You’ve heard that companies are mining data to create better and more cost-effective marketing strategies, but you may be wondering why you should invest similarly in your own data-driven marketing platform. Research shows that 40% of companies plan to expand their data-centered marketing budgets while 88% are utilizing data from third parties to better understand their audiences.
You might wonder exactly what they’re using that data to accomplish, and here are a few of the most common applications:
- 45% are using it to acquire new customers
- 31% use data to better align their sales and marketing teams
- 34% are segmenting their target markets using data
Here are four of the key ways you might improve your marketing results by investing in data:
Personalization for Market Segments
One of the key benefits of utilizing data is better understanding of your market segments so that you can provide a customized experience. For instance, if you have data showing that women between the ages of 35 and 44 tend to shop later in the evening, prefer email promotions to mailers, and lately tend to be gravitating toward clothing that transitions from work to personal life, your retail company can much more easily tailor its recommendations and other marketing techniques.
Better Understand Conversions
Maybe it’s a landing page that seems to provide the perfect transition to a product page, or a blog post that is a great fit for the customer making final purchase decisions. Understanding how customers are responding to your marketing efforts and which are successful at converting leads into customers can help you refine your marketing strategy.
It’s also helpful to gather data about which segments respond to which marketing tools. If you find that your younger segments prefer video, but older leads are most likely to convert when they can view an infographic, you can begin to shape your strategy accordingly.
Improve Pricing Decisions
Pricing used to be decided simply, based on the cost of obtaining inventory, storing and transporting it, plus marking it up for a profit. Now, based on the availability of extensive data, you can incorporate more precision in your pricing decisions. You can add in factors related to fluctuations in the market, affordability for your market segment and other pricing considerations.
Accuracy
Keeping up with leads has always been tricky, but using updated data helps you connect with decision-makers and those that fit most neatly into your target audience. This, in turn, allows you to offer them timely content and tailor incentives for moving further into your buy cycle.
It also helps you improve every part of your marketing campaign, from which social media platforms you should favor to the language you include in your subject line of an email newsletter.
To learn how DirectMail.io uses accurate data as a foundation for automated marketing campaigns, contact us today.
