With so much data to look at, marketers can often struggle to arrive at the quantifiable, reliable and justifiable conclusion they need to verify the ROI of their marketing strategy to the CMO, CEO or the Board. Marc Ramos, CMO, SplashBI explains, how, with a strategic view of their data marketers will be able to uncover the many faces of marketing analytics to bring benefits not just to the marketing campaign itself, but across the entire business.
Today, the use of social media for marketing has slowly but surely invaded every aspect of modern life. What was once a social network for connecting with old friends has become a maze of influencers, sponsored content and now even the ability to buy directly from social media channels.
The increased use of social media automatically results in an increased volume of data. For a marketer, this can help to segment, interact with and target customers, increasing the business use of social media platforms and enforcing its role as a vital part of the marketing mix. In tandem, with so many marketing tools, businesses and customers existing online, marketing has now become an increasingly data-driven industry. The efficiency of marketing can be tracked and analysed with the help of open rates, click-through rates, movements of prospective clients around websites, downloaded content or social media engagement and reach.
However, with so much data to look at, marketers can often struggle to arrive at the quantifiable, reliable and justifiable conclusion they need to verify the ROI of their marketing strategy to the CMO, CEO or the Board.
Marketers with a strategic view of their data will be able to uncover the many faces of marketing analytics to bring benefits not just to the marketing campaign itself, but across the entire business.
Real-time feedback and predictive analytics
The real-time aspect of social media means that marketers no longer have to wait until the campaign has finished to gain feedback; gathering data on impressions, engagement rates and increases in followers will give marketers an indication of the success of the campaign as soon as it goes live. Additionally, comments left on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram posts can all give marketers an indication of how well the post has been received, providing businesses with the opportunity to interact with customers, solve their queries and increase customer satisfaction.
Looking at this feedback on the surface can initially provide valuable insights, but marketers need to take a deeper dive to get the data that can make a real difference to their current and future marketing strategies and measure the impact across numerous channels and platforms. Only this way will marketers be able to demonstrate the ROI the CMO or CEO is looking for.
For example, predictive analytics and other big data tools have changed the way different organisations analyse and harness data, and for marketing teams, this is no different. Predictive analytics not only reveal future trends but additionally, predictive analytics help marketers by analysing past behaviour of customers, which can help to draft new messaging to target customers directly. With the rise of AI and predictive analytics, the art of marketing has just got better.
Business intelligence
From campaign planning, resource management and budget allocation, there are numerous benefits that using business intelligence (BI) to analyse marketing campaigns can bring not just for the marketing team, but for the entire business. Capturing, analysing and conceptualising data enables businesses to make smart decisions, meet marketing and business-wide goals, deliver an outstanding customer experience (CX) by understanding what the customer really wants and in turn identify the most profitable customers to meet growth and revenue targets. With improved visibility of sales information, marketers can fine-tune their campaigns to meet the sales objectives too, making the campaigns not only more effective, but more profitable.
This insight will not only have a positive impact on the marketing team, but the entire business. From sales deals, CX, day-to-day efficiency and future growth strategies, many areas of the business have the opportunity to see a spike in performance. The marketing teams that see BI as central to their campaign strategy and work in tandem with the rest of the organisation, will soon be able to not only demonstrate impressive campaign results, but also ROI.
By Marc Ramos