Data, data, data…it’s all around you these days. It’s a topic that’s top of mind and on the tip of everyone’s tongue.
Capturing data has become standard email marketing practice. The challenge is putting that data to use.
In an article on starting an agency, the author makes deep data her second piece of advice, but not the data itself, rather the ability to put it to use. In her words:
“The amount of data being streamed everyday is overwhelming. In fact, it’s useless unless you’re filtering the right data at the right time and interpreting it properly for the right insights. The industry seems to have more data than true insight. Marketers need less numbers and more intelligence to guide the investment opportunities.”
Her point is an agency should be able to help clients make sense of their data, strategically and effectively. She goes on to quote Beth Comstock, CMO at General Electric, as saying: “The future of marketing is combining an understanding of consumers’ behavioral characteristics and data science.”
Her points are backed up by Forrester’s recent report on how little data is actually being effectively used:
“Of the findings, the most notable might be that while marketers who leverage buyer insight / data in their campaigns experience significant biz benefits above their peers, behavioral data still remains, per Forrester, ‘the greatest untapped marketing asset’—with only 45% actually capturing this data in a way that’s both efficient and actionable.”
All of the data in the world is for naught if it can’t be gathered, analyzed, consolidated, compared and acted upon…in real time, not days later after someone has laboriously prepared and studied reports. Marketers need the data captured then made immediately accessible in an intelligent and effective form: In other words, they need business intelligence. Maybe that’s why smart marketers are starting to invest in email integration, to bring their data into one place as actionable analytics.
It’s one thing to know your customers, but it is something else altogether to put that knowledge to work. Yet that is how customers are won and sales are made. Doesn’t that make investing in actionable data worth it?
About the Author: Sharon
