Data-Driven Marketing: 5 Best Strategies to Achieve Better Marketing Results
In a competitive business world, only the companies that leverage the right data will come out on top. There is so much data flowing around the online and offline realms right now that it can be very easy for a company to invest in the wrong marketing tactics or waste time on the wrong sales channels. Whether the data was inconsistent or if the company simply didn’t conduct enough research prior to launching a campaign, there is no denying that this kind of mistake could cost you a lot of marketing dollars.
That’s why it’s so important to start investing in data-driven marketing and decision-making in general. When you base your marketing decisions on relevant customer data, industry and market insights, and viable reports, you can minimize the risk of error, maximize performance, and eliminate financial waste.
If that sounds like something you would be willing to invest in, then let’s talk more about how you can start implementing a data-driven marketing strategy right away.
Collect the right customer data
Every customer touchpoint represents a data pool that you need to tap into in order to generate relevant insights through analysis and reporting. The more touchpoints the customers have with your brand, the harder it gets to collect data efficiently and effectively, which is why you need to rely on automated data acquisition. There comes a point where manual data collection and analysis becomes virtually impossible due to the amount of time, effort, and financial resources it takes.
Instead of allowing your company to hit that brick wall, you want to set automated data collection systems in place to gather customer data across channels and platforms with ease. First, you need to define your data sources. These could include your website, social media, email, customer feedback surveys, reviews, and ratings on third-party websites, and more.
Next, you need to start using the right tools that will automatically collect user and customer data. You can do this easily on your site with cookies, or on your social media with built-in analytics tools. The same goes for email communication with third-party software. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to generate actionable reports.
Collate the data and generate reports
Generating reports is a crucial step towards a better marketing strategy, because you can’t execute new marketing campaigns based on partial findings or without a comprehensive overview of the data. In the other words, just because one data source opened a seemingly lucrative opportunity doesn’t mean that other data sources won’t show a contrasting trend. You need to be careful and not jump the gun, rather, you need to collate all the data into structured, actionable reports.
Keep in mind that all the reports you generate will impact not just one single part of your marketing strategy, but other departments as well – such as sales and support. So, all the more reason to be careful and methodical. You can automate the reporting process as well, as nowadays you can find comprehensive third-party reporting software that even leverages AI systems to generate meaningful insights quickly.
Devise and implement a data-driven strategy
Once you have all the reports ready, you can start putting the findings into actionable steps that will define your new data-driven strategy. Executing digital marketing strategies based on relevant data will often require considerable IT resources, so it’s important to consider migrating your operation to the cloud environment.
The cloud offers various features to marketers and other teams that allow them to manage projects in real time and align their services and tactics to the needs of your customers. What’s more, with the use of expert AWS cloud management and its features, you will be able to minimize your marketing expenses, which is an important step when you’re executing new marketing campaigns.
When you have a cloud environment at your disposal, you’re able to continuously optimize and improve your marketing and sales processes as well, so all the more reason to rely on this tech. That said, whether you’re on the cloud or not, the key part is to use the data to create a strategy that will minimize financial waste and maximize engagement in a concrete timeframe.
Use automation to monitor and optimize
It should go without saying, but a data-driven marketing campaign is not a set-it-and-forget-in type of deal. This approach requires constant monitoring and optimization to deliver the desired results, especially if your goal is to facilitate long-term growth and success. Your priority should be to keep collecting valuable data generated by your marketing campaigns in order to update your reports and make adjustments as necessary throughout the year.
Store and protect your data for future marketing campaigns
Finally, make sure to protect your company data and store your reports and other valuable information in a secure online location for future use. Past marketing data and reports can be invaluable indicators of market and consumer trends, and referring to them in the future can help you optimize your strategy, prepare for another crisis, and avoid making the same mistakes. You can store valuable marketing data on the cloud to make it accessible to all employees but also implement robust security measures that only cloud technology can provide.
Over to you
Data-driven marketing eliminates guessing and allows you to deliver truly impactful campaigns to the competitive online market. Make sure to invest in this marketing approach in 2022 in order to take your company forward and minimize financial waste.
