Marketing is an art, but it’s not something you do from your instinct. While creativity is important, it’s also vital that marketing strategies are backed by proper data, especially in the present day. Thus comes the need for data-driven marketing strategies.
In this article, we’ll discuss how digital marketing executives can develop more data-driven marketing strategies.
Understanding the Current Marketing Landscape
To develop data-driven marketing strategies, marketers must first understand the current marketing landscape. After all, it is this landscape that will provide them with the market data they need to devise such data-driven strategies.
Start with marketing research. This means before you research the market itself, you take a look at how other marketing professionals, firms, and experts are studying the marketing landscape. See how they collect market data and make the most of it. The basic idea of marketing analytics is important here since you’ll need some idea regarding the techniques others are using to study the market.
Once that’s done, you comb the markets you’re working with for data that you can later use to your advantage. Here, you’ll jump into the market itself, and with tools and techniques like data analytics or data science, you try to work out patterns that give shape to the current trends of the market you’re working with.
We’ll explain this using a simple marketing example.
For instance, let’s say you work as a digital marketing analyst for a car company. Through your research, you notice that people are not buying cars these days because of rising oil prices. You also notice that car brands offering a ton of new features like self-driving or luxurious seating are not selling so well.
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Therefore, instead of focusing on the other features of your car, you heavily market the fact that your car is one of the most fuel-efficient in the country. Thus, you’re taking advantage of the current marketing landscape as well as the latest market conditions.
Related: Highest paying marketing jobs and desired skills
Going Back to School
If you’re not too eager to explore the world of data-driven marketing strategies, consider enrolling yourself in a graduate program. In case you’re a job-holder, opt for a Master’s in marketing analytics online. Accredited online master’s programs can not only guarantee you a legit degree but also offer you the chance to explore a new avenue and learn practical skills needed for the ever-changing workforce. Online Marketing Courses with Certificates : For those looking to enhance their skills, our guide on Online Marketing Courses with Certificates offers a comprehensive list of top programs available.
In a Masters in Marketing Analytics program, you’ll get to explore all the areas necessary to get you up-to-speed on the best and most efficient approaches to devise data-driven marketing strategies, as well as use data in other ways for marketing purposes.
Related: 7 Key skills for Marketing Internships
Realizing What Kind of Data Can be Used
When you first look at the market itself, you’ll realize that there’s a lot of data for you to play with. Of course, you don’t need to understand or study everything. You only need to use the data that will benefit your marketing strategies.
For instance, in the example discussed earlier, you’re using only two sets of data. The first is the fact that car brands offering features like self-driving or luxury seating are not selling that well. This is data you uncovered by studying consumer behavior. The second set of data is the one showcasing the rising oil prices. This data is basic quantitative data that depicts the current scenario of the oil market.
While the two data sets aren’t related directly, they can both be studied to work out effective marketing strategies. However, if you collected data on, let’s say, the number of horses being sold in the U.S. during this period, it won’t do you any good in this case because there’s no way this data can contribute to your strategy.
Thus, you have to be picky about the type of data you use.
Through the Simple Process of Trial and Error
When you’re initially stepping foot into the world of data-driven marketing, you’re likely to make a few mistakes here and there. However, don’t see this as a loss. Instead, see this as a process of trial and error.
Try out a few data-driven strategies and see how best they work. If they meet your expectations, that’s great. But if they don’t, see where you got things wrong and how you can improve upon them. Never stop troubleshooting your mistakes, or you’ll never learn the true art of data-based marketing.
Once you’ve done all this, simply compare the results of the data-driven marketing approaches to that of your ordinary or intuition-based marketing approaches. You’ll clearly see that the ones backed by data performed the best.
