As this blog has reported, an increasing number of companies are relying on data analytics to drive their business strategies. A recent Adweek column points out a few ways that businesses can now employ data specifically in their marketing departments:
- Gauge a campaign’s performance in real time and adjust accordingly: With social media, consumer response to ad campaigns has become more objectively quantifiable. Companies can track the public’s reaction to see which aspects of their campaigns are generating positive or negative reactions. This way, they can make changes on the fly rather than wait for the campaign’s end and hope for results.
- Narrow down market sectors: By tracking mentions on social media, marketers can break down traditional broad demographic groups into narrower ones. This will allow them to target a much more specific audience, maximizing a campaign’s effectiveness.
- Predict brand performance: The New York Times reported recently that holding company Credit Suisse has compiled data on how consumers feel about different brands within an industry, in order to predict the brands’ future market performance and make wiser investments. Companies can also use this information to their advantage by working to make their public image more appealing.
- Track the competition: Aside from all the information that companies can gather on consumers’ responses to their own products, they can do the same for their competitors. Knowing what the public thinks about the competition, whether good or bad, is just as useful as knowing their opinion of one’s own brand.
While all of this data is out there, transforming it into something quantifiable that can be used to make strategic decisions is easier said than done. Extract, transform, load (ETL) tools provide data mining for business intelligence, giving decision-makers the information they need to lay out their future marketing plans.