8 Insights Marketing Teams Can Glean from Data Analytics

One of the most exciting applications of data analytics is in the service of marketing. The end-to-end process of connecting with customers is both complex and consequential, with countless variables to track, compare, and contrast. That is exactly why huge portions of current marketing budgets go wasted. And it is also why data-driven insights have such a positive impact on marketing efforts.

The sales process generates relevant insights at every touch point. By tracking, storing, and then analyzing that data, marketers can understand customer behavior in an empirical way. And as that understanding matures, it makes decisions about marketing more objective and more effective at the same time.

To understand how this works in practice, consider eight actionable insights that marketing teams can glean from data analytics:

  • Adjust Pricing Strategies – Price points have a huge impact on how well a product sells. Data-driven insights related to specific product categories and refined customer demographics help marketing departments calibrate prices for maximum effect. Similar data can be used to determine when to run sales and how much to lower prices.
  • Improve Customer Responsiveness – The ability of a brand to respond to the needs and wants of customers is a major marketing priority these days. In hyper competitive industries, the brands that understand and incorporate their customer base are the ones that succeed. Data reveals what customers’ true preferences are, allowing brands to adjust in a strategic way.
  • Cultivate Customer Relationships – A loyal customer is far more valuable than a one-time customer. By storing data from each interaction marketers can create portraits of individual customers and of customer segments. That data is extremely useful when trying to encourage repeat business or brand evangelism.
  • Expedite Go-to-Market Strategies – Maximizing the impact of a new product or service requires the careful consideration of multiple data sets. Analytics makes this process easier by identifying anomalies, trends, patterns, and contrasts in stark detail. This data informs how a go-to-market strategy should target specific geographic areas or customer segments.
  • Perfect Digital Efforts – Online interactions are a gold mine of data. The more a marketer understand how users behave online, the more they can tailor their digital efforts to drive traffic and increase conversions. Data analytics lead to everything from more user-friendly websites to more impactful messaging to more effective ad placement.
  • Promote Customer Loyalty – Offering perks and rewards to loyal customers is a great way to drive sales, but the offers must be carefully calibrated to be generous and cost effective at the same time. Data from past and present loyalty programs leads to more effective loyalty programs
  • Synthesize the Onmichannel – Business are increasingly relying on in-person, online, and hybrid touch points to capture the largest number of sales possible. But managing an omnichannel effort is challenging from a marketing perspective because there are so many interactions and so many ad opportunities. Data analytics is a way to streamline the effort and to glean greater insights by cross comparing channels.

Marketing analytics have a lot to offer, but they are only a means to an end. More than one marketer has made a big commitment to analytics only to find themselves overwhelmed with complex data, unexpected costs, and uncertain insights.

Marketing analytics are only an asset when they make it easy and intuitive to work with data. They must be able to integrate disparate data sets with little effort. And they should be flexible enough to allow marketers to search for insights at will. The goal is to spend less time navigating through the data and more time putting the data to use.

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