A marketer’s guide to data mining

Big data can be the solution to even your most complex marketing woes.

Consumer behavior, revenue reports, brand awareness and social media analytics are only some of the big data that marketers frequently track.

Though most marketing pros are aware of the power of measurement, many struggle to turn those statistics and figures into an opportunity to expand — or improve.

Instead of glossing over your next consumer insights report, consider its potential value and dig in.

A Paladin white paper dissected the importance of data in today’s marketing strategies:

Knowing the intricacies of your customers, their behavior, how they use your products, how well they know your brand and how they perceive it provides total insight into your current success and potential for growth.

Here are some highlights from the white paper and how to use various metrics to your organization’s advantage:

Use data to expand

Paladin suggests 54 percent of digital marketers named the all-encompassing term “big data” as a top priority in 2015. According to the white paper, however, big data doesn’t do much of anything — unless you know how to use it.

From Paladin:

Having access to business intelligence from external sources like industry and market news reports, technological advancements and consumer behavior means your business analysts and market researchers can identify your place within the market and determine how to get — and stay — ahead of the game.

Performance data and sales reports have little value if only a handful of employees are assigned to analyze them. To expand and get ahead, Paladin suggests divvying things up:

Distribute this data to your executives — your CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, and VPs — and it becomes the launch pad for a highly effective sales and marketing strategy. [Successful companies have used data to] identify its most valuable customers, tailor messages to each segment to boost sales numbers and predict revenue.

Once senior-level marketers and decision-makers had access to big data, 80 percent noted a positive change in revenue.

Improve your products and processes

Customer insight is an increasingly important component in marketing strategies.

“After all, the more you know about how customers use your goods and services, the more prepared you’ll be to meet their needs,” the white paper states.

How can you obtain or compile that information?

Here are nine types of big data every marketer can mine:

• Sales figures

• User information

• Contact center data

• Customer service channels

• Customer reviews

• Sites/blogs for competitor analysis

• Industry journals

• Market research

• Social listening

While much of that information is readily available for most businesses, a difference can be made when the right people know what to do with it.

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“When your aim is to enhance your product line or service offerings and develop a more effective go-to-market strategy, call on your CMO, VPs, directors, sales leaders and account managers to take the reins,” the paper advises. “They should be able to boil all that customer data down into a rich product development and sales resource.”

Once you’re comfortable with an expanded customer base or improved product, ask whether you’re prepared to meet the increased demand. From making new hires to ironing out the flaws in your production process, deeper customer insight often leads to improved businesses strategies.

Big data = the secret to brand building

How do brand managers and content marketers increase brand awareness? They often rely on data.

Paladin reports that U.S. marketers spent roughly $12 billion in 2015 on data and data-related solutions. Forty-three percent said they control all of their organization’s customer data.

To really boost your brand and increase its online presence, you must understand how your customer interacts with your brand. Your data must go deeper than simple demographics or identifying your target audience.

Here’s how Paladin suggests you dig:

Before you can shake someone’s hand, you need to know they’re in the room with you. Data such as site visits, ad views, clicks, survey responses and focus group results tells you how, where and when to engage your customers so you can devise an effective brand strategy, determine the optimal advertising mix and succeed on social media.

Don’t draw the line at simply figuring out who your customer is. You must learn why they’re interested in your brand and how they got to that point.

What approach to using big data have you taken, PR Daily readers?

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