As marketing executives look towards 2016, shaping big data-focused strategies for customer acquisition is a key priority at many organizations. While 90% of organizations have a medium to high investment in big data, only 50% are routinely applying big data to regularly engage customers. Some 44% report a lack of consistency in omni-channel marketing campaigns. At companies with the technological basis for big data-driven marketing but a lack of consistency, targeting prospects and customers across multiple channels is likely to be an area of focus.
Tech Journalist Craig Zawada predicts that in 2016, big data will shift from a marketing priority to a main vehicle for driving growth in sales and revenue. As organizations increasingly adopt sophisticated personalization and targeting strategies based on first and third-party insights, organizations will likely have to choose between jumping on board these trends or risking falling behind. Join us as we review ten rising trends that data-focused marketers should pay attention to in 2016.
1. Analytics Projects Will Stop Falling Short
For many organizations, big data projects have been shaped by available data assets to date. Analysts at Tamr believe this trend will change significantly in 2016, as organizations liberate themselves from artificial constraints set by poor data asset availability or poorly-formulated business questions. Increased automation, better processes, and improved assets can allow organizations to stop participating in analytics projects that consistently fall short of targets.
2. Prescriptive Analytics
Traditional business analysis thought dictates three stages to analytics adoption within an enterprise:
- Descriptive Analytics: an attempt to answer what happened
- Predictive Analytics: using modeling to predict what could happen
- Prescriptive Analytics: the application of simulation to make business decisions
Zawada predicts that in 2016, many organizations will reach final maturity stages and begin to apply prescriptive decision making to offer creation, targeting, and other segment-based marketing analysis. When prescriptive analytics is in full swing, an organization’s potential for marketing response can increase significantly.
3. Geo-Targeted, Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic ad targeting has introduced a new era of automation for marketers competing in the Adtech space. Consumer adoption of mobile technologies has introduced the potential for location-based targeting, which must be automated in real-time. AdTech writer Beth Principi writes that combining location-based [big data] and programmatic will likely have a dramatic impact on outcomes for marketers in 2016. Gaining access to location-based streams of insight on consumers will be critical for organizations who hope to take advantage of this trend.
4. Static Dashboards Will Die
CMO trust in static data dashboards is rapidly falling, according to recent research by Strata and Hadoop. As marketing executives realize the incredible potential of real-time big data, only 12% are willing to rely on static dashboard reporting for decision-making.
This statistic represents a larger shift in the way organizations are thinking about data analysis and big data. The growing preference for dynamic reporting indicates that marketers are beginning to value real-time data as a tool for the most accurate insights. Subject matter expert Bob Gourley is in agreement, writing that organizations will begin using big data to enhance agility and…market-dominating strategies in the year to come.
5. Mobile Takes Over
Mobile is beginning to crush social media as a digital channel for marketers. Marketing writer Michael Della Penna reports that app downloads have begun to exceed new social media followers for major brands, which creates immense potential for targeted loyalty experiences and personalization driven by big data. For companies with existing customer apps or new projects in development, big data strategies are likely to focus on:
- Building existing customer loyalty
- Delivering targeted offers for convenient purchase
- Manage billing and electronic payments
App-based integration of location-based beacon technology will be adopted by 85% of the leading retailers in the year to come. Organizations with the ability to integrate location and multi-channel insights will uncover new potential for highly-personalized marketing messages, which offer precisely what customers need in the moment.
For organizations to remain competitive in the year to come, integrating high-quality, multi-channel data sources on consumer transactions, location, and web usage will be critical. As companies increasingly enhance their personalization efforts, organizations that drive results are likely to integrate 3rd and 1st party data sources from a Data Exchange Platform (DXP) for the most effective customer insights. Without access to the right kinds of big data, efforts to drive revenue through personalized mobile or programmatic, geo-targeted advertising are likely to be meaningless.
For more information on Big Data Exchange’s marketplace for real-time data insights, click here.
