Any modern marketing article would be remiss without mentioning big data. It’s what’s propelling innovation in various industries and virtually what all business plans are built around these days. Never before have business analysts had so much information and insight into what makes customers tick.
What big data offers to businesses and organizations encompasses everything from their target demographics to what their customers search for on the internet. It allows companies to see how much time is spent paying attention to an online ad, what platform that ad is being best received on, and who is making what purchases when. At this point, the study and utilization of big data is believed to be necessary for growth and profit because the knowledge it offers about target audiences is so specific, vast, and updatable in real-time.
But with big data comes big responsibility — if it’s misused, then the results could be unfruitful and the work for nothing. Information itself isn’t enough to change the projection of a company or organization. Rather, to fully use data to its greatest extent means to connect with customers by taking advantage of what you discover about them.
Identifying New Target Markets
One of the greatest pieces of information afforded to businesses by big data is finding potential customers who could be buying their products, not just who currently is. Market analysis has never been only about understanding the audience a company already has, but the ones who may be sitting behind the corner as well. What big data gives businesses is insight into those parties, which was previously difficult for markets to find.
For instance, an important part of big data is website analytics, which shows the type of people who are stumbling upon websites and how they got there. Geographical locations, search terms, bounce rates, and the pages site users spend the most time on are key pieces of information obtainable through website analytics. It lets businesses know what content is most attractive to users and who those users are.
Before moving onto personalized marketing, it would be foolish to pass over the competitor analyses made possible with big data. By analyzing customer analytics and understanding what search terms people are using to find their products, sellers can find out who their unknown competitors are and where they rank on search engines in relation. They can then use SEO skills to optimize their websites in order to rank higher than their competitors for said search terms. Potentially, this will allow them to grab the attention of their competitor’s customer bases as well.
Personalizing Marketing Methods
Customer insights give businesses a closer look at the personalities of those purchasing their items and services. They are afforded the ability to be personable with different parts of their target audience, as well as returning customers. The term commonly used for this method of marketing is “personalization.”
Depending on the size of a company, personalizing marketing efforts can be extremely time-consuming. It’s unrealistic for every single email to address a potential customer directly. That’s where automation comes into play. Using data to focus automated efforts toward similar parts of an audience is called segmentation. Segmentation groups customers together based on their similarities and allows businesses to reach out to each group in a specific way that caters to them, but is still personalized enough to show potential customers they are understood and appreciated.
This, of course, does not make up for interacting with potential customers individually when need be — that one-on-one communication is what will bring leads to conversion. But it does allow marketing methods to be more detail-oriented and creates time to address more urgent requests more carefully. Don’t make the mistake of marketing half-heartedly: the personalization of marketing is one of the most important factors of building brand loyalty in 2019.
Wiser Budget Spending
The information given via data allocation should shape the way a business goes about its operations. This includes financial operations and decisions as well as product design and marketing planning. A company’s return on investment (ROI) is something measurable by data, and when used in conjunction with potential customer insights and marketing success, businesses will hopefully be able to make more frugal and fruitful decisions.
This does mean that a company may have to drastically change the way it goes about business, but the willingness to do so should be the attitude of any company that wants to thrive. When something doesn’t work, it’s important to fix it. In the case of a business, something not working often means losing more money than is necessary.
Wiser budget spending due to data analysis is, of course, a circular notion. More money allows for more resources to be put toward collecting analytics, and analytics allow businesses to make more (or lose less) cash. Big data is bigger and more complex than most people realize, and understanding what it can offer a business will lead them to more success. This is how they will be able to personalize their marketing methods and find new target audiences while retaining their previous customers. If businesses understate the importance of big data, they may be losing their upper hand on their competition as well as their footing with their target market.
