Chapter 18 of PSYCHOMarketing by Roger Nichols
Data-driven marketing is a type of marketing statistic, or insight, that is collated through interactions with consumers who are engaged. It is used to predict the future of a brand or product on the basis of the response of the market, common trends, and sustainability. This is a vital part of a business strategy because it helps marketers understand their consumers better and, therefore, know how to satisfy them. It is also quite instrumental in converting sales prospects to leads and new customers.
Data-driven marketing also enables a brand to know who their customers are, what their reservations are, their behavioral patterns, the content that attracts them, and how best to reach them among others. The key to running a successful brand is understanding your consumers’ behavioral patterns and exploring them to drive ultimate satisfaction. If your customers are satisfied with the service you render, no one can poach them from you. Brands don’t gather data for the sake of gathering. They do this to learn how best to sustain their customers’ interest and become relevant in the future, while they make money from them. Data-driven marketing involves creating profiles for your customers, which will help you segment them.
You need to know your high- and low-end customers as well as be able to tailor campaigns that will suit each group. After this, you will want to be generating interesting contents that will keep them glued to your brand, by introducing new products or modifying the old ones with new features. Your content has to be personalized to reflect your brand’s value, mission, and promise. Once you have profiled your customers, you don’t have to use general content, which is not structured. Consumers are deliberate about the contents they are exposed to and the products they buy—that is why their feedback is essential. It also provides a lot of channels for you to reach your consumers, through ads, emails, digital marketing, etc.
Data-driven marketing also entails integrating technology and digital marketing tools that can be automated and sent out to consumers all over the world. You have to be prepared to revise your strategy from time to time, as your client base grows. According to research carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), organizations that are highly data driven are thrice more likely to record noteworthy improvements in decision-making than others who don’t use data analytics. The mobile phone is a source of data that cannot be ignored in this new age of digitally savvy consumers. In 2017, it was reported that over 265.9 million people in the
U.S. were making use of mobile phones. They perform a number of duties on their phones when they browse: they browse for knowledge, shopping, social media, etc. While Google has established that they also do this on their tablets, laptops, and other devices connected to the internet, traffic is mostly generated from mobile phone users. People browse through different websites every day, and there are a lot of analytics tools you can use to track your target audience, if you are willing to tap into them.
Data-driven marketing documents the process or journey customers go through; it can also help highlight how some of your customers got away. Basically, it provides closure for brands that are willing to be persistent and forward-thinking. It highlights the expectations of your customers and gives pointers on how they can be met. If you have a smart team of marketers who are not oblivious to the significance of the Intelligence your data has generated, your revenue will increase, and your customers will be thoroughly satisfied with the service you provide. You have to be ready to move in the direction your data is pointing to, and, as with people, your data can also change. The data you gathered last year might be slightly different from what you collect this year, simply because of evolution and how humans are adaptable in nature. Don’t forget to engage your customers without spamming them and appearing desperate. This is where balance comes in.
Once you get your data, you have to understand that collecting it without having an action plan is useless. Don’t be that brand that has a lot of data but is not creative enough to harness it to drive business innovations suited for its audience. The purpose of gathering data is to help you streamline your thought processes in alignment with your customers. This means you have to trust your data over your whims and gut feelings. Just because the idea you conceived is modern or trendy does not mean it is the right one for your business; your data will show whether it will be a hit or miss, and it is important that you trust it. The purpose of taking the data-driven marketing approach is to enable you to listen to your customers and give them what they need, instead of what you think they want. Data-driven marketing is practical, and it can predict the future of your business, but only if you are not sidetracked by your emotions and can trust the facts you’ve compiled.