Role of Analytics in Marketing

“Without big data, you are blind and deaf and in the middle of a freeway.” – Geoffrey Moore

A Forbes article highlights that according to a survey of 300 small to mid-size businesses conducted by BIA/Kelsey, 40% of small to midsize businesses (SMBs) are planning on increasing their digital spending budgets within the year. SMBs are doing so because they realize that their customers are online.

Today, we are producing more data than ever before. Every click contributes to an increasingly large and varied dataset. Analytics turns this wealth of information into valuable insights – insights that are being put to use by a broad spectrum of industries all over the world. Over the last decade or so, marketing has been revolutionized by data analytics, allowing brands to deliver more targeted messaging as well as to measure their return on investment. Gaining insights into customer behavioral patterns plays a crucial role in creating focused and targeted campaigns. Big data helps make sense of the information gathered, such as retention cost, average transaction value and even customer satisfaction.

Netflix, for instance, customizes TV shows and Movies offerings based on the customers’ playlists. By collecting data on metrics such as the genre of TV shows a user watches, the amount of time spent on a single show, preferences for particular actors, for example, Netflix is able to use this information to accurately calculate how much a user is worth.

Power of Data Analytics

Using the power of data analytics, advertisers can identify emerging trends and provide real-time live ad options. Since the key component of advertising is reaching the right audience at the right time, big data will help predict purchases, identify and analyze consumer behavior and the type of performance that certain segments of your audiences will perform against. With this information, companies can target users in existing online communities, and then use the data to identify patterns, make predictions and better understand the needs of their clientele. Advertising agencies are able to gather information about consumers’ motivations

Reports show that there is not only a 1,000% return on investment by those companies that implement analytics but that social enterprise actually performs better. Traditional advertising once involved circulating ideas and pitches through various departments. Today, working with big data companies, advertisers can use these collaborations and partnerships to create original campaigns, and at a faster pace.

If you are the owner of a small to mid-size business, you are most likely putting a lot of money, time, and effort into making your consumer’s web experience a successful one, but how do you know it is working? Analytics provide direct insight into how your site is doing and what your customers are saying about your product or your business. The data equips you with the ability to decide what’s working and where you can make improvements.