It surely seems like every aspect of business is being taken over by big data analytics. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, by the way. Big data can lead to streamlined operations, improved productivity, and fascinating business insights. The fact that analytics have made major inroads into nearly every company department is a testament to how versatile the technology is. Fewer areas have seen as much of an impact from big data as the marketing department. Not only do company executives expect big data analytics to play a big role in marketing strategies, they would prefer it to be that way. A recent survey shows that 70 percent of CMOs say that companies now expect marketing decisions based upon analytics, so any marketing teams not showing big data prowess will likely find themselves falling behind. If anything, analytics is now an essential ingredient for marketing efforts to be successful.
For many years, marketers had limited information to go on when crafting their marketing strategies. Of course, at the time the data they had was valuable and helped in creating broad campaigns intended for as large of an audience as possible. But that was yesterday. Today, with much more data at their fingertips, marketers have the ability to target and personalize campaigns. The clear reason for doing this is that campaigns that are broadly focused are less successful than the more focused variety. A campaign that treats each current and potential customer as an individual with a specially tailored message will likely get a much better and consistent response when compared with a campaign with a generally applied strategy.
This is much easier said than done, though. Utilizing analytics takes special skills and talents in order to interpret the analytical results and know how best to apply them. Beyond that, marketers also need to know how big data will impact their efforts and initiatives. Predictive modeling in particular can be especially helpful in this regard. With predictive modeling, marketers can lay out future strategies and discover what kind of affects their campaigns will have on product sales and brand sentiment. Coming up with an accurate picture can be a complicated task, particularly when compiling data from multiple sources, but the results add true business value to an organization and increased confidence in the marketing team.
Gaining the big data skills necessary to fully utilize big data analytics can make for a tough transition for marketers. For that reason, it may be best for organizations to hire a data scientist for the marketing team. Data scientists can help make sense of the vast amounts of data marketers are collecting. They can also point them in the right direction to go when it comes to finding key discoveries necessary for success. They can also teach marketers about the different types and qualities of data. One such important distinction to make is the difference between consumer analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) analytics. Consumer analytics is the insight marketers gain on how consumers feel about a product or business. IoT analytics, using devices connected to the IoT, provides businesses with insight on how consumers actually use their products. Both can be valuable, but in many ways IoT analytics can more fully show just how effective a marketing campaign is. Data scientists can better integrate the two types of analytics into a fully fleshed out strategy.
There are times, however, when hiring a data scientist simply isn’t possible for a business. Luckily numerous companies and big data analytics tools have been developed to help in this endeavor. Some of these companies include Mixpanel, Kapost, Marketing Evolution, and many others, each with unique features and capabilities. Add in the tools available through cloud computing solutions, and a variety of resources are available to a marketing team to make full use of analytics to improve their campaigns and reach new customers.
No single strategy is foolproof when it comes to marketing, but it’s become clear in recent years that any strategy not including analytics will ultimately see limited success. Marketers with knowledge about big data analytics and the tools they can use will have a clear advantage as they help their respective companies move into the future. With marketing analytics spending expected to double through 2016, it’s important for marketers to prepare now if they wish to see plenty of success in the years to come.
