Big Data and Its Role in Marketing

Thomas C Redman, president of Data Quality Solutions once said, “Where there is data smoke, there is business fire.” The quote is the perfect description of the relationship between businesses and the use of data analysis. Decisions made based on the data can change the way your business performs. Big data is a big thing and there’s no dearth of data in the digital world, you can’t deny the fact. But is all the data relevant to your business?

The real work is to scavenge the data useful to your business from the data landfill. Every department of your business can greatly benefit from the information sourced from the goldmine of big data, especially marketing. Did you know? Netflix saves $1 billion per year on customer retention using big data. You can too!

Let’s discuss what big data is and how can it improve the marketing of your business?

What is Big Data?

If you Google Search ‘what is Big Data’, it says, “extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.” In other words, it is the escalating volume, variety, velocity, variability and complexity of information. It also includes the capabilities, competencies and challenges born out of storing and analyzing data sets to help in decision making.

The Role of Big Data in Marketing

Data and its consumption have changed tremendously in the last 20 years. If you think about it, in the past we only collected responses to direct mail campaigns, point of sale transactions, coupon redemption, etc. It has evolved to collecting customer data like click-through rates, online purchase data, mobile device usage, geolocation data, etc. So, the way we save and analyze the data has also changed, in fact, it is continuously transforming.

The field of marketing has also undergone a major metamorphosis since the advancement of big data. DataMeer collated a study that concluded which sections of the sales and marketing department make use of big data the most. The statistics looked like: Customer Analytics (48%), Operational Analytics (21%), Fraud and Compliance (12%), New Product & Service Innovation (10%) and Enterprise Data Warehouse Optimization (10%).

Three types of data are particularly important for marketers:

·        Customer Data: It helps the organization understand their target group. This data group consists of attitudinal, behavioral, and transactional metrics. It is sourced from points of sale, websites, marketing campaigns, social media, etc.

·        Financial Data: This type of data enlightens the organization about its financial performance and helps it operate more efficiently. The data group includes sales and marketing statistics, revenue, sales, costs, profits, etc. Competitors’ financial data can also be a part of this set.

·        Operational Data: This data set includes information about the business processes. It can help one measure the quality of marketing by analyzing resource allocation, marketing operations, customer relationship management systems, resource allocation, etc.

 

Below are the ways big data can elevate your marketing:

Get a Profound View of your Target Audience

There is no room for guesswork in the world of Big Data. You can exactly know who your customers are and what they look like by sieving out customer data suitable for your business. KYC (Know Your Customer) was once limited to financial institutions for preventing bank fraud but because of the availability of big data and cloud computing, every business, whether big or small, can reap the benefits of KYC.

Big Data can significantly improve customer engagement. It can help businesses to know how their customers interact with their brands.

Improve Marketing Campaigns

Now, businesses don’t need to solely rely on the expertise of the marketer for guiding their marketing campaigns. You don’t need to target more people in the hopes of procuring more sales. You can use big data to target the people who interact with your business and are interested in your products. This information can also help marketers build user/marketing personas.

Businesses can use cookie files to track the actions of their customers. It will allow them to curate and personalize the marketing content that will suit their patronage. For example, Netflix uses Big Data for showing you personalized recommendations. Remarketing ads, the ones that keep following you everywhere, are also a product of Big Data.

About 58% of CMOs say big data has the largest impact on their marketing programs like SEO, e-mail marketing and mobile.

Enhance Customer Service

Big data can help you greatly in enhancing your customer service experience. Happy customers mean more sales. By analyzing big data, you can know the trends based on your customers’ happiness or grievances. It can help you in taking business decisions accordingly.

Chatbots are also an effective way to keep your customers happy. Chatbot software uses big data for automating conversations with customers. It provides easy and quick customer service and information.

Deciding the Price of the Products

Traditionally, the price of a product was decided based on the cost of production, the price of the competitive product and the spending capacity of the customer. While the traditional way of pricing is not outdated, it leaves out specific details and patterns that have the potential to benefit the business. Big data can help decide pricing for each customer based on factors like product preferences, economic viability and sales negotiations. It also helps companies automate the prices of thousands of products for each customer segment. You will end up saving a lot of time and price products more accurately with fewer human errors. It is a win-win situation.

Big data can open a world of opportunities for businesses that have been relying on traditional ways of marketing. The world is turning more digital as you read this blog. We need means to stay relevant in this digital world and big data is one of the ways to do that. However, as mentioned in the opening lines, all the data is not relevant to your business, the real success is hidden under the fluff. Your skill to analyze the data will decide the fate of your business. Big data may sound fancy but it has its own set of challenges like knowing what data to gather, which analytical tool to use, and how to go from data insight to impact.

Have you faced similar challenges? Do you feel that your marketing campaigns aren’t able to attract customers?

It is time to look into that data. The team of seasoned data analysts at Jupyter Analytica can help you rise above the clutter and make solid changes that will positively impact the marketing of your business. Let’s sit and talk about how we can help you to unlock the potential of your business using data.