Data-driven marketing

What is data-driven marketing and what is it for

The Anglo-Saxon term“data-driven marketing” refers to the use of statistical analysis and other quantitative methods to support and improve marketing decisions.

Its purpose is to take the guesswork out of brand marketing activities by relying on hard data.

These can be useful for, for example, identifying possible growth opportunities, understanding customer needs and how they interact with the brand, measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign, and more.

The results obtained from the collection and subsequent analysis of quantitative data can be used to improve the customer experience, product or service.

All of which ultimately lead to increased revenue and ROI.

Not only that, data-driven decision making, unlike traditional techniques, uses predictive analyticstools.

These enable marketers to generate more accurate predictions of future market behavior based on current trends.

Data-driven marketing can be considered a subset of marketing analytics,
which is the process of collecting and analyzing data to make informed business decisions.

Obviously, possessing a lot of data does not mean you have completed the job.

In data-driven marketing, it is important to make sure that you are collecting the right data, as well as analyzing and interpreting it in the proper way.

Otherwise, the information and insights collected could be misleading.

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In summary, it is important for:

• Understanding one’s audience: a data-driven marketing strategy helps to fully understand who one’s target customers are in order to tailor messages to their needs.
• Making better decisions: data is a key support in understanding and deciding which tactics work and which do not, and to what extent. The same logic applies to individual content as well!
• Increase efficiency: using data to drive your marketing campaigns and measure their effectiveness can save time and money by investing only in the best tactics for your company.

Some examples of data-driven marketing

As we have seen, data-driven marketing is now an important differentiator.

For this very reason, it should not be missing from the strategic plans of startups and established companies.

It can be used in many different ways. For example, to:

1. Structure highly personalized e-mail campaigns. By thoroughly understanding your customers, what they want and what motivates them, you can create personalized messages that best accompany them at each stage of the buying process. In this case, data can be collected from social channels, information at the time of registration and/or sign-up, as well as from cookies. Moreover, this strategy is perfectly suited to both B2C and B2B companies.

2. Create targeted advertising campaigns. Data-driven marketing is very useful for planning ads that show potential customers exactly what they want, on the most appropriate channel and at the perfect time. This strategy can also be useful for remarketing campaigns.

3. Structure your social in a way that creates engagement and community. Knowing what works (and what, on the other hand, is a waste of time) also allows you to plan content creation more appropriately. Not only at the level of ads, but also at the level of regular posts. This applies to every social, from the most professional and proper ones in B2B markets, such as Linkedin, as well as Instagram!

Data eliminates the need to rely solely on instinct, on the expert’s intuition.

Collecting data: the process and limitations of this strategy

Data-driven marketing can be used in various ways to improve business results (and thus profits).

This can be done by gathering information about customers, products and services through, for example, market research, analyzing this information against trends in one’s industry and using it to create a detailed marketing plan in line with business objectives.

However, it is always a good idea to keep in mind that data-driven marketing is not the answer to every business problem.

In fact, it has inherent limitations.

For example, it is a process that must be constantly refined and updated.

Not only that, it is not always easy to understand which metrics are best, and it does not allow for correcting the limitations of a poor product or service.

Although data can help to better understand customers, in almost all cases their deepest desires and motivations will remain a mystery.

Therefore, data-driven marketing should not be taken as an absolute truth, but as just another tool to improve decision-making processes.

Best tips and tools for data-driven marketing

Collecting and analyzing data means nothing if it lacks insight.

In any case, we have compiled a list of tips to follow in order to create a data-driven marketing strategy capable of yielding good results.

Of course, these are general tips: every company is a unique case, and should be treated as such!

1. Defining goals should always be the first step. In fact, the data to be analyzed changes depending on the results you want to achieve. Wanting to increase the number of people who subscribe to the company newsletter is one thing, increasing sales of a particular good or service is another. Defining them allows you to avoid wasting time and resources on irrelevant data, creating truly impactful strategies and making it easier to focus on an appropriate customer segment, for example.

2. Along with goals, it is also a good idea to establish your budget. If it is a new field, it is necessary to have a budget such that the company can experiment with different tactics until it finds the ones that work best in the specific case.

3. The spotlight? On the customer! . Data-driven marketing is about, as we have seen, better understanding consumers through data. For this, it is important to gather as much information as possible. Market research, surveys and feedback are some of the best ways to begin to understand who we are dealing with. But, there are plenty of channels and software to help companies and marketers understand how customers, including potential customers, act. For example, cookies, buying behavior and social listening data. Once the spotlight is on the general customer, it is time to carve out your target audience. This is one of the most critical steps in business marketing, but also one of the most difficult. You have to take into consideration who your ideal customer is in relation to the goals you want to achieve, and carefully study how, what and where to interact with them.

In addition, the data to be collected and analyzed must be useful at several stages.

First, they must be used to create the data-driven marketingcampaign truly tailored to target audience and business goals.

However, once the campaign is launched, data must be collected and studied to monitor it and, when necessary, correct it.

Finally, once the campaign is over, it will be necessary to evaluate its final results. These will allow you to gather useful insights for the future.

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There are many different tools that can help a company collect and analyze data.

These include:

• Google Analytics: the most popular and comprehensive tool for measuring a website’s traffic; it allows you to understand what customers are looking for, as well as how many of them there are, where they come from and how long they stay on the site. It also allows you to track conversion rates, a very useful feature for eCommerce.
• HubSpot: one of the best all-in-one automation software on the market. It is also one of the most widely used tools for data-driven marketing, because it allows a complete view on content marketing management, SEO and web analytics, landing pages and even social media marketing.
• Buffer: one of the best tools to monitor your social channels, understand what works and have all the best insights to create really top content. Ah, with a super affordable price!