How to Get Started with Data-Driven Marketing
Marketing has undergone a fundamental shift. Gone is the old approach – working off assumptions or a gut feeling. Today, marketers turn to the most reliable source of information – customer data and data-driven Marketing!
While the marketing “spray and pray” approach did work for some businesses, it now has very limited impact. Consumers are demanding more personalised and joined-up experiences, and this has put a priority on data-driven marketing.
Did you that nearly 50% of consumers won’t read or engage with content if it isn’t relevant to their interests.
There’s an old business adage that says, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Say hello to your little friend – data-driven marketing!
PRO TIP: Implement a single point of truth CRM, Sales and Marketing tool to ensure all relevant prospect and customer data is captured. That brings us on nicely to Data-driven Marketing!
What is Data-Driven Marketing?
Data-driven marketing is the approach of optimising brand communications based on customer information. Data-driven marketers use customer data to predict their needs, desires and future behaviours. Such insight helps develop personalised marketing strategies for the highest possible return on investment (ROI).
In its simplest form, marketing has always focused on two objectives. First, to discover customers’ needs and desires. And then, using that insight to deliver what customers wanted to buy – the more data the more insight!
The bottom line is data-driven marketing allows marketers to connect with customers at the right time with the right offering.
Strategies and Best Practices for Data-driven Marketing
Importance of First-Party Data
Regulations such as GDPR have reduced the ability of marketers to leverage third-party data. Browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Bing, and Chrome, which together control over 90% of the browser market share, have each stated that they intend to tighten privacy restrictions in the future.
This is where first-party data comes in — or in simple terms, data that you have captured from your own audience / prospects / customers. As restrictions on third-party data continue to tighten, first-party data will only become more important.
PRO TIP: Bring your prospect and customer data together – website enquiries, survey completions, customer sign ups, responders to Paid Ads, subscriber preferences, demographic/firmographic/Psychographic data attributes to support data-driven marketing strategy.
Create Cohesive Customer Journeys
Multi-channels and multi-touchpoints have the ability to create complex and broken customer journeys. At the same time, consumers have a huge expectation, and businesses need to consider how to unify disparate channels and create a cohesive personalised customer experience. The bottom line is a disjointed experience will lose you sales and customers.
Marketing Attribution
Building on the connectedness of marketing channels and touchpoints, it’s key to know which interactions, marketing activities are impacting your revenue, so that you can invest more in what’s working and possible stop activities which are not making a return on your investment.
Data could reveal not only a target audience’s preferences. It could also suggest what channels a brand should use to engage their audience now and in the future.
Such insight, in turn, could help them position the message where its target audience is or is going to be soon.
Personalisation, Optimisation and Targeting
By knowing what stage your customers are at in their buying cycle, you can leverage known data attributes you have collected about them, and any further insight on how they have engaged with your website, email, chatbot, social media and other digital content.
This provides the ability to get more personalised and targeted, for example, you can show them dynamic content on your website or emails that relate to their needs and wants or issues they might be experiencing. Another example could be someone browses specific products on your website, customer data allows you to resurface those products to that consumer through strategies like social media advertising or abandoned cart email marketing.
Retargeting enables you to keep your brand top-of-mind among prospects/customers who have expressed interest in your products and services – again data-driven marketing decisions can be made.
Data Management and Segmentation
Data-driven marketing equips you to accurately segment your audience (and automate your segmentation efforts). Segmentation is particularly important with email marketing, social media marketing, and retargeting.
The success of your data-driven marketing depends on the accuracy of your customer data. You could have the most seamless data collection process in place, but that data would be useless if it didn’t correctly reflect your customers and target market.
All the data in the world is worthless if you don’t follow the law, stay compliant, and respect your customer’s privacy.
Sales and Marketing Team Alignment
By centering your marketing (and sales and support) efforts around a customer database platform, you can ensure your entire company is working with the same data and presenting a cohesive customer experience.
Data-Driven Marketing Tools
The right tools, such as CRM, Marketing Automation, AI, analytics are vital to data-driven Marketing.
Today’s consumers are browsing and shopping on multiple devices and platforms. Do you think they want to be treated as multiple customers based on these behaviors? Absolutely not.
Wondering how to get started with data-driven marketing? Try these tools to track, manage, and apply your customer data.
Final Reflection
Stop trying to sell more, start getting to know your customers! Customer data has the power help you know your customers, grab their attention, align your teams and grow your business.
Curious about benefits, features and pricing of Data-Driven Marketing Tools?
Choose The One That Fits Your Business – Download Our Free Platform Comparison Guide.
About Autus
Autus provide Revenue Growth Platforms, Marketing & Sales Automation and Digital Marketing services to help sales and marketing personnel and teams build efficient and effective sales and marketing best practices and automate their marketing and sales processes by leveraging personalised content, various digital marketing tactics, segmentation and behaviour of their prospects and customers.
Autus recommend various products for automation, such as Active Campaign, Hubspot, Mailchimp and SharpSpring…it will vary on your requirements and budget the best option for your business.
Find out more here.
Our founder, Tom Berry, also provides selective fractional CMO services and is a member of some client boards.
Let’s keep in touch!
If our team at Autus can help advise further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our founder, Tom Berry.
