You have probably seen a lot of big data posts that focus on marketing on SDC lately. Part of the reason is because I have a background in marketing and have seen the multi-faceted impact big data has had on the profession. The other reason is that it is one of the sectors that has been transformed by big data more than any other.
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While big data has had a tremendous impression on this field, it has also created a lot of misconceptions. A lot of marketers are making uninformed decisions based on misunderstandings about the role big data is playing in their evolving profession. I want to take a moment to dispel some of these myths.
Here are some of the biggest.
Big data is a short-term fad
I get very frustrated listening to people that claim big data is a fad. It is not a fad and it is not going away anytime soon. The term was first coined back in 2005 by Roger Mougalas. It has only become more important over the last few years. Many of the essential tools that marketers rely on depend on big data, including Alexa, SEM rush and box of ads just to name a few. If big data was really just a fad, marketers wouldn’t be turning to these types of tools.
Big data is just for big companies
This isn’t just a myth. It is also an excuse from marketers that don’t want to invest in their careers.
Also, nothing could be further from the truth. Big data isn’t some tremendously expensive asset that is only available to fortune 500 companies. If anything, it has helped level the playing field for smaller companies. It gives marketers with small businesses fresh insights that were previously on available to them.
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Using big data automatically increases your ROI
This myth stems from the point listed above. Too many marketers don’t see a high ROI, because they don’t invest in the right big data initiatives. Jim Yu, the CEO of BrightEdge, summarizes that in this article from the Huffington Post.
Big data can have a great ROI. However, the reason marketers don’t witness one is that they don’t invest in a sound strategy or utilize the right tools.
The best place to start is identifying the mediums with the highest ROI to begin with. Then they can invest in a model that helps them from there. Simon Bell, the Managing Director of United SEO, states that search engine marketing is one of the best areas to invest in, because the ROI can be over 300% for many brands.
The brands that notice the biggest ROI increase are those that utilize the right big data tools. They need to be ready to pay for certain solutions and do their due diligence before choosing them.
Marketers that amass the most data have the biggest edge
The concept behind a big data is obviously the volume of data available. Massive advances in IT technology have enabled companies to tap large repositories of data that was previously inaccessible to them.
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This has caused many people to focus on the wrong metric, including some of the most experienced marketers I have ever met. They believe that the key to using big data to its full potential is collecting as much of it as possible.
This is one of the biggest reasons that around 60% of the marketers that I consult with have ineffective strategy is built around big data. There are a couple of reasons that it fails:
- They invest all of their resources in accumulating data, without a clear strategy for extracting it when needed. There are a number of great Hadoop-based Tools that help capitalize off of it. However, these tools are only useful if you invest in them and have a system to utilize them properly. If you are placing all of your emphasis on scaling data, then they won’t offer any benefit. Your data will be completely inaccessible. You also need a durable hosting solution that is capable of handling it. One expert said that CloudWays is among the best solutions for processing big data.
- Big data doesn’t do you any good, unless it has a purpose with your marketing model. Many marketers don’t understand this. They collect any data they can on their customers, because they hope that it might be valuable at some point. This often leaves them with a disorganized array of data sets that serve no real purpose. You need to know what data you will be using and have a way to collect and organize it. Smaller data sets of actionable data are far more valuable than large arrays of data that doesn’t serve a purpose.
Using big data for your marketing strategy is important for making sure that you have the right model in place.