You may be surprised to learn that many companies still don’t fully understand how to use customer data to improve their marketing results.
That’s because they’re missing out on crucial best practices to help them better predict and interact with customers. This guide will cover the five most essential practices for leveraging customer data to drive growth.
Make data the foundation of your marketing strategy
Data is the foundation of your marketing strategy, so you must ensure it’s in good shape. If you’re not already using a data stack, this is a great time to start.
A data stack is like your personal computer-you wouldn’t use an old laptop with no memory, right? You need a powerful machine that can handle all the files you throw at it and then some.
The same goes for your company: if your data isn’t organized and well-categorized (like files on a hard drive), you may search endlessly for the information you want instead of taking action from what exists.
Create a single customer view
With the right tools, you can create a single customer view that will help you make better decisions at every step of your business.
A single customer view is a comprehensive record of all the information related to each of your customers. It includes their demographic data (age, gender, education level), purchase history, behavioral data (what they buy, how often they buy), and many other details.
It’s important to note that while this type of report includes data from multiple sources-like CRM systems or eCommerce platforms-it does not include personal information like names and addresses: those come from separate databases.
The benefits of having such a report are clear: by analyzing it in aggregate form rather than relying on individual records from scattered sources, you can make informed decisions about everything from marketing campaigns to product development (and everything else in between).
You’ll know exactly who’s buying what when so that you can focus on providing products or services specifically tailored for them; if there are any gaps in coverage between different groups within your target market segmentation scheme, then those too will become apparent quickly enough via analysis instead trying to guess them based upon intuition alone.
Get granular with details
As a marketer, you are constantly bombarded with information from multiple sources. As such, it’s pertinent to be able to sift through the noise and recognize which pieces of information are relevant to your goals or needs. The best way to do this is by learning how to interpret data on your terms-which can be accomplished by studying its patterns over time (and using them for comparison) and understanding why specific patterns exist in the first place.
In other words: ask questions! Why did this happen? What does this mean? How does this relate to my marketing strategy? Once these questions have been answered, they will help form an actionable plan based upon what actually happened rather than guessing at random ideas without any basis whatsoever.
A customer data platform can help you with this. What is a customer data platform, you may ask? It’s a tool that allows you to collect and organize data from multiple sources to create a single view of your customer base. You can then use this single view to understand better what your customers want, how they behave, and why they do so.
Enact a cross-channel strategy
Cross-channel marketing is often thought of as a strategy for engaging with customers, but it’s actually about understanding and capitalizing on their behavior. Customers are using different channels to accomplish the same goals, so content should be optimized for each channel, whether that’s social media or text messages.
This means you’ll need an effective workflow where your team can quickly produce content that works across all channels-and then measure its effectiveness across each one. If you’re only posting on Facebook and LinkedIn, you’re missing out on opportunities to engage with customers on their preferred platform.
The best way to build this kind of functionality into your strategy is by bringing together multiple departments (marketing and IT) at the start of any project so they can collaborate throughout the process.
Internalize the importance of customer privacy and security
There’s a lot of talk about customer data these days. And with good reason: it’s a valuable asset that can help you gain a competitive advantage, making your business more successful. But what if we told you there was one more thing customer data can help you accomplish?
It turns out that there is an additional benefit to getting a handle on your customer information-it’ll improve the satisfaction level of your customers! That’s right-a happy customer will likely stay around longer, spend more money, and tell their friends about how great you are. You may think this isn’t much of an incentive for incorporating better handling practices in place now, but as we all know from experience: quality trumps quantity every time!
Conclusion
As you can see, customer data is a valuable tool for any business. While it may not be the sexiest part of your marketing strategy, it’s essential nevertheless. If you’re not using it to its full potential yet, now is the time to start!
