We live in a digital age where marketing analytics has become the crux that drives all types of businesses, regardless of the industry they belong in, and the biggest platform that marketing has to thrive on is the digital platform. We live in a digital age, which means data is everything. It is one of the most valuable resources that companies have, especially when it comes to marketing.
Companies increased their revenue 83% of the time by using personalization techniques with the help of data-driven marketing. It helps businesses make more informed decisions for their financial planning as well as future marketing strategies, which only drives growth for their organisation. It gives them a competitive advantage over other organisations that do not invest in marketing analytics as a part of their marketing strategy to drive organisational growth.
This article discusses how data used as a part of marketing analytics plays a very important role in driving business growth.
Data as the Foundation of an Effective Marketing Strategy
How is data used in marketing analytics?
Before we get into how data drives business, first let us understand what the data we are referring to is in marketing analytics. Data, in this context, is the vast collection of all the information, both structured and unstructured, which is gathered using multiple sources. These sources include, but are not limited to, the following:
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Customer interactions
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Consumer feedback
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Online consumer behaviour
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Social media
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Market research
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Lead generation
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Sales transactions
64.2 zettabytes of data were collected in 2020 alone, according to a report by Statista, and this number is going to multiply as more and more consumers use online resources to find solutions or products. So clearly, data is key to creating an effective marketing strategy, which will be discussed further in the points below.
Enhancing Decision-Making with Marketing Analytics with the Help of Data
How does data-driven marketing help improve decision-making for businesses? The consumer data that is collected through the various sources mentioned above (and many more as well) gives organisations valuable insights as to what their consumers like and do not like, what the existing market trends are, what the consumers are leaning towards and away from, how they are behaving towards the current political, economic, and social climate, as well as how they are interacting with the product. These are some essential factors that affect the sale of a product or service, which can impact the growth of an organisation and having data about the same can drive business growth.
The power of marketing analytics is driven by data, but this data needs to be utilised wisely. Having a wide variety of information and not using it well will only lead to unstructured and under-utilised data, which will lead to a loss in finances and time for the organisation. Therefore, there has to be a dedicated team of specialists who know how to use this data to drive business growth using marketing analytics. The power of marketing analytics in driving business growth is superior to almost no other in today’s digital world, and it requires the right team of skilled professionals to use it.
Unveiling the Value of Marketing Analytics to Drive Business Growth
The most valuable use that data has in terms of marketing analytics is customer segmentation - which is creating groups of consumers based on different categories, such as:
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The demographic they belong to
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The psychographic dimensions
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Their consumer behaviour and characteristics
These distinctions or consumer segmentations help marketers tailor their marketing strategies in a data-driven fashion so that they get personalised messages and advertisements. The personalised approach makes the consumers feel more valued and relevant and creates a longer-lasting connection with the brand.
The targeted marketing campaigns created using data-driven marketing analytics also resonate more with the audiences, which means that the leads will have a higher chance of converting into real sales, thereby driving business growth.
Data drives business is no longer something that can be doubted. Countless factors and statistics are here to prove it, and marketing analytics is what this data is used to achieve the same.
How else does data help with marketing analytics?
All marketing strategies that are data-driven are also based on predictive analytics. This means that they use historical data to predict future trends and outcomes. Past consumer behaviour and market trends are used to predict future consumer trends and behaviours. Past marketing campaigns and patterns, as well as market dynamics, can make data-driven predictions on customer demand, product performance, and market opportunities to drive business growth for the organisation. This way companies can easily anticipate market trends and use marketing analytics to their advantage to improve their marketing efforts drastically. It will also help them in allocating their resources more effectively, which means they will gain more returns on their efforts and achieve faster business growth.
Data also helps with analysing existing marketing performance. This means evaluating how effective their marketing initiatives are and what can be done to improve them on the go. They take into consideration certain key performance indicators, or KPIs to gain a better understanding of the impact of their marketing strategies, such as:
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The cost of customer acquisition
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The customer's lifetime value
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The conversion rates
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The return on ad spend
By tracking and analysing these metrics, organisations can identify which marketing channels, campaigns, or strategies are driving the highest value in terms of results, which will enable them to optimise their strategies accordingly. This type of data-driven performance adjustment and measurement is the power of marketing analytics, which is what allows businesses to gain the most of the resources that they spend on their marketing. It also allows companies to find areas where they can improve and propel business growth.
Data-driven marketing analytics can also be used to curate customer experiences. Companies can understand individual preferences by looking into their purchase history and engagement patterns. This way, they can enhance their overall experience and build loyalty towards the organisation, a stronger relationship with the brand, and increase customer satisfaction. This, in turn, increases the number of repeated purchases and creates a positive buzz around the company and drives business growth even further through word of mouth.
Data-driven marketing also helps predict future market trends and opportunities for businesses. This way, companies can stay ahead of their competitors. They can keep track of the competitive landscape as well as identify emerging opportunities. By observing the social, economic and political climate, they can also identify the changing consumer sentiment and anticipate any shifts in the market and be proactive in their upcoming marketing strategy. They can fine-tune and refine their strategies based on marketing analytics on the go as well as adapt their product or service based on the market trends (in the present and based on future predictions).
Read also: Why Marketing Analytics Matter to Your Business
Conclusion
Despite all of the advantages that data-driven marketing analytics has to offer, only 24% of big companies say that they are data-driven, according to this article by Forbes. This might be due to the large amount of unstructured data that is available online and the lack of skilled professionals to sift through it. Nevertheless, the power of marketing analytics is unparalleled, and there is no question that data drives business and is crucial to business growth. Marketing analytics is the key tool behind a successful marketing strategy and should be used to its full potential by any organisation to achieve organisational success and attain a competitive advantage.
Marketing analytics services from SG Analytics deliver precise and important data to help you optimize your go-to-market and product launch plans, capitalize and expand into new markets, and maximize salesforce potential. Get the most out of social media data by utilizing our monitoring services to gain insights about your customers and competitors
