Marketing decisions today cannot be based on mere instincts or gut feeling. Data holds immense value especially when customers interact with a brand through multiple touch-points and through multiple ways.
With digital becoming the way of life, consumers interact with a brand across multiple touch-points in several different ways. However, this has also led to a trend where customers manage a large part of their relationship with a brand without any human involvement. A Gartner Research report predicts that “customers will manage 85 percent of their relationship without talking to a human by 2020.” What it means for marketers is that they have to deal with an enormous amount of data in days to come and not knowing what to do with data could be a major impediment.
As Jim Barksdale rightly mentions, “If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” The same is very apt to present day marketing. The Internet is generating an immense amount of customer data which may help marketers plan better marketing strategies and help an organization with their Account Based Marketing initiatives.
The biggest challenge in using data as a marketing resource is making sense out of it. A big chunk of customer data is unorganized, unstructured, and ambiguous. Big Data gives us an opportunity to derive useful insights and understand the correlations using several clearly defined questions. However, we must be able to establish the relevant questions. If we end up finding the right answers to the wrong questions, our big data investments are pointless.
What may help to attract and retain customers on the Internet is highly complicated. This is why CMOs these days are highly fanatical towards the use of Big Data to accurately measure consumer sentiments and to design the best possible customer experience across all touch-points. However, Big Data is not a magic wand. When it comes to making use of Big Data analytics applications, most CMOs lack the required preparedness. They can see the opportunities they can unlock in this area but are not sure if they are ready for yet another technological advancement.
CMOs might have their reservations in taking their first step towards embracing new technologies but they must understand that they have no other choice but to make way for a successful adoption. This can be done through appropriately analyzing marketing challenges, analyzing how data can help you overcome those challenges, and building an Analytics Implementation team.
Analyzing Marketing Challenges
The first step for marketers is to understand what their real marketing challenges are. It cannot be the reverse. An organization cannot implement an analytics solution and then figure out which problems can be resolved using the same. If Big Data doesn’t fit with your core organizational needs, then investing in it can be a futile activity.
Analyzing How Data Can Help You Overcome Marketing Challenges
Once you have a clear understanding of your marketing challenges, the next step is to analyze how data insights can help you overcome your biggest marketing challenges. It’s important to keep in mind that when it comes to data analytics metrics, it’s the quality which counts and not the quantity. CMOs need to be gatekeepers of information and make sure the right team is made available with the right information for them to reach the right conclusions. At the same time, it is also important to understand that too little and too much information are both dangerous. The availability of information must be just so it guides the relevant people in making informed decisions.
Building an Analytics Implementation Team
Though it’s not necessary for CMOs to deep dive into understanding the concepts of machine learning and complicated statistics, they must be able to build a team who constitute people who are passionate and brilliant with digging heaps of data and deriving actionable intelligence from the same. Moreover, the team should also have a deeper understanding of what products and services do the organization offer and what are the relative elements that contribute to the growth of the company from the sales and marketing point of view.
