Data driven marketing; what does it mean exactly? The term itselfs gives it away, this kind of online marketing revolves around data. We can always have an intuition or a certain feeling as a marketer. But we cannot always predict everything. Data on the other hand, always tells the truth. On the basis of data you can always see what your visitors do on the website, where they drop out, where they stay longer, what they are interested in and what not. In this article we take a closer look at data driven marketing and its importance.
What is data driven marketing?
Data driven marketing is something that is increasingly being used. It can be summarised as marketing which is based on customer data that you own or can collect about your (potential) customers. Due to the increase of information about user behavior provided through a rising number of applications and tools, marketing activities can be better organised. Not only data generated from natural search behavior can be used for this purpose but it is also primarily about ‘first party data’. This is data that you already have about the customer, namely the data in your CRM system. Data that you obtain about your (potential) customers must all be analysed before targeted marketing can be done. Data is increasingly being used in companies to make decisions and to make choices that the data supports. Companies even indicate that they take risks when making decisions if their data driven marketing is not in order. It is therefore seen as a process that is very important. The process consists of collecting, assembling, analysing and using data that is used for marketing. It can also be compared to climbing a mountain. Would you do this without preparation? Without a map? Without sufficient food? Marketing which is not based on data can be compared with this. While the profession of marketing was already changing, online marketing is increasingly moving towards data driven marketing.
Why do data driven marketing?
As described above, this form of marketing ensures that a company can make well-founded choices and decisions. Since many decisions are not made just like that it is important to base your marketing activities on something. Performing data driven marketing brings the following benefits:
- Insight: You know what your budgets do and what they deliver (=revenue marketing). Hence, the value of activities can be estimated and it can be determined whether they are effective or not. You do not have to speculate anymore, the proof is here. As shown in a study of McKinsey budgets yield well when carrying out data driven marketing. It shown that personalised marketing creates an ROI of 5 to 8 times.
- Clear target groups: Since you have data about your customers you can accurately map their behavior and interests in your target groups. You can even do that on a personal level. As you have data of the individual you no longer have to see individuals with the same characteristics as one group. This is essential when building a good marketing strategy.
- Organisational knowledge: The data you collect tells you a lot about your company and its performance. A data-driven approach ensures that you can generate more factual knowledge and thus deliver better results.
A few tips:
- Keep the data in one system
A survey Jelba carried out in 2017 showed that not many companies are proficient in using data driven marketing. In the same study 2/3 of the respondents indicated that they use different systems in their company to centralize customer data. In order to be able to map out a complete process it is desirable or even crucial that the data of your customers is in one system. This way you can easily find the complete history of the customer in an organised manner. - Analyse regularly
It is recommended to stay up to date with the analysis. As one’s behavior changes so does the data. Every time you analyse you can make improvements to your process once again. - Inform colleagues
When you inform your team of the insights found the entire company will stay informed of the data driven approach. This way, the entire company can participate in this strategy. - Increase your IT knowledge
Marketeers do not always have an IT background. But since all analysis is made with software it is important to learn more about this software. How does it work, what can I do with it, how can I make optimal use of the system? That will help in carrying out this form of marketing. - Choose the right tools
Data is generated from both your own systems as well as all kinds of external tools. An overarching system where all this data comes together is a perfect tool for conducting data driven marketing.
Jelba and B2B data driven marketing
At Jelba, we believe that data is indispensable when executing good online marketing. For all our clients optimisation based on performed analysis is essential. Data tells us more than we know. Would you like to know more about data driven marketing or how it fits into your situation? Don’t hesitate to contact us.
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