Guest post by Glenn Facey
We live in a new age of information
superabundance: the burgeoning era of Big Data analytics. Never before have
marketers had the opportunity to understand their audiences in such fine,
precise, and comprehensive detail. But while it seems that answers to many
persistent marketing challenges are rising to the surface in the constant churn
of data from social, mobile, and other online activity, the core tenet of Big
Data remains as true as ever: In order to gather useful answers, you have to
ask the right questions.
Without actionable goals and insights, even
the most data-rich, well-supported marketing analytics efforts can go awry. So
how do you go about setting the stage for an effective marketing analytics strategy? We’ve identified three key steps.
1) Pair insight
from inside and outside
What are you trying to accomplish with your
marketing analytics efforts? In order to identify the right goals for your
marketing analytics effort, you’ll need to draw on two crucial perspectives.
First, an insider from your firm will help
ensure that your approach aligns with the needs and direction of the
organization. This individual is responsible for keeping the process rooted in
the path and realities of the firm. Second, an outside analyst will provide
context through knowledge of related industry verticals — as well as
third-party objectivity. With these two figures in partnership, you’re prepared
to move to the next step.
2) Identify
questions that drive your goals
Now that your company insider and outside
analyst are in place, they’ll need to collaborate in order to identify
questions that will drive growth for the firm — questions that may be answered
through business intelligence (BI) and big data analytics. While these will
differ from organization to organization, some common approaches include:
●
What is the amount of
revenue retained?
●
How much revenue did newly
converted leads bring in?
●
What is the cost savings
attributed to more efficient workflows?
●
How do we identify which
marketing activities contributed to the creation of a given lead?
●
What is the percentage
increase in our brand awareness?
By explicitly identifying goals and related
questions for your marketing analytics, you may ensure that those goals are
clear and achievable, as well as make it easier to select the right tools for
the task. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this stage — it creates
the guidelines (and sometimes guardrails) for everything that comes after. From
defining deliverables to knowing when you’ve achieved your goal and may proceed
to the next phase, these questions touch the rest of your work in countless
ways. And that brings us to the third key step in your strategy development.
3) Know your tools
and prerequisites
You’re almost ready to think about the
metrics you need to gather and analyze in order to answer your questions. But
first, you’ll need to consider the tools available to you and the “facts on the
ground” at your organization — in other words, the prerequisites of a
successful marketing analytics effort. The top three include:
●
Creating a consolidated data
strategy
●
Investment in analytics
●
Continuous dedication to
the effort at the highest levels of the organization
Big data marketing analytics aren’t a
grab-and-go goodie bag of answers. They require serious, ongoing commitment
from a firm that’s looking to better understand its own thoughtfully forged
path — where it stands, and where it’s going. With a collaborative balance of
internal and external minds, a robust set of tools and resources, and defined
goals driving actionable questions, your firm will have everything in place to
not only achieve an incisive understand of its marketing and audience, but the
way forward to greater success.
About the Author:
Glenn Facey is the VP of
Business Development and Marketing at Claraview, where he achieves business growth through his deep cross-functional
experience in consulting, sales, business intelligence (BI) and analytics,
marketing, organizational effectiveness, and working across organizations to
ensure that business value is delivered to the organization.
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