The lives of digital marketers today are significantly more straightforward than they were just a decade ago. Today, they have access to a variety of tools and cloud-based platforms to automate and streamline marketing-related tasks. One of the newest trends in the marketing landscape is data. Marketers around the globe take data as the most critical asset in making any marketing strategy efficient.
Since you are probably wondering, “Why is data so important?” we will provide you with an answer. Below you will find five ways data can fuel your online marketing strategy, which will help understand the value data brings to your operation no matter how big or small it is.
#1. Makes Measuring Success Possible
Every online marketing strategy is based on predetermined goals. These goals can range from building an email list and generating high quality leads to boosting conversion rates and capturing more sales. Once marketers launch the campaign, they cannot measure success and make timely decisions unless they take a look at the data.
Data plays a crucial role in measuring the success of an online marketing strategy, whether it is a PPC, SEO, content, or social media, or a mix of any of these. Once you know your marketing goal, you can quickly identify which metrics to monitor to see how much a particular strategy contributes to achieving goals.
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#2. Identify The Best Performing Campaigns
Marketing budgets are often tight, especially in the small and medium business landscape. Going all-in into campaigns across all channels is not feasible. If you do it, the chances are that you won’t reach your goals before your budget runs dry. This is another scenario where data can fuel your online marketing strategy and decision making.
“While digital marketing offers several benefits, if I had to choose one, it would definitely be the ability to use data to inform and drive decision making. Once you eliminate biases and conclusions, based on your experience, you strengthen the effectiveness of your marketing. Because of this, testing, measuring, and analyzing data is the only way to ensure the best results possible.”, says the Lead Digital Strategist at EWRdigital.com.
You can closely monitor relevant metrics across all your internet marketing channels. The data you gather will provide you with insights into how each channel is performing.
#3. Identify Patterns and Trends
Online marketing is also a time-sensitive action. The market and your competition are never idle. They constantly change, and to achieve the goals, you have to factor in these changes when working on your online marketing strategy. This is another area where data plays an important role.
“If you closely monitor the data related to your target market and competitors, you will be able to spot specific trends and patterns. You will be able to develop an online marketing strategy that reflects these patterns and trends and, in a way, respond to your target market’s current needs and expectations.’ – says Matt Bertram, Co-Host of The Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing SEO Podcast.
The data will help you align your marketing efforts with your goals and your customers’ goals as well, thus generating more high-quality leads and boosting your sales.
#4. Deliver Personalized Experience
Since we live in a customer-centric era where personalized experience plays a vital role in buyers’ decision process, you have to entertain the idea of delivering customized offers to your target customers. Is there anything that can help you identify what your customers love in terms of products/services and customer service? The answer is – data.
The marketers recognized the value of data in the CRM systems. Past customer interactions and purchases can help you reach them with custom-tailored messages and offers. This is a great way to show your customers that you value and care for them, which will definitely reflect on the outcomes of your marketing efforts.
#5. Fine-Tune Strategies In Real-Time
Developing an internet marketing strategy, launching it, and going back to “business as usual” is a thing of the past. To maximize your marketing campaign’s effectiveness and get the biggest bang for your money, you have to fine-tune it in real-time.
This applies to all digital marketing efforts, including long- and short-term ones. To improve the efficiency of any strategy, you have to monitor the metrics and leverage the data to fuel your decisions in real-time. This is why doing online marketing without relevant tools is borderline impossible. The digital marketing tools are developed to gather data across different channels, analyze it, and deliver it via insightful reports and graphs.
We can say that data is the bread and butter of modern internet marketing. It is the number one asset that enables marketers to plan and execute marketing strategies and track performance across all targeted channels. At this point, it is safe to assume that data will continue to dominate this landscape and that we can expect to see more marketers using it in the future.