The Power of Numbers in Marketing: Because the Future is Data Driven:

The future, but also the present now, is data-driven. Why? Because the power of companies to conquer more and more slices of the market (and therefore turnover) is and will increasingly be in the hands of numbers. To the numbers, of course, and also to the data. Thus the so-called Data-Driven Marketing is becoming increasingly important, and approachable to develop commercial strategies by merging with each other:

 

• The principles of traditional marketing
• The technology of collecting and analyzing the amount of data produced by users/customers

 

 

In this article, we try to explain why Data-Driven Marketing is essential and some of the potentialities and criticalities that have emerged in recent months.

Data-Driven Marketing, a fast-paced production (which invests many sectors)

It has recently been estimated that 90% of all current data has been generated in the last 24 months. And, even more shockingly, every 48 hours have produced the equivalent of data that existed before 2003. If you believe that the data only invest the marketing world, however, you are wrong. Data and numbers have permeated virtually all sectors, even those traditionally more “humanistic” such as journalism. So much so that, also for the reporters, the training courses called “data-driven journalism ” are flapping.

However, let’s concentrate on marketing, which is the theme of our article: in this sector (also transversal) we collect, analyze and interpret user data with the aim of creating marketing and communication strategies. The goal is to develop products and services that are increasingly performing for a target (increasingly), specific users/customers. Since ever before this massive amount of data was available to reveal its potential to those who could read them, the watchword in marketing was customization. The offer must be customized to the final customer, adapt to his needs and needs. And to do this, the data you want to analyze are:

• Demographic data
• Behavioral data (and here the web and above all the social media are a real gold mine)
• Data on the company/customer relationship, such as interactions, newsletter subscriptions, loyalty, etc.

It is very curious to report that marketers are finding a problem: data (now) has become too many. This is what emerged from the Digital Cream 2018, the convention that brought together data marketers (and data analysis) in Singapore during the last month of September.

Data-driven marketing: 3 things to do (immediately) according to Digital Cream 2018

1) Implement a data strategy

The first thing to do, given this exponential increase in data available to those who want (and must) analyze them for market needs, is to develop and have a real management strategy, to really exploit data. It is necessary that the entrepreneurs change their “organizational culture” and make it become more data-oriented, giving the data the right importance. And then it is necessary for those who want to do business to equip themselves with the right analysts. Without anyone to interpret the data available, no company can get the right “insights” to make a leap forward in its marketing strategy.

2) Constantly seek opportunities to use data

The Driven Data Marketers are always looking for the best opportunities for you to use the data they receive. The retargeting has remained one of the best ways in which brands can use web data to improve performance. In fact, well-organized data have shown that they can produce better results. In addition, the gold mine of data acquisition, are the clicks on ads, and the history of online shopping by consumers.

3) Identify and overcome the obstacles of data-driven marketing

When a company uses data to improve its marketing strategy, some problems are constantly emerging. First of all, no matter how efficiently a company collects data, it will always be an incomplete collection because customer behavior changes continuously. Therefore, for the Data-Driven Marketer, it will be a constant challenge to “connect points” between promotional campaigns, research on the website and the final purchase.

Secondly, how data is collected can be a question, at least ethical. It is called data governance. Today it becomes essential to know where the data come from, how they were captured and how they will be used, especially since the GDPR and other data privacy rules have become law in many countries.

Finally, a third problem (not a small one) is the risk of companies over-investing in digital marketing and investing less in marketing channels that are less measurable, but equally effective.

Data-driven marketing, there is also an attached profession: it is called Business Data Analyst

The number-driven present-future has also produced a new professional figure. This is the Business Data Analyst or an analyst who also knows how to interpret the data and turn them in favor of the company for which he works. The Business Data Analyst can analyze:

• The market
• The processes
• The statistics

And to extract from these data the concrete meanings that can, for the company, translate into equally concrete outputs. Statistics, information technology, communication. These are the skills that a BDA must master to do what economist Hal Ronald Varian calls “the sexiest work of the twenty-first century.” And not only sexy, even (apparently) well paid, at least according to the numbers published by the authoritative magazine Wired.