The way that customers purchase products or services online is constantly evolving. Businesses want results fast and will set high expectations from their marketing teams to deliver.
The most efficient way to get customers to buy is knowing the factors that influence their decisions.
Enter data-driven marketing.
This technique allows marketers to create hyper-specific campaigns that drive sales and boost conversions.
But what is it and how does it work?
This article will explain it all.
What Is Data-Driven Marketing?
Data-driven marketing is the process of analyzing customer behavior, web analytics and converting the data collected into actionable strategies. The purpose of data-driven marketing is to provide personalized and relevant customer experiences.
Modern marketers know that this technique is the key to converting visitors into buyers.
The only way to meet these goals is by getting to know their customers and using their online tendencies to their advantage.
How Does Data-Driven Marketing Work?
Marketers use data-driven marketing strategies to create personalized messages that provide value to their audience. There are plenty of ways marketing teams can achieve this.
The first is by using a recipient’s first name in an email, rather than a standard ‘Hello’ or ‘Dear Sir/Madam’. This instantly connects the sender to the receiver, making them more likely to continue reading the email, increasing open rates, click-through rates and, ultimately, conversions.
Data driven marketing can also be used to give customers the right information at the right time. This includes targeting consumers across multiple platforms, including emails, social media posts and even text messages. Automation ensures content and brand messages don’t come across as spammy.
Benefits Of Data-Driven Marketing
According to this ComboApp article, there are 5 main benefits of data-driven marketing:
- Personalization
- Better decision-making
- Informative product development
- Interactions in real-time
- Consistent results
Personalization
Personalization provides marketing teams with the opportunity to give their customers exactly what they want from their online experience.
Regardless of whether your business requires B2C marketing or B2B marketing, this technique can help businesses deliver products and services relevant to the viewers’ needs, as opposed to sending templated content or information.
Personalization is also key to creating meaningful and long-lasting relationships with customers.
Better Decision-Making
Data-driven marketing provides marketing teams with meaningful data, meaning the insights needed to determine what customers like and engage with online and offline.
By knowing what customers are looking for, it becomes easier to predict what they will do when they come across new content.
This leads to better, more informed decisions on how to interact with customers and focus on the most effective campaigns.
Informative Product Development
Businesses also benefit from data-driven marketing tactics during the product development stage. This is because they develop an understanding of what customers really want from their product.
This includes how it functions, how it looks, etc, driving conversions up and keeping existing customers satisfied.
Interactions With Consumers In Real-Time
It’s important for every business to know where their target audience ‘hangs out’ online. Data-driven marketing allows businesses to target multiple sources, no matter where they are in the world.
But even more importantly, data-driven marketing opens the gateway to a topic that is becoming more and more popular among marketers around the world: predictive analytics. Predictive analytics refers to the science of not only collecting information about specific consumer behavior but also predicting how consumers will react with a brand in the future.
Whether it’s on-the-go via mobile sites or during business hours on the desktop, marketers have the information they need to create strategies that convert users in the most efficient manner.
Consistent Results
Finally, data-driven marketing ensures that the entire marketing team are on the same page. This means that no matter if there is a sudden change in circumstance, consistent methods can be applied.
From here, marketers can take all appropriate action and expect the same results. Businesses can also benefit from this if key team members are away or leave the organization, as all processes remain the same.
Examples Of Data-Driven Marketing
Data-driven marketing can be used down multiple stages of the marketing funnel, including email marketing, advertising and retargeting.
Email Marketing
This is one of the most commonly used marketing strategies. We have already shown that even using the recipient’s first name can personalize the email but data-driven marketing can take this even further.
Emails help to define a buyer persona based on the information they wish to receive. This enables marketers to share content based on what that particular customer requires, rather than sending out blanket emails that may not have any impact or use to them.
Advertising
The insights gained from analyzing customers’ behavior help to create personalized ads. These can be placed over the internet based on where ideal customers hang out online, including forums, directories and social media.
However, it’s important to note a business’ industry will have an effect on where the data is collected. For example, some marketing techniques are better applied to sites like LinkedIn, whereas businesses that sell prints and art are better suited to sharing their ads through Instagram.
Retargeting
No matter if customers leave the website, web or mobile app, data-driven marketing can give marketers insights through retargeting tactics. Not all visitors are looking to buy on the first visit – they may just be looking for a quick answer and value – so retargeting can remind them of the product or service. Again, retargeting can be applied to social media.
The better the personalization, the better the effect. For example, if a customer has just purchased internet security from an IT company, data-driven marketing may suggest to retarget them with bigger online storage facilities.
Challenges
While it’s easy to see the benefits, it’s worth being aware of some of the challenges marketers are facing.
One of the biggest hurdles marketers must overcome is finding the right data to collect in the first place.
There is also the challenge of knowing the right questions to ask consumers. As the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out.
Marketers must know the goals of the business to ensure that the data they are collecting is the correct data and they are getting it by asking the right questions to the right people.
Conclusion
Data-driven marketing allows marketing teams to create personalized campaigns that improve customer satisfaction and service. As marketing becomes tailored to the customer, they become more likely to buy.
