At Smart Data Collective, we have talked extensively about the benefits of big data in digital marketing. We have focused a lot on using data analytics for SEO.
However, there are a lot of other benefits of using big data in marketing. You shouldn’t limit yourself to using data analytics in your SEO strategy. You should find ways to use big data to merge your digital and offline marketing strategies.
How Data Driven Marketing Should Be Adapted to Both Digital and Offline Approaches
The internet offers many benefits to the modern business, but among the most fundamental is its ability to spread a message. Through social media, we can get in touch with our would-be customers, start a dialogue, and thereby become visible on countless devices. Big data developments have heightened these benefits.
By providing information in an informed blog, we can establish ourselves as an authority on a given subject, and thereby bring would-be customers in at the very top of a marketing funnel. Big data analytics tools can also help you see how customers respond to these funnels.
But does all of this spell the end for traditional printed marketing materials? As yet, it hasn’t happened. And there’s reason to suppose that it isn’t going to happen anytime soon, either. Digital and print marketing serve fundamentally different needs; for a majority of businesses, a combination of both will help to cover every base, and to give a new venture the kick-start it needs. Big data can be great for offline marketing strategies. You can even find creative ways to use big data to make the most of your business cards.
What is digital marketing and how does big data assist with it?
Digital marketing, put simply, is any form of marketing that is broadcast via digital means. In practice, this means over the internet. This includes email, social and website banners to name just a few examples. Big data can be very useful with digital marketing. You can use data analytics to measure customer engagement and get more value from each visitor.
What is print marketing?
Print marketing is any material that is printed. This might include billboards, flyers, posters and the take-away menus stuffed through letterboxes. Printed material has the advantage of enduring for longer; while you might swipe away from a digital ad, a physical flyer might sit on a coffee-table for weeks on end, just as a business card might sit in a wallet.
Big data can be useful for print marketing as well. You can see how customers respond to mailings more effectively, so you know which areas to send concentrate your efforts. However, you need to find ways to cross-reference data on mailings with the customers that you reached out to. This entails identifying the customers that responded to your mailings.
How can these help my business and marketing strategy?
The extent to which your business relies on either will depend on your business model. If you’re selling a niche product, like an artisan chilli jam, it’s worth spreading the message far and wide over the internet. If your reach isn’t as wide – perhaps you’re a barber or a local restaurant – then you might instead find that flyers, menus and business cards are actually a far more cost-effective means of grabbing the attention of would-be customers.
How can I use both to create an effective marketing plan? You will need to use data analytics tools to accomplish this.
The two worlds have collided in a range of interesting ways. For example, to promote museum culture in Abu Dhabi, the Louvre installed a series of billboards along a major highway, displaying prominent masterpieces. Each billboard was installed with a radio tower, to which passing motorists could tune in to hear a commentary of the artwork they were passing. This resulted in an enormous uptick of branded social media mentions and impressions, and a slightly smaller uptick in visits. Another example comes from Spotify, which makes use of its streaming statistics to inform its out-of-home advertising.
Of course, not all businesses have the means to combine digital and print on quite this scale – but a clever synergy between the two can often create an effect that goes beyond the sum of its parts.
Big Data is Crucial for a Multi-faced Marketing Strategy
You need to rely on big data more than ever to be successful as a marketer. Big data tools can assist with both your offline and online marketing strategy. The tips listed above should help.
