If you have never heard of data driven, do not know its meaning or translation and do not know how it is used in marketing and how essential it is in every company, then read this article carefully. We will in fact see what it means to have a data driven approach and what is the advantage of digital data for a company. In other words: why should a company have a data driven process as its “guiding star”? And so how can a company become a data driven company, the company that integrates so-called objective data into its decision-making processes, using tools such as Web Analytics.
What does data driven companies mean?
First of all, if a company is data driven, it means that it operates in a data centric context, with decision-making processes based on the information and data it has at all operational levels, thus also identifying new business opportunities that escaped traditional organizational control practices. To achieve this result, in fact, it is necessary first of all to have a profiling of the company and its brand in the digital field and therefore to be digitally oriented. The goal is to move towards the next step of the digital working company universe: observing and understanding every process in order to quantify and measure results (starting from “elementary” information – often overlooked or taken for granted – such as, for example, how many customers there are, how much they spend on average, how old they are etc.). For this reason, the company that decides to have a data-driven approach must also make use of big data (e.g. customer analytics). And it is precisely in digital marketing that all this data becomes fundamental, especially when it comes to anticipating consumer behavior, knowing their profile and therefore their tastes. After all, the goal of big data is to collect data to identify all business opportunities. And in this perspective of data strategy, other measurement and tracking tools for behavior, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, machine learning, are certainly useful. It is therefore easy to understand the growing importance of data protection. That’s why data protection should not be underestimated in forms of data control (big and not), data cookies and profiling in general. In this regard, it is well known the transition from GA3 to Google Analytics 4 essentially imposed by the privacy guarantor as the previous version did not fully comply with privacy protection regulations for each user.
What is data driven decision making?
In short, the company that chooses the data-driven approach implements a decision-making process based on data (the so-called data-driven decision making) in which marketing certainly plays a key role. Just think of the surveys that the company does to improve the service or product offered according to what consumers are looking for. All this basically leads to achieving a single goal: increasing sales by personalizing proposals to customers after analyzing what customers expect from the company. That is, after listening, through the opinions left by each customer when they interacted with the brand (whether it happened through a review, comment on social media, survey or other), what customers really think and want, advertising campaigns are set up.
Data sources and advantages of data driven
In marketing, most data is collected and stored in the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and then integrated with data from other sources (such as social channels). Thanks to technology and in particular to machine data algorithms, a company can also know real-time data at the very moment it is generated, so much so that it is possible to set up a business intelligence model, anticipating consumer needs. The advantages of data driven marketing are therefore evident: by knowing consumer behavior it is possible to set up marketing campaigns aimed at profiled users, thus obtaining a higher conversion rate and consequently increasing sales. Therefore, the goal of data driven marketing becomes a personalized customer experience. However, it is important not to exaggerate with communications, so as not to fall into the mistake of becoming intrusive, and above all to always respect customer privacy. Personal data must be collected by asking for consent (the privacy policy).
What data to collect and how to have a data driven business
At this point, the most important issue to address is what data to collect and how to do it. Let’s take a couple of examples: if your company sells children’s products, it is inevitable that you will have to collect data on when a woman is pregnant; if you sell tires, it becomes essential to know what model of car your customer has purchased, so that you can send them the promotion of the year and perhaps invite them for a vehicle inspection. In short, data collection must be based not only on socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age) but above all on consumer habits (do they buy online or in store? How many times a week? Where do they buy the most and what?). All this collected data can then be used for email marketing activities, promotions, mobile marketing etc.
From an operational point of view, for data collection we have digital tools (among which the main one remains the CRM) that complement the various marketing “techniques” put in place, such as discount vouchers, prizes and fidelity cards offered to those who provide personal data and therefore automatically communicate their purchasing behavior to the company. Finally, another useful tool for collecting data is also the online survey on various topics, which the company treasures to convey targeted promotions.
Now more than ever, therefore, it becomes necessary for a company to have the support of experts in Data Analysis, such as our team of specialists, equipped with adequate tools and mindset.
