How to tackle these challenges head-on with data, technology, and analytics
Marketing strategies change every year. There is a flood of new technology, new trends, and new demands from customers. But one thing never changes the goal. The goal is to be profitable. The goal is to create loyal and happy customers. The goal is to make a difference. So you can imagine how difficult a marketer’s job is when the destination stays the same, but all the roads to get there keep changing.
Clich as it might be, there is a lot going on in this fast and crazy world. It is enough to overwhelm anyone, especially those trying to market to others based on their behavior and purchasing patterns. That’s a lot of information to sort through, let alone using it to create a strategy.
And now that everyone has hopped on the content bandwagon, how do you stand out as a business? How do you make personal connections with customers in a world where everything is personalized?
That’s where data comes into play. You need deeper data than ever these days to understand who your customers are and what they want from you.
Here are some of the top challenges facing marketers today and how data can make all the difference.
1. Too much data
The amount of information and data that marketers are expected to keep track of is staggering.
How can data help solve marketers’ problems while also being one of them?
With social media, content creation, budget management, building buyer personas, and keeping track of ROI, it’s difficult to keep all the plates in the air. Gathering data from all of your marketing efforts might be easy enough, but finding the time to sort through it to find patterns and new ideas is almost impossible to do on a regular basis.
The key is to decide and focus on the data that will help you achieve your business goals. Figure out a strategy for doing that, making sure it fits in with everything else you’re doing. Once you’ve reached one goal, build and expand on another. And just keep going.
2. Staying on top of marketing technology
Because there is so much data to sort through, there is an equal number of services to help marketers deal with it. A reported 24% of marketers struggle to find the right tools and technology to help them do their jobs.
Some critical tools for any marketer are a CRM to manage and track leads, a social media management tool to schedule and analyze your social presence, and an analytics tool like Google Analytics to monitor your online presence.
There is also an overwhelming amount of change in technology used to market to consumers. Two of the big players these days are voice technology and AI. Even if these aren’t currently in your toolbox, it’s important to stay up to date on them.
Over 50% of American households own a smart voice device of some kind, such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Out of that 50%, 71% use it at least once a day to ask questions or search for products. So businesses need to be ready for consumers to search for them and buy their products via voice assistants. This requires a different set of marketing strategies and data to tackle.
AI is already impacting huge areas of everyday life, and it will continue to change marketing as well. With the sheer amount of data created and transferred every second, AI is a promising way to keep up and make effective decisions, especially from a business perspective.
Marketers can use AI for things such as content curation and advertising. AI is able to determine customers’ buying habits and interests much faster than a human can, putting the right ad in the right place at the right time to appeal to that specific person. In other words, it makes marketing decisions significantly easier.
3. Measuring ROI for marketing campaigns
One of the most dreaded tasks of any marketer is measuring ROI because it’s nearly impossible to do accurately. But it’s required for a reason. Knowing the ROI of your various marketing tactics will tell you what’s working and what’s not so you can craft the best possible strategy.
It’s more critical than ever for marketers to accurately gauge their efforts’ ROI. There are so many technologies, trends, and channels to reach customers. If you aren’t tracking the success of each one, you’ll never know which approaches are most effective.
Step one is to know which goals you’re pursuing and how you’ll measure the success of those goals. Start by increasing followers on social media or traffic to the website, for instance. Use proper analytics tools to track performance over time, and expand from there.
4. Having enough marketing budget and resources
How are you supposed to keep track of all this data, attract new customers, maintain loyal customers, and increase company profit by 20% with a next-to-nothing budget, a small team, and outdated technology? It’s an issue almost every marketer has faced at some point.
The best thing you can do is keep track of proven successes, so you can focus your limited resources on the best path forward. This takes us back to the importance of ROI. Prove that certain marketing efforts are leading to sales, brand awareness, or whatever goal you’re trying to achieve, and use that to persuade leadership to increase your budget or invest in new tools for your team.
5. Improving the customer experience
We are in the age of customer experience. Aside from making customers feel warm and fuzzy, brands delivering a high-quality experience have seen acquisition costs drop by up to 50%.
It’s not just about sending a cheery email addressing a customer by the first name or providing friendly service when they contact you with a problem. It’s about making every single interaction with the business seamless, consistent, and branded, including the online presence, the staff, and the actual product or service.
This approach has become so ubiquitous that it’s difficult to stand out with something unique. Again, this is where data comes into play. Business owners need to understand who their customers are, why they make the choices they do, and what they want to see from their business. They can find ways to distinguish their business by digging through this data and providing solutions that address customer concerns and needs in ways no other business can.
The difference is in the data
Built-in analytics tools on social media, Google, and your CRM can provide you with a wealth of information about your customer base and their behaviors. But data from a third-party provider can drastically ease some of your marketing challenges and upgrade your customers’ experience.
BDEX is the first-ever Data Exchange Platform (DXP) that enables companies to acquire impartial data about consumers. It tracks consumers across multiple platforms in real-time to understand their interests and behaviors and develop true human connectivity.
BDEX allows businesses to connect with customers on a deeper level with data that is current and fresh. Attract new customers and excite existing customers by appearing where they need you, when they need you, and with exactly what they need.
Contact us today to learn more about the BDEX platform and how it can work for your business.
