Marketers no longer have to work off assumptions or instincts. Today’s marketing teams have the most valuable source of information available to them – customer data. However, many organizations still don’t understand how to make a data-driven approach work for them. In this article, you’ll learn the principles of data-driven marketing and how to use smart data to drive revenue.

What is data-driven marketing?

Data-driven marketing describes the process of using customer information to make optimal media buying and creative messaging decisions. The rise of marketing data has allowed advertisers to target their desired audience with incredible accuracy. Combined with advancements in marketing technology, smart data has led to a substantial increase in the ROI of strategic campaigns.

Data-driven Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing has more in common with data-driven marketing than you may think. At its core, marketing has always focused on discovering customer needs and using available insights to lead customers to purchase. To achieve this, marketers have had to gain a deep of their audience, anticipate their desires, and design strategies around these findings.

Marketing teams have traditionally had to make many assumptions and use outdated marketing studies to inform their advertising approach. However, this often meant a lot of trial and error and time wasted. Many strategies had to be tested in order to find the one that resonated best with their audience.

Smart data has allowed data-driven marketers to identify the right customers at the right time and present them with the right offering. It enables teams to find new customers, target well-defined segments, and personalize the customer experience for all. With smart data, companies can also measure key metrics and adapt their campaigns simultaneously.

Benefits of smart data and data-driven marketing

Ultimately, data helps inform advertising decisions for marketers. However, the benefits of employing a data-driven approach using smart data are overarching and quite significant.

Efficient Media Buying

Smart data allows companies to leverage algorithms and machine learning to take much of the guesswork out of media planning. This not only saves time for marketers, but allows campaigns to achieve a greater return on investment.

Optimal Consumer Targeting

Spending ad dollars on an unengaged audience is a waste. Data-driven marketing allows advertisers to target the right consumers at the right time. The longer you utilize these strategies, the better you’ll be able to define and capture your target market.

Personalization of Customer Experience

Consumers aren’t moved by cut-and-pasted, generic marketing offers anymore. They need fresh communication that aligns with their personal needs, tastes, and preferences. Creating strategies around smart data helps deliver a better experience for consumers as they progress through the sales funnel.

How to Build a Data-Driven Marketing Strategy

1 – Create objectives for data. Your smart data will be pointless if there is no goal or purpose for it. It is a good idea to define what you would like to achieve before structuring processes around data collection. Your objectives will help you determine what information you’ll need and where to get it from.

2 – Gather and organize data. You will need to form a plan around gathering the data and what platforms will help you do so. Then you will need to organize the data in a way that it can be extracted and utilized efficiently.

3 – Gain permission from leadership. Data-driven marketing strategies are vastly different from traditional marketing methods. Before overhauling your company marketing plan, be sure to gain permission from key stakeholders within the organization.

4 – Measure and track success. To determine what’s working well and what needs to be tweaked, create a process to monitor your campaign’s performance. This will help you adapt to changing market conditions and enable you to share progress with company leadership.

Traditional marketing methods are no longer working for many businesses. Smart data paired with a data-driven marketing strategy can boost ROI significantly for progressive brands. With proper analytics, you’ll be able to easily identify the purchasing habits of your customers and provide them with offers that entices them.

The marketing experts at Vonazon have extensive experience utilizing data-driven approaches to create brilliant marketing strategies and campaigns that help your company expand their reach, obtain valuable leads, improve conversions, and increase revenue. Contact us today to bring your marketing efforts to the next level.