Customer behavior is continuously changing. And so is the way the information is used for marketing purposes. On one side, we have free access to knowledge that allows consumers to make more informed purchasing selections. On the other side, the current technological advancement makes it possible to collect, process, and analyses large amounts of data. This has resulted in the massive use of customer data in the process of creating a variety of marketing campaigns. Data-driven marketing focuses on finding the most productive strategies by exploring customers’ behavior and preferences. Now, it’s possible to better understand the audience and use data-driven marketing to create effective campaigns that improve both user experience and sales.
Data-driven marketing and its benefits
You can gather various information by analysing your audience and their association with your business. The most evident example is when visitors engage and interact with websites. This allows companies to gather demographic information, gain insight into their behavior, and discover their interests and preferences. Everything from individual users to complete targeted groups. With this in mind, you can create different data-driven marketing strategies and develop effective and flexible campaigns. Thanks to a better understanding of your potential customers, you will have enough knowledge to drive your business through changes and incoming trends.
Why focus on data-driven marketing?
Regardless of the industry, there is a constant overabundance of competition in today’s business environment. That’s why it is crucial to lean on facts and information when creating a marketing campaign. It’s no longer enough to rely on traditional methods, focus only on products, and hope that the hunch will lead to results. You need to reach out to potential consumers, make yourself present, and persuade them to choose you before others.
Only when you know your targeted audience better will you be able to successfully continue with other methods.
However, using data science with marketing goes beyond this. Numerous studies have proved that campaigns based on data-driven marketing achieve five times better ROI than basic methods.
And this is only a part of all the benefits this approach provides. The other benefits of basing your campaigns on extensive data allow you to:
- Make strategic decisions based on data reports
- Determine the most profitable way to launch products and services
- Improve overall customer experience
- Create a customized journey for your customers
- Effectively engage at every stage of the buyers’ journey
- Avoid presenting the wrong products to the wrong audiences
- Anticipate future trends
- Discover the most efficient channels for your marketing effort and more
All the information gathered by your brand, and third-party sources, will give you enough material to create a campaign that is effective and appealing to your potential customers.
Several data-driven marketing strategies for effective campaigns
Let’s see how to use data-driven marketing to gather important information which will help you create better marketing campaigns:
- Define your goals clearly
- Create buyers’ personas
- Work on personalizing the user experience
- Explore multi-channel marketing options
- Be present at all stages of the customer journey
- Promote special deals
1. Define your goals clearly
Before you create your campaign, it will be necessary to clearly define the goals. Important to remember here is to be as specific as possible. Carefully thought-off plans will help guide your marketing campaign successfully and show what to modify if needed. Basically, you will know what data to focus on to accomplish your goals. But, you will also have something more specific to compare the results with.
2. Create buyers’ personas
The next step is to use the information at your disposal to better understand your targeted audience. The more data you gather, it will be easier to understand the behavior and anticipate the most efficient marketing strategies. However, to get the best results, you must create buyers’ personas. Typically, this encompasses specific types of consumers, personalities, preferences, and expectations.
By grouping such information and analyzing particular traits, it will be easier to manage and draw necessary conclusions. For example, a company that sells cars will have much-needed details on what accessories and similar products to include in the primary offer. In other words, data will give them the necessary means to tailor more personalized offers.
3. Work on personalizing the user experience
Data-driven marketing uses a variety of information, including:
- Demographic information
- Website behavior
- Purchase history
- Devices’ ID
- Localization information
- Time of engagement and others.
This is an essential prerequisite for creating a better user experience. But not only that - it helps companies create personalised campaigns to target different groups of interest or individuals. Every brand can demonstrate its commitment to customers with such a customised approach. In return, they will appreciate them by becoming loyal, long-term customers.
4. Explore multi-channel marketing options
With information about customers, a company can choose which marketing and sales channels to leverage. Whether your audience prefers emails, ads, or PPC, for example. Or what social media networks they spend their time on the most. Typically, single-channel marketing can be successful up to a certain degree. That’s why using additional channels to promote, or communicate with your audience, is essential. Especially today, with the rise of so many social media platforms, business networks, online communities, and so on. A company that uses multiple channels for promotion and communication has a much greater chance to stand above competitors.
5. Be present at all stages of the customer journey
Your presence should not diminish no matter which part of the journey your customers are in. Sometimes, potential buyers are not ready to immediately make a purchasing decision. This is where the data you have can help you send more personal messages and motivate your buyers into closing the deal. Or, at least, prevent them from abandoning everything in the middle. Marketing strategies like lead nurturing, content personalization, and quality support are the most efficient here.
6. Promote special deals
In truth, every customer is looking to get the same service for less money. While this might not look productive at first sight, giving special deals can significantly help your campaign. Information about your audience will help you create appealing deals, special promotions, discounts, and other offers that will attract customers. These special offers can be a powerful way to drive more conversions and ensure customer retention in the long run.
Considering the situation today, more and more companies will use data-driven marketing to create effective campaigns in the future. Businesses of all sizes will be able to leverage the information about their customers to gain an advantage over their competitors. In addition, this is a proven way to increase the brand’s visibility, trust, and loyalty in the eyes of both existing and potential customers. Effective methods to collect and analyses data will further improve, which will require a rather high level of flexibility when creating marketing campaigns.
