It may be tempting to go with a new, creative idea because you think it sounds like a good idea, but impulsive decisions like that could be detrimental to your business strategy.

Savvy marketers and business owners rely on the most reliable source of information today: Customer data. 

So, let’s start with the basics…. What exactly is Data Driven Marketing?

Data Marketing is the strategy involving the collection of customer information and using that data to predict their future needs, and consequently, their behavior. That can drive informed business decisions that result in a higher ROI for your business. 

Recently, the marketing industry has gone through a shift. Creative, free-thinking types are not only studying consumer data but implementing its findings to improve their marketing efforts. We are no longer only focusing on traditional marketing.

What are the benefits of a Data Driven Marketing Strategy? 

According to Google, two out of three leading marketers acknowledge that data based decisions beat gut decisions.

Identifying Your Target Audience

The greatest advantage of gaining insight into your target audience is being able to create content that resonates with your ideal customer at the perfect time. 

For example, data driven marketers can analyze a customer’s historical data from a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to predict behaviors, strengthening their relationship with the customer. 

This data driven strategy can be used to increase brand loyalty and keep repeat customers coming back. A company’s brand loyalty is crucial to its success, because retaining customers is so much easier and cheaper than the acquisition of new ones.

Creating Content that Resonates

Now that you’ve identified your target customer, you can create the marketing content, and even products, that will resonate with them. 

By analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs), marketers can decipher what styles (long form vs. short), visuals (infographics vs. memes), and formatting (videos vs. blog posts) best communicate the brand and its products. 

Creating Personalized Messaging

Today’s customers are smarter than ever. Gone are the days of generic email blasts. They want to be catered to as individuals – and that involves delivering personalized messages. 

Those specific messages targeting customers by name, with knowledge of their prior consumer behavior, is vital to increasing customer conversion and retention. 

With big data decisions, companies can discover how someone interacts with their brand, including their purchase history and even their demographics. This will help to determine when and how to market to each target audience. 

Discovering the Best Channels for a Data Marketing Strategy

As we mentioned above, data driven marketing tools such as a CRM can help you understand what type of content you should be creating, but it can also help you understand how you should be promoting that content. 

In this day and age, there are so many marketing channels to choose from: email marketing campaigns, SMS, paid ads, etcetera.  But by tracking a customer’s complete journey, you can tell what their preferences are, which, in turn, will give you data-driven marketing insights into the best way to communicate with them and get them to purchase again. 

What are the challenges of Data-Driven Digital Marketing? 

For some companies, the idea of using data-driven marketing analytics to make business decisions, let alone marketing decisions, can be daunting. But this is not the only challenge companies face.

Aggregating the Data

Data collection can be downright overwhelming, in that it might seem insurmountable. Many marketers don’t know where to start so they give up on the idea of data driven online marketing.

You may not realize it, but you probably have access to large amounts of data already. Perusing your website analytics, CRM, and social media software is a great first step in gathering and viewing that data. 

Managing the Data

Now that you’ve gathered the data…what do you do with it? Well in order to analyze all this data properly, it is best to retain it all in one place. It’s also important to keep it up-to-date, since there’s no use in making decisions based on old data. 

The best way to do this is to create a marketing dashboard. Not only does that allow you to keep it all in one place, but that way you can visualize key metrics and data-driven marketing stats in real-time, which will help you make the most efficient decisions. 

Bringing Everything Together

Now, if you’ve already done the hard work of collecting and analyzing data, why not implement the information?

After analyzing the information, the crucial first question to answer is: Who is your target audience? What are their behaviors? What age are they? What are their desires? What stands out about them? 

Once you’ve completed your data analysis, you can start to shift your strategies and improve your marketing campaign.

Final Thoughts…

Embracing the data-driven culture can make a significant improvement to your business. It’s always important to remember that numbers don’t lie and data driven marketing strategies are not a gimmick. Not sure where to start? Reach out!