Big data already plays a big role in digital marketing. And this is only going to get bigger as technology, information and data become easier to access. Some sectors, such as retail, may have led the way when it comes to using big data, but now it’s time for all companies – regardless of sector or size – to adopt and integrate it into their digital marketing operations, as a way to inform and shape their strategies, plans and tactics. So how has big data changed digital marketing and what can businesses do to keep up with their competitors?
Getting personal
Increasingly companies and brands have come to understand the importance of communicating and engaging with audiences not just on a large scale, but in a way that effectively targets individuals. And one of the benefits of big data is its ability to personalise marketing messages and content in a way that achieves both.
Big data might be perceived as being about the masses, but through careful analysis of it – while teaming it with your own insights and research – you can identify relevant patterns of behaviour, attitudes and opinions, which will help you communicate to individuals.
Supermarkets have been using big data for years, collating information from loyalty cards to get a detailed insight into their customers’ lifestyles and behaviour. We know that this has been useful in tailoring and targeting digital marketing content, messages and promotions, and that online retailers have found it effective in creating personal recommendations to customers based on their web searches and past purchases. But this attitude towards big data is now being adopted across other sectors.
Universities, for example, have started to wake up to the benefits of big data. Typically, their messages need to speak to several different audiences at any one time, be that undergraduate or postgraduate, UK-based or overseas, investor or employee, student or parent. And with big data, they now have the tools and technology to create online platforms that can effectively communicate to hundreds of thousands of people, changing the user journey, marketing content and call to action depending on who they are, where they’re based, why they’re visiting the site, what they want and how they want this information.
Gathering insights
Big data is most effective when used alongside your own research and insights and it’s important to consider using several sources, such as large data files and reports from third party companies to internal sales reports and website analytics.
It’s vital not to forget the human element. Big data is great, but it needs to be combined with insight gleaned from people. Whether this is face-to-face interviews, surveys, focus groups and user tests, or just speaking and listening to your target audience, this can help humanise your research efforts and anchor your findings in a context that improves relevancy – so you’re better equipped to achieve your goals.
If you have a clear idea of what you want, based on the wants, needs, drivers and behaviours of your audience, you can determine exactly what research will enable you to elevate any existing data and insights you may have, make it relevant to that audience and feed it into your digital marketing activity in a meaningful way.
It’s also worth remembering that if your company is able to collate its own data and information, this not only becomes a very valuable asset to you – but also to others. Big data collated by your own marketing department becomes your intellectual property, and is something that can put you ahead of your competition, or even make you money if you choose to commercialise and sell it on to third parties.
A particular set of skills
Traditionally, marketers had to be creative and skilled with words and visuals. The emergence of digital marketing has seen more technical and analytical skills required, but now more than ever with the increasing importance of data and insights, professionals in this industry need to be confident at handling and analysing statistics.
Ensuring existing and new employees are skilled, trained and confident in this area is a challenge for digital marketing teams. Yes, employees can be brought on for their specific analytical skills and knowledge, but they also need to have an understanding and appreciation of the wider world of marketing and what it’s trying to achieve. Likewise, some marketers may be set in their ways and determined that they’re not ‘numbers people’ but they have to become numbers people – even if they themselves aren’t analysing the data, they need to be able to take the findings and patterns and feed this effectively into the marketing campaign.
Marketing is all about communicating to people – and to some marketers, numbers are as far away from people as you can get. But this is wrong. We’ve never had so much valuable information available, and by identifying patterns, trends and even anomalies we can make digital marketing more intelligent and relevant, cementing it as an even more pivotal role in any organisation’s overall business strategy and plan.
A learning curve
Digital marketers need to make sure they have a clear objective of what it is they’re trying to achieve from using and analysing big data. We have so much information available and tools to generate graphs, statistics and reports – but we can run the risk of using and regurgitating data and insights just because it’s there, rather than for any meaningful reason.
If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve when you start collating and analysing data, you’re already set to fail and risk drowning in information. Information and data is incredibly valuable – but only if you know what it is you’re dealing with. So whether you’re looking to improve the user journey of your website, make promotions more relevant to each customer, ensure the right communications channels are being used, or diversify your products or services, start with clear objectives and a desired outcome and always go back to these to make sure you’re staying on the right track.
The process of using big data in digital marketing needs to be fluid and continuous – just because you’ve done it once and have had the desired outcome, doesn’t mean you should stop feeding into it. The whole process should take time, thought and effort if you are to analyse and integrate into your marketing campaigns the right way. And remember, what’s relevant to your customers, stakeholders and business today may not be tomorrow – so update, adapt and evolve if you plan to stay relevant and retain that success.
By Chris Hodgen, managing director at Absolute
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