Data-driven marketing is one of the hottest topics every marketer is raving about. But, what is it? Which are the most sought-after data-backed marketing strategies to watch out for in 2022?
Clive Humby, the genius mathematician and data science entrepreneur, said, “Data is the new oil.” Since then, countless marketers, data experts and entrepreneurs have repeated his phrase. And, rightly so, data has immense potential to become your most precious marketing resource.
The ferocity with which customers create data every time they make a purchase today is nothing short of a marketer’s dream. Why? Because if you know how to harness this data, you can figure out what drives your leads to buy certain products, and more importantly, what makes them discard specific offerings.
What is data-driven marketing?
In a nutshell, data-driven marketing is a methodology that leverages actionable insights about customer behavior from large and raw datasets. Think of it as mining a relevant chunk of data from big data to predict lead behavior. Doing this can help you effectively position your brand within the right market segment.
Also, when you know what your target audience usually goes for in terms of pricing, quality, features, etc., you can design better products and market them with the right messaging. Know that creating a marketing plan based on hunches alone is now archaic modus operandi.
No wonder 64% of marketers admit that data-backed marketing is irreplaceable in today’s competitive landscape. Even then, only a few leading marketing experts utilize this asset. In fact, for a whopping 87% of marketers, customer data is their most underutilized asset.
There isn’t a shred of doubt that data-driven marketing is the next normal, which is why you must incorporate it in different ways. Not sure how you can strategize marketing with the help of customer data? Read our next section to find out.
Effective data-driven marketing strategies to nail conversions
Here are five ways in which expert marketers can leverage insights about customers and use them to inform their marketing strategies.
- Content personalization
Gone are the days when generic ad campaigns decked the TV screens and email inboxes of customers. Today, data empowers marketers to specifically study what buyers are looking for. And pitch them products they truly need.
Personalization is also key to nudging buyers sitting at the top of the sales funnel toward the mid and bottom of the funnel. How? By sharing valuable content that’s relevant to them.
For example, suppose you are marketing CRM software. Now, you access data about a bunch of HR firms trying to figure out the benefits of CRM. Even though these companies might want to purchase robust CRM software someday, pitching them your solution straightaway will only cause annoyance.
Instead, educating them on how CRM software can solve their rostering, scheduling and employee onboarding problem and then introducing your offering might lead to conversion. But, you can only do this if you leverage data to personalize communication. Data-driven marketing does not just tell you what to pitch to a buyer but also when.
- Omni channel optimization
Sure, everybody is touting how great social media marketing is, but this generic piece of information might not be accurate for your lead set. Alternatively, most marketers in your industry might pitch new products or features primarily through email marketing, but your research may show that social media is the right channel.
The point is if you have data, you don’t have to rely on guesswork or prevalent industry trends to figure out the right marketing platforms you must prioritize. Lead data can tell you where your potential customers hang out digitally and also highlight the platforms they use most to engage with different brands.
Once you mine this data, you know which platforms are dead for marketing and which you must not miss. For all you know, there may be more marketing channels you need to employ rather than the usual, like email and social media marketing.
Moreover, figuring out the right marketing channel is simply the beginning. You must ensure all these channels contain consistent branding and communication tone. Lastly, leads keep shifting their channel preferences. So, consult customer data regularly to keep modifying your omnichannel marketing strategies.
- Predictive analytics
Predictive analytics algorithms use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify behavioral patterns and cross-reference them with historical customer data. Through this technology, marketers can flesh out accurate ideal customer profiles (ICPs). Different ICPs can help you prioritize certain leads, the kind of content to share with them, where and when.
Predictive analytics models can also forecast the future buying trends and patterns of certain ICPs. If you want to be an astute marketer, foresight into how a customer will take to your product or whether a certain set will be interested in your offering all together is critical. And, predictive analytics can award you that!
- Search engine optimization
Data can inform marketers of the keywords and phrases their ideal customers use to look for a particular product or service. Moreover, you’d be surprised how many leads these days are typing in needs rather than a brand or product name on search engines like Google.
Customer data can record the needs they type in the form of long-tail and short-tail keywords, and you can access them easily. Once you do, your SEO team can embed these magic words and phrases in all of your content. Doing this will drop your web page on the very first search result of Google, which will automatically get you higher traffic, thus leading to higher conversions.
- Campaign duration
It’s all well and good if you’re using customer data to create ICPs, personalize content for them, and optimize this very content for search engines. But is this enough? Well, almost! The only aspect missing is the know-how of when to halt a particular email or social media campaign or any other type of marketing campaign. And, data can tell you when!
Customer data can inform you of the expiry date of your marketing campaign through parameters that gauge lead engagement. At which point, you should either modify your pitching strategy or change it altogether. Timely data intervention in altering or replacing your marketing strategy can keep your leads engaged with your brand for a longer duration.
The bottom line
Know that data-driven marketing will be at the very core of every marketing activity in the future. It will continue providing companies with in-depth intelligence on their customers and leads. This will only make every marketing communication more accurate and up the conversion rates.
So, if you are yet to jump on the customer data bandwagon, know that your competitors already have!
