YOU’VE GOT DATA …now what?
“Being data-driven means you can focus on the things that are going to really make a difference to your top or bottom line, or to your customer experience,” says Nathalie Morris, CEO of marketing intelligence company Qrious. Morris says fundamentally, data-centric marketing is an attempt to replace guesswork, gut instinct and doubt – the wheelhouse of much brand-focused storytelling – with Real McCoy empirical evidence.
“Data can help you to truly understand your target market and know with certainty what your ideal customer looks like, as opposed to making assumptions.”
That’s all well and good, but as anyone who’s tried it knows - taking data and transforming it into solutions that achieve both business and creative goals is no mean feat. How does data – in all its abstract glory – fit into the commercial picture for most companies?
“WORKING OUT A STRATEGY, THEN COLLECTING WHAT YOU NEED TO EXECUTE AGAINST IS THE BEST PLAN. WE’D SUGGEST ORGANISATIONS START SIMPLE. UNDERSTANDING WHO YOUR CUSTOMER ACTUALLY IS AND HOW THEY INTERACT WITH YOU IS A GREAT START.”
MATT WEST, PARTNER AT CREATIVE AGENCY EIGHTYONE
“The first place to start is with your company strategy and objectives,” Morris says. “What are you trying to achieve?”
That can be a broad subject in itself, but essentially comes down to finding out how data can inform two core areas of the business, Morris says.
“The first question is ‘what data do you need for financial and business performance i.e. to make effective decisions around revenue, costs, or business operations?’ And the second is ‘what data do you need to provide unbeatable customer experiences?’”
That second part – understanding the customer to build better relationships – is where business processes, customer-centricity and the marketing department’s mandate starts to overlap.
