How To Gain Competitive Advantage Through Data-Driven Marketing

In those early days that saw the birth of the “internet,” data was not seen as valuable. Hence, no one was collecting data, nor was anyone using data as we are today. Website owners were not worried about such things as how much traffic their site was drawing or what their rank in search engines was. They never even knew that browsing activity and behaviour was something that could be useful in any way.

What Is Data-Driven Marketing?

Data-driven marketing refers to a strategy that involves the use of consumer information to optimize brand communications. Data-driven marketers use consumer data to predict their desires, needs, preferences, and also forecast their future purchase behaviour. Thus, they can ensure accurate targeting and creative messaging geared towards optimal return on investment (ROI).

How Crucial Is Data-Driven Marketing?

Data-driven marketing is essential because of the role it plays in aiding businesses and companies to create personalized experiences for individual customers. Enabling them to craft relevant and customized content, cut down the cost of customer acquisition, make informed decisions and take calculated risks, and ultimately, increase revenue generation.

Majority of the fastest-growing companies globally can attain and maintain such heights because they know how best to use their data compared to their competitors. According to a research by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) commissioned by Google, leading businesses who are adopting a path to full data-driven marketing practices are growing their customer base. Such companies record massive return on investment (ROI), while also gaining stronger competitive advantage. And they see up to 30% in cost savings and a 20% increase in revenue.

The study examined the success factors and capabilities of over 40 European companies across eight industries, namely; retail, automotive, consumer goods, entertainment and media, technology, travel, financial services, fashion, and luxury. It found that only 2% of the focus companies were at the forefront where they are experiencing efficiency and gaining ROI benefits.

These successful businesses were, according to the survey, able to achieve massive success through their ability to connect with their customers at many moments, through personalized contents, across their buying journey. Also essential was their ability to forge strategic partnerships, employ specialist skills, and ultimately, implement integrated and automated technology. All of these allowed them to use both connected data and actionable measurements at the same time.

The Benefits of Data-Driven Marketing

Data-driven marketing offers businesses several advantages and massive growth opportunities. Outlined below are some of these benefits:

• Personalized Experience: This is presumably the chief benefit of data-driven marketing. Companies can create well-targeted contents and personalized messaging for the consumer with the help of data-driven marketing.

• Clarity: Data-driven marketing provides a clear-cut distinction between what works and what doesn’t. Hence, you can identify which data or strategy of communication brings the desired result. Also tied to clarity is the ability to maximize time and other resources efficiently.

• Proper Targeting: Because you can segment your prospects along the lines of essential variables like behaviour and action, targeting becomes more natural and effective.

• Timeliness: Data-driven marketing makes it possible to predict consumers’ preference. Therefore, you can pre-target consumers while they are in the active buying phase.

• Informed Product Development: With data-driven marketing, you can reduce the spate of failed products. Because you already know the tastes and preferences of your target market, you will only develop products that suit their needs. 

Is Data-Driven Marketing For Everyone?

Regardless of size, location, and other factors, every business needs a competitive advantage to set it apart from the competition. In today’s highly competitive business space, taking every available position towards growth is crucial. To enable you to establish your business at the top of its peers in the industry. However, the process of gaining a competitive advantage often requires extensive research, strategic planning, and an investment in marketing, mainly, data-driven marketing.

Data-driven marketing is for every business or company that desires to know its customers better as a means to achieve more accurate targeting. And most importantly, develop a highly efficient marketing strategy. 

Adopting Data-Driven Marketing

If you are looking to take or improve your current data-driven marketing strategy, there are certain key factors you will have to consider. The following are some of them:

• Integration: There is a need to integrate new tools and technology into your marketing strategy. No doubt, doing this could be both overwhelming and cumbersome, particularly if you are newly adopting the process. But, fortunately, due to the continuous advancements in technology, the tools required to gain access to actionable data has become more user-friendly and a lot easier to acquire.

• Automation: If you want to get the best out of your marketing efforts, there is a need to create an automated process that promotes personalized experiences for your customers. There are several affordable software and tools to help every business to know who is using their website. With these tools, they can also identify their source of leads, and most importantly, turn raw data into actionable tasks and outcomes.

• Collaboration: There should be a high sense of collaboration across teams in an organization to ensure that information sharing cuts through the entire relevant teams and departments in an organization.

• Flexibility: There is a need to stay alert to the latest trends in the industry. Being up-to-date will help you to make the necessary changes you need to keep your brand ahead of the competition.

• Continuous Watch: The data-driven marketing process requires constant monitoring and measurement. Doing this will provide insights into what data and strategies are yielding optimal results.

Overall, besides helping you to create personalized experiences for your customers, adopting data-driven marketing is one sure way to super-charge your marketing efforts and activities to gain a competitive advantage over your competitors.

So, if you are looking to transform your business with data, BizRamp is the perfect partner you need to help you bridge the gap that exists between data engineering, analytics, and marketing. We will achieve this by tapping into the far-reaching potential of data to solve your business challenges and enable you to make data-driven decisions. 

Let BizRamp help you get started with your data-driven marketing journey and reach the top 2% multi-moment stage. Start saving efficiency cost and gain an increase in revenues.