive valuable traffic to your website.

• Targeted Email Campaigns. Is email marketing a part of your existing strategy? Take a data-driven approach to email campaigns by grouping together your desired target audiences. While this data will allow for automation, you’ll also be able to easily personalise messages to make one-to-one connections with each and every customer and stop any disengagement by sending blanket emails which turn your customer off.

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You may now say this all sounds great but we don’t have any data

Not a problem! Data can be found from many sources, and often you’ll have more data than you think, it might just not be organised in the most user friendly way. Anything is a start and even if you don’t have any data, you can still use a data-driven approach. But the key is to utilise the data you do have.

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Identifying the right technology

Due to the overabundance of data solutions, many businesses today are struggling to find a good fit for their specific case. Identifying the best-fitting technologies and implementing them successfully remains one of the top challenges on the road to data-driven success.

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How we can help

The future remains very bright for data-driven marketing. Along with predictive and artificial intelligence marketing, data-driven solutions are becoming an essential part of successful marketing campaigns and ultimately businesses – just look at Google and Amazon, they were born out of intelligent data use. In large part, this is due to the progressive needs of customers and their expectations for more personalised experiences and efficiency.

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We understand it can data driven marketing can be daunting but our straightforward approach is simple and effective and transparent at every stage which is presented in a digestible format so you are never left unclear.

If you would like us to show you how a data-driven approach can help, get in touch with one of our friendly experts today.