Data and marketing - A dream duo?


When I first started off my career as a database administrator, or now modernly known as a database marketer, I had no idea of the effect data would have in the world 8 years from then. At the time, I did not realise the value of data in almost everything today. Data drives most of my decisions, and it should be driving yours too. To me, it is one of the best methods of delivering personalised experiences to your customers.. This is because you’re looking at information that shows and confirms what your customers are doing online.


Data driven marketing is taking the basic questions of who, what, when, where and delivering actionable answers. It can be something like this - A customer purchasing a new pair of jeans on your website.

That customer landed there by clicking on an Instagram post about your offer on the new range of jeans. The customer was on their bus journey home from work at 6:30pm through an ios device. With data driven marketing you will get the information and in this scenario it is:

Who - Your customer interested in a new pair of jeans What - Your sale attracted them to your site

When - 6:30pm

Where - on their bus journey home

How - an ios device(mobile.)


Understanding who visits your website can provide valuable information that can help you find your perfect customer. This can be done through marketing analytics tools like google analytics (website analysis). Other tools are available for social media, email, etc. Using data you can accurately assess the performance of your strategies, campaigns, tactics and other marketing activities. You can easily understand what’s working and what isn’t, which markets need more investment or which markets you have a foothold in. Understanding which social media platforms are used by your audience at what time can steer campaigns in a profitable direction.








Data driven marketing can help you understand your customers before they even interact with your brand. Understanding their interests, likes and dislikes, can help you develop a message to gain their attention and induce a purchase decision. When developing a process to understand your customer, you can create segments for them. By creating segments for various stages of the buyer's journey, you can target your audience accordingly with the right message. Along with this, the data can confirm what is the right message. This can increase your chances of engaging your audience at the right time and encourage them to take a positive action. Marketing automation tools like HubSpot or Marketo can help you with analysing your customers. Which ads they clicked on, do they have items in their basket, any article they shared from your website, etc. All these interactions leave bread crumbs that can show a pattern of your audience’s interest.



Marketing is all about reaching your audience and converting them into paying customers. Reaching your audience at the right time, with the right message can accomplish that goal. You can make this easier by creating different messages for different target audiences that will encourage them to move further along the buyer journey. Combining a great understanding of your customers with your marketing activities lays the foundation for success. Remember to use this information to even decipher why campaigns aren’t running so well, and where to tweak them to generate returns on investment.

With data, you are able to understand customers better. You can find out when they are online, and what their interests are. You can match your content to what resonates with your customers to attract their business.



It’s easy to forget that your existing customers are your brand ambassadors. One of the best and easiest ways to obtain information about your brand is from a customer. All you have to do is send them a survey asking them about their experience. A small incentive (credit or gift cards to your own store, refer a friend and get a freebie) to complete the survey wouldn’t hurt when trying to encourage them to complete it. When customers understand that you care, they will be more inclined to buy again, spread the love and stay loyal. 2 birds, 1 stone.


So when you're thinking about your strategies, remember to center them around facts that have come from your data; which social media platform is used most by your audience? Where do you want to improve in brand recognition? What is your audience’s core interest? The answers to these questions will help you design accurate campaigns for your customers and guarantee a strategy that will work.


That's all for now.


Till next time, Peace!
-Schranz


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to attract customers to your (online) business.

Image
Being in marketing, I always get asked ‘how do you attract customers?’ (usually from sales people). This is a question I receive a lot and my point of view may be diverse.  I believe there is more value in building relationships first. Why relationships? Because relationships are built on trust and that’s where the value is created and nurtured.  The industry your business is in plays a major role in determining your target audience and how to attract them. For example, doctors, civil engineers, and contractors are different from travel agents, insurance advisors. B elow, I’m going to look at a few methods that could help you attract customers to your business in any industry. As it goes without saying, businesses already have a clear understanding of their target audience. But recognising the difference between your online and offline prospects is important. Understanding what your customers want is how you can create a positive customer experience which in turn leads to a p...
Read more

Marketing in simple terms

Image
Hi there, Hope you're having a great day! I decided on this basic blog post because I have heard so many people say 'I don't know anything about marketing' which I think is untrue. Any one who talks about a product, service or even an experience with a brand is marketing. Coming closer to an organisational setting, internally there's always going to be the rift between sales and marketing. Sales teams always expect more leads from the marketers and the marketing team expects the salesperson to sell better. But marketing isn't only for generating leads. Fundamentally, I believe marketing is the process of attracting customers to your brand. Marketing doesn't stop there though and there's so much more to it. Any action to create a relationship with a customer is marketing. Networking at events, thank you emails, webinars, meetings with clients, lunch and learns, social media posts, blog articles, websites, Facebook pages, etc. All these come...
Read more