What is Data Analytics and why you should use it in your marketing strategy
Imagine if the marketing team had the power to "read the thoughts" of his target audience and accurately identify their wants, needs, and opinions. Does it look like a science fiction scene? We are talking about a real tool: big data analytics. Do you know how it can help your business sell more?
In a company, the main function of marketing is to make the product or service offered more attractive to its target audience. For this to happen, the department needs to know, as deeply as possible, who that ideal customer is.
The big news is that, currently, the department can count on big data analytics to carry out this entire investigative process. Want to understand how? Then check it out in the post!
How big data analytics works
It involves the collection, interpretation, analysis, and intelligent crossing of large volumes of data, structured or not, using very high-performance software. This processing takes place in an extremely short time, ensuring that the receiver has all this information practically in real-time.
In general, it collects data ranging from social media content and statistics on cell phone calls (personal), database files, management reports, credit card company (business) databases, and macroeconomic indicators (external scenario).
Many other sources provide information for big data analytics. We quote these just so you can see how this tool can cross personal, business and external data to create an accurate picture of the market and the customer with whom your company will work.
The importance of big data analytics for marketing
To make the product interesting for the target audience and contribute to increasing sales, marketing needs to know the ideal customer very well.
How was this done today? The consumer himself could answer these questions. However, we know that when questioned, people are not always completely honest about different aspects.
To project the image they want, many people use a kind of filter for their answers. Thus, the information collected is not always relevant to the marketing team or even true.
Big data solves this problem as it reads not the thoughts, but the reality of its target audience.
Since people are connected at all times, it uses the information they feed into the system - photos, check-ins, comments, opinions, visits to websites, clicks - to map their true habits and preferences.
In this way, big data gathers relevant information, which helps to show the right product, to the right person and at the moment when he is most likely to buy.
By making these recommendations based on analysis and cross-checking of information, the company can create more effective campaigns. The result is a reduction in the sales cycle and an increase in the ROI of investments in marketing.
How big data analytics optimizes marketing actions
Given these characteristics of big data analytics, we realize that it is capable of:
Increase clarity in defining the ideal consumer
The automatic crossing of information eliminates the need for extensive research or guesswork about the ideal market segment. The new tool allows companies to have an accurate portrait of their consumers quickly and accurately.
It easily discovers the things they like, websites they visit, social networks they are on, or even what kind of buttons and ads they click on. In this way, the tool draws an exact profile with which marketing can work.
Research the market and analyse the competition
Big data can also monitor trends, analyse and forecast consumption movements. They point to the popularity of certain topics in different countries, languages, or other criteria, to assess whether they are relevant to their target audience.
The tool also allows you to collect and analyse information about competitors and monitor the result and the opinion of the target audience about your efforts.
In this way, it points out efficient ways to overcome the competition. Some examples are the creation of specific promotions or forecasts or the purchase and maintenance in stock of a product that tends to be most sought after at a given time.
Understand and drive the consumer buying journey
Imagine the advantage of understanding, in a personalized way, what is the process of that specific consumer and his trajectory in the sales funnel? This would be an unbeatable way to offer what he needs at that moment - information, interaction, or products - to move him along the buying journey and lead him to conversion.
By combining big data with an integrated marketing strategy, it is possible to have a considerable impact on consumer engagement, customer retention and loyalty, and the performance of actions.
Real-time customization
Through algorithms, it is possible to send offers to consumers, individually and in real-time. Companies can understand which products and promotions they are most likely to consume, increasing their chances of sales.
This can happen in both virtual and physical commerce. A customer can receive discount coupons over the phone for a particular product of interest when in a store, for example, making the offer irresistible.
Closer the company's relationship with the customer
In addition to allowing the monitoring of consumer opinion in the various channels, including social networks, big data facilitates the establishment of a relationship between the company and the customer.
An example of this is Amazon. It was probably one of the first giants to use this crossing of information to interact productively with their customers.
With a few clicks and keywords, consumers can find what they want, compare prices, read product reviews and resources. In addition, he receives indications of options that are similar or that may interest him, according to the preferences identified in his interactions.
Improves the performance of marketing actions
With approaches that meet the needs and desires of customers, the chances of converting an offer into a sale become much greater. This makes marketing campaigns more effective, ensuring a significant increase in the ROI of the initiatives.
The role of big data analytics in decision-making
Due to its ability to analyse data and predict trends, big data takes managers from the responsibility of making predictions based simply on know-how or intuition.
It can design scenarios with such precision that it can - and should! - be used as a true “management compass”, used to guide decision-making.
After all, it is able to show in advance which products and approaches the company must invest in, to obtain the desired results.
Did you understand how big data analytics can boost marketing actions in the company? Did you like the post? Want to have structured marketing based on data? Come talk to us and make a quote!