Data is having an influence on virtually every industry. It has become a currency that powers modern enterprises. The number of data sources is increasing day by day and it is no surprise that more and more companies are embracing the data-driven approach for their Effective Marketing Strategy for Small Business.
Data has become a cornerstone in providing exceptional customer service. Many smart marketers make their decisions on the basis of data gathered from analytics platforms and processes.
Understanding the customer and providing a personalized experience is key to retain customers for businesses. Channeling data from a wide range of sources can provide insights that can help businesses make smart and informed decisions. On one hand, data provides tremendous opportunities to understand individuals’ unique requirements, behaviors, preferences, etc. And on the other hand, it can be intimidating as well for marketers to identify the KPIs that are in line with the organization’s business.
Therefore, the question ‘how can businesses turn data into smart marketing strategies’ is more relevant than ever. Let’s delve into some tips and techniques to know how data can be utilized for forming effective marketing strategy for small business.
i) Always start with what’s available
The amount of data that is available to marketers is just enormous. PwC’s study showed that over 60% of companies believe they rely too much on instinct in marketing rather than on any definite data analysis. Many organizations find it hard to sort out enormous data to find relevant information that can actually assist them in their decision-making process.
The possible reason for this could be – the huge volume of data could simply be too hard to handle, unavailability of some kind of data that is required, lack of proper tools or personnel to handle data, not knowing what to measure, etc.
But, having said that, marketers can always start with whatever data is at their disposal. Data analytics has become a crucial aspect of strategic planning and development of marketing campaigns. Tools like Google Analytics, AdWords, CRMs, and numerous others enable marketers to track the audience across different platforms and social media. It can provide basic as well as some specific data about users.
Business owners and marketers can feed this data to data analysis tools or artificial intelligence and machine learning can help them find new opportunities.
ii) Combining data and creativity
No matter what size or which industry your business belongs to, the truth is that it will constantly face fierce competition. In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving marketplace, businesses have to earn reputation and attention rather than demand it. That should serve as enough inspiration for marketers to be creative.
There is more than enough evidence available about how businesses have grown by being imaginative and putting equal emphasis on data. Smart marketers identify their audience and divide them into smaller, micro-segments. By this, they are sorting the consumers based on their specific needs and interests.
Integrating data and creativity means coming up with ways to deliver a personalized user experience and making your approach more customer-centric. Most of the data is publicly available, which means any organization can use it for their startup marketing ideas but how creative they can be with it would decide their success.
To put it in simple words, being creative without data is like shooting in the dark and hoping that you will hit the target. And data without creativity is like hitting the same target again and again. And I can assure you that no business would want either of those.
iii) Focusing on quantity as well as quality
There is a misconception regarding data-driven marketing that organizations having vast data at their disposal are likely to be more successful than others who don’t possess such a large amount of data. However, judging an organization’s success based on the amount of data they have would be credulous.
In the current scenario, marketers focus on utilizing different data points efficiently to help enterprises understand their customers and audience deeply as far as possible. And for that putting emphasis on quality, accuracy, and diversity of data is equally necessary.
To deliver a personalized experience to customers, marketers need to look beyond the numbers and stats. Understanding behavioral patterns, buying trends, and forming a point of view in which customers are seen more than mere data sets would help businesses deliver a superior experience and forge lasting relationships.
iv) Redefine your engagement over conversions
One of the best aspects of data-driven marketing strategies for small business is that you can know exactly what is working and what isn’t. And when it comes to measuring the success of such marketing strategies, conversion rates hold a significant amount of weight.
As consumers become more and more aware, marketing methods change and evolve accordingly. Therefore, it is vital to prioritize engagement and personalization measures to define the success of a marketing campaign. Business owners and marketers need to use the data with the focus on providing a pleasing and sustaining user experience. They need to realize that converting prospects into customers is not enough, but the attention should also be towards providing and adding value to the existing customers. Collecting regular feedback, performing surveys, and conducting studies are some of the great ways to keep up the engagement.
Conclusion of Effective Marketing Strategy for Small Business
With so much data being available, and which is increasing with each passing day, it can be a major challenge for marketers in any industry to determine what to measure and what action to take. However, as we have seen, by implementing certain techniques they can better understand customers’ needs and shape their marketing methods accordingly.
Data is going to remain a key element in any marketing strategy. What the marketers need to understand is that how can they put it to use.
About Author: Paras Pandya
