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Marketing As a Science: Becoming a Data-Driven Organisation

Marketing As a Science: Becoming a Data-Driven Organisation

It’s time to make data-driven decisions.

The science around building products and services that really connect is available. 

We often get asked; “how do we become a more data-driven organisation”?. No doubt you’ve heard people saying; ‘data is the new oil.’ What they mean by that is that your business has the ability to set their strategy and to take action, based on real-time facts served as data via the systems you use. No more guesswork – real data about your products, your partners, your customers on an ongoing basis. That’s the lubricant that is new oil that powers a company’s engine.

But data means process and science. This often means a fundamental change in how your company works. You presumably weren’t very scientific up until now?

Of course, most companies are too busy running their business to spend time learning about data, so if you’re just starting out, then it may be worth talking to an expert who can help you.

Thanks to the convergence of the cloud, big data, social media, and mobile devices, even SME companies that understand their technology and client base can compete with multinationals with massive budgets. But collecting the data won’t make you a data-driven company.

Data touches multiple departments. Every process, every individual task, every workflow has to be challenged if you are going to become more scientific; and silos will have to disappear. Different departments and their systems will have to start talking to each other. Only then you will start to deliver new value to your customers.

Data – Quickwins;

Some common and very simple things could be solved with data;

Try to structure your business in such a way that the data coming in is actionable; you can respond to what it’s telling you and measure the results. Collect and store data so that it is secure yet still accessible to the people who need it when they need it.

Make sure that the analysis which flows out of your data is not just sitting on a database somewhere, inaccessible to the people who could use it to make informed choices about how to improve the customer experience, or the product.

Example 1 – Bras N Things must not be integrating systems

Buying a product from Bras N things recently saw me receiving a feedback email from the company despite the fact my product had not yet even arrived. So the marketing email got triggered without cross checking with the shipping department? The data is clearly not integrated or shared?. #quickwins

Example 2 – Ticketmaster send untargeted emails

TicketMaster send me countless reminders to get tickets to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (I bought my tickets nearly 6 months ago) the purchasing of the tickets appears not to have taken me of the prospect list. #quickwins

Data-driven examples; Here are three ways to think about how you should use your data:

Data Driven Organisations

How to become data driven as an organisation?

Data-driven product development

Product managers can utilise data to solve everyday problems and improve efficiency. They can use analytics to determine whether a particular launch of a product or service you offer is achieving the expected outcomes. Next, they can adjust the work or the product and then, once again, measure the results from the beginning of the next phase.   

Data to improve team performance

Your journey into becoming a data-driven organisation will have a great impact on your employees. They may even feel nervous and fear getting “replaced”. But by improving internal process and automating functions with the help of data, your team can be freed-up to focus on other areas, e.g.improving customer service, or operational efficiencies.

Data to get to better serve your your customer 

As we wrote in an earlier blog post entitled Digital Transformation – An outside in process, ‘any experience with a company that is not hyper-personal, relevant and tailored to our situation is a “mhew” experience. Customers know you collect data, so use it so that they benefit from that.’

Shape your marketing strategy with the help of the data you collect. The use of marketing automation tools is only as good as the data that is collected and used. And if you are a forward thinking company, and when you have data, you can train an AI system too to start adding value to your customers. (read our earlier blog entitled Adapting Your Business Priorities in the Face of Advancements in AI)

Being a data-driven company is as much about the tools and systems that you need to have in place as it is about how you use that data to personalise marketing messages.

In many ways, this data-driven landscape is really a new, more effective approach to answering an age-old question: ‘How can I add value for my consumer?’ The ways that you use data to answer that question could be the success or failure of your endeavours.

Traffic Act helps its customers define what the role of digital is in the business and develops a roadmap with you of how digital will help you achieve your goals. Get in touch with if you want to extend the conversation about what your data can do. 

About Jen

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