marketing strategy

If you do not have the correct tools, your Chief Marketing Officer could end up being inundated by data, and in some cases even paralyzed by it. 

When you get consumer data from mobile devices, social channels, search history, and mobile commerce, all of this data can seem overwhelming. This is particularly if you do not have the right tools or analytics to make sense of it all. 

Plus, when you’re marketing your business, it’s not just about consumer analytics either. You need to consider data on all areas of your company so that you can drive it forward.

Considering that, in this post, we are going to take a look at some of the different ways you can use big data for conventional marketing tactics, including some of the different analytics tools you can use. 

What is big data?

Before we can look at how to use big data effectively, it is critical to understand what this is. Big data refers to managing and information extrapolating of huge amounts of unstructured and structured data that companies gather on a day-to-day basis. 

More than the data itself, what matters most to companies and organizations is how you put this data to use. 

Typically, big data is characterized by three critical elements, which are variety, velocity, and volume. These are as follows:

  • Variety – The different sorts of data that a business has to work with on a daily basis. 
  • Velocity – The speed at which data is accumulated.
  • Volume – The large sums of data that are received and processed. 

When compared with conventional databases, big data will focus on processing and analyzing data with minimal to zero latency across the board. 

With the number of platforms and devices increasing every day, data is being gathered from a number of different sources, like websites, the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile devices, social media, and more.

Big data gives companies the benefit of making the most of valuable insights that they can use to predict future process outcomes and make quicker decisions. 

From transportation to IT, retail, education, manufacturing, finance, and healthcare, big data analytics has penetrated virtually every sector of the market. So, when using this for marketing, it is vital that you know how to do so effectively. 

Report data in a manner that is easy for your employees to understand

The first thing you need to do is make sure you report data to your employees in a manner that is easy to understand. One of the big issues today is that data is overwhelming. There are so many sources and different types of data, making it difficult to compute everything.

This is why you need to carefully consider how you package data for your employees so you can be sure that it is given in a way that is easy to understand. For example, you can take a look at Pitch’s template collection for a good place to start.

This will make it much easier for your employees to understand the important analytics that will drive your company forward. They will know how to use them effectively. 

Align with analytics software to drive results

Over the last ten years, analytics tools have moved from an exclusive resource fit only for the largest companies, to affordable cloud-based software available on a monthly subscription. 

Where once businesses needed to invest in in-house data scientists and analysts, they now plug in a few card details and gain access to huge data sets and powerful, number-crunching systems. 

But, where there’s opportunity, there’s also too much choice. So, how do you find the right platform for your business? 

You could go with one of the industry big guns. Or, you could be bold and check out these innovative new startups. 

Humu

Humu’s platform, like so many others in this space, uses people science and machine learning to provide insights into organizational relationships. They focus on improving management, diversity, and inclusion, and creating a more adaptive business culture. 

You might be thinking “that all sounds very familiar… I’m not seeing the ‘innovative’ bit here”. But the output of all their number-crunching is not what you expect. 

Set up by the ex-head of People Operations at Google (Laszlo Bock), Humu delivers a series of small-scale interventions using their NudgeEngine©. These little changes are much more manageable for time-strapped HR departments to oversee and, over time, add up to the kind of long-term change everyone is after. 

According to Humu… “Employees say nudges help them build better habits, work smarter, and connect with their colleagues. That’s why people who receive nudges are 2.4x more likely to take action than their peers, and 8% less likely to leave their company.” Which says it all really.

Peoplehr

If you’ve ever had to decode the analytics that came with a website builder, you’ll know how hard it is to work out how to implement lots of numerical insights. That’s where Peoplehr has dug out their place in the market.

In many ways, their product is indistinguishable from a lot of their competitors, but they have tapped into a key pain point most HR professionals have… having enough time to turn insights into action.

To address this pain point, Peoplehr offers one-on-one training and guidance to their customers. 

When you get started, you’re allocated an account manager who introduces you to the system. Past the initial set-up, they offer ongoing training and support for everyone who holds an account. And this is no generic webinar archive. You’ll get a ‘dedicated product trainer’ to help you get the most out of the features the platform offers.

OrgMapper

The first step to organizational change is understanding how it really works. And, although most people analytics platforms are founded on organizational network analysis, the network part is usually crowded out by a lot of other features. 

For organizations with in-house change managers and other professionals capable of creating tailored HR solutions, it’s useful to have a tool that provides the basis for their work without a lot of distraction thrown in. 

OrgMapper networks are presented in easy-to-digest visuals that are ready to be shared with key people in your organization. 

There are two product options… Influence and Excellence. Use Excellence to drive change and Influence to identify and support talent. This super targetted approach is why OrgMapper (from Maven7) is on this list. Because, sometimes you don’t need bells and whistles, you just need enough to make a plan.

TealPeople

The wild-card of the pack, TealPeople, is in its infancy. Unlike other platforms on this list, TealPeople isn’t all about the data. It currently offers tailored consulting built on cultural science and data-driven tools. 

With a long-term plan that involves helping organizations use their tools self-sufficiently, which seems like a lot of existing products in the market, what is it that makes them stand out? Well… where most analytics tools put data front and center, TealPeople pushes HR professionals to value their people first and foremost. 

Data is just a tool that helps people work better together in organizations. So let’s talk people over numbers… sensible right?

Use big data to enhance client acquisition

Aside from the advice that we have provided so far, you can also use big data for the purpose of enhancing customer acquisition.

At your business, your clients are your lifeline, which is why it makes sense to make a considerable investment into new customer acquisition. One of the chief reasons that companies struggle to beat the competition is because they do not understand their consumer base.

With big data, you have the ability to capture consumer data in real-time, as well as understand different trends and patterns, so you can create groundbreaking products that are tailored to the needs of your customers. 

In fact, 69 percent of businesses are reaching new thresholds with regards to customer acquisition and analysis by integrating big data into their procedures. If you initiate a data-driven culture, it can enable you to lower your costs by as much as 49 percent, as well as opening up new channels for disruption and innovation. 

Final words on using big data for traditional marketing tactics

So there you have it: some of the different approaches you can use when it comes to making the most of big data for your conventional marketing means. We hope that this has given you a good starting point when it comes to presenting data effectively and leveraging the various analytics solutions that are out there today.