When we tell you marketing is a science… Well, we’re not lying. As scientists, we collect data, we read it, we analyse it, and we learn from it. Based on these learnings, we make assumptions and hypotheses, and we take action, running tests to collect even more data to deepen our knowledge and understanding of a certain situation.
This encapsulates the essence of data-driven marketing. Data-driven marketing is a strategic methodology that hinges on consumer data and prevailing trends. It encompasses the process of amassing and leveraging information to make well-informed marketing decisions. Marketers who adopt this approach scrutinise consumer buying patterns, responses to advertisements, and behavioural trends. The ultimate aim is to address specific queries about the target audience, including their demographics, purchase timing, and preferred shopping venues.
The data accumulated through this process is harnessed to forecast future customer requirements and behaviours. By devising a marketing strategy rooted in comprehensive data about the ideal consumer, businesses can optimise their return on investment (ROI).
Importance of data-driven marketing
Data plays a pivotal role in marketing. It serves as the cornerstone for gauging the effectiveness of your implemented strategies and provides invaluable insights into your market, its evolving trends, and your consumers. It unravels consumer behaviour and reveals their responses to various stimuli. In the realm of marketing, data acts as a mirror reflecting your performance and guiding decisions on where to allocate resources wisely. It serves as a trusted ally, facilitating informed choices that contribute to the growth and expansion of your business.
Reach your customers effectively
1. Get to know your audience
Online, we’re extensively tracked, often more than we might realise. It might sound disconcerting from a personal perspective, but for marketers and business owners, it’s a goldmine. And here in Perth, we do love mining…
How often have you been filling out a form with your name, age, gender, email address or even your postal address when subscribing to a website or purchasing something online? Well, this information is particularly precious for marketers and business owners. It gives valuable insights into the people we are reaching, and talking to: our audience.
When defining marketing objectives and strategy, we often create personas that represent our targeted audience — individuals we aim to engage with, be visible to, and sell products to on your website. Therefore, gathering data about your audience’s demographics helps determine if you are – or not – reaching out to these personas.
2. Engage your audience
The data collected through data-driven marketing tools (Google Analytics, Meta Business) also gives you insight into your audience’s web browsing habits. How often do they visit your website? How did they get on it? How long do they spend on a page? How often do they return? How much do they spend on it? What content are they engaging with on your social media profile? All the facts and figures, to understand what they like so you can adjust your online presence and content accordingly.
3. Offer personalised experience: retain your customers
Customers like to be looked after. They like to feel seen and understood but most importantly to feel unique. Therefore, offering them an experience that meets these needs and expectations is essential to ensure their satisfaction and consequently their retention.
Leveraging the data you gather from their interactions and engagement with your brand enables you to craft tailored messages and experiences, fostering customer retention.
For instance, data-driven marketing incorporates email automation tools. These tools empower you to send personalised emails to your customers, expressing gratitude for their recent purchase, gently reminding them about items in their cart, or extending special birthday discounts on their favourite products.
Improve performance
Data-driven marketing offers the advantage of providing you with the capability to precisely assess your business’s performance and discern the direction your actions are steering it. As a result, you can pinpoint both the downturns and the upswings and extract valuable lessons from them. It allows you to identify areas where your efforts have yielded positive results and areas where they haven’t so you can take the appropriate actions.
This is why, in the realm of data-driven marketing, testing is a cherished practice among marketers. Experimenting with various strategies, content variations, and different channels enables continuous learning and a deeper understanding of what might be effective and what might not. After all, you can’t truly know until you’ve given it a try!
Enabling you to conduct these tests and quantify their impact is what makes data-driven marketing an invaluable ally. It offers a comprehensive view of your actions’ performance and your business’s overall performance, equipping you with the insights needed to make informed decisions about the direction in which you want to steer your business.
Innovate according to the market trends or/and your target needs
Expanding your product or service offerings can become necessary if you aim to achieve growth and diversification or if your business is experiencing stagnation. However, deciding what to introduce and when to do so can be challenging questions.
Fortunately, data makes you gain valuable insights into market trends and the behaviour of your target audience. Analysing this data provides a general idea of what your audience might desire in the market and when the market might be receptive to your launch. By carefully assessing and comprehending this data, you can enhance your visibility and make informed decisions regarding the optimal timing for introducing a new product or service, preventing the risk of failure.
With great opportunities come great challenges
Data-driven marketing provides a valuable opportunity to gather data for a deeper understanding of your market and customers, enabling you to expand your business effectively. However, it’s important to note that this process can be quite time-consuming.
First and foremost, you need to carefully consider the type of data that is most relevant to your business, aligning it with your goals, objectives, and the vision you have for your company. You also need to determine the sources of this data, and where you should be able to collect it from. Finally, you have to identify the most suitable data and tools for you to get this data. All this can be challenging, especially with the overwhelming array of online resources available.
Then, as you collect and read your data, it is made in real time. Indeed, real-time data is particularly valuable, as it provides accurate insights into market dynamics and customer behaviour. This immediacy allows you to stay vigilant about sudden changes, emerging trends, or unexpected developments, enabling prompt adjustments to your strategies. This agility is essential for capitalising on trends and effectively responding to crises.
Finally, analysing your data is the last but not least challenge you may encounter if implementing data-driven marketing. The true value of data lies in your ability to read, understand, and analyse it. Collecting data is just the first step; what truly matters is the insights it yields. Interpreting the meaning of data trends, gaps, and patterns, and understanding the significance of metrics like performance indicators and sales spikes, empowers you to make informed and strategic decisions. Ultimately, the ability to extract actionable insights from data is what allows you to harness its full potential for business growth and success.
We’re not all Einsteins…
We are fully aware that although data is essential to help you grow and expand your business, it is not easy to define, implement or analyse. It takes time. But when running a business time is usually what you lack the most.
At the Cartel, our team includes some data geeks and strategy freaks who enjoy designing, implementing, reading and analysing data. So, be our guest: let us lead your marketing and translate it for you in a clear and accessible way so you are sure to understand what is going on.
