DorisRon
Member
Analytics is so good as the used data is good. That is why it is very important to start with the biggest and most importantly, full data.
Data is a modern oracle for companies that are in a permanent search for wise advice and deep understanding of the needs of the target audience. Sometimes it seems that the big data took an almost mythical image in imagination of marketers who seek to understand the art and science of analytics to examine the hearts and minds of consumers. However, you need to start from the very beginning - the quality and completeness of the data.
Analytics, built on shoddy or incomplete data, a priori can be considered a failure. Visualization, which is based on poor quality data and analytics, is not more than just pretty pictures. Actions taken on the basis of such "revelations" are not able to achieve their goals and may even mislead, what is detrimental to any business. In simple terms, the quality of output depends on the quality of input.
What does all this mean for marketers seeking to make data-driven decisions? Customers today are counting on highly relevant and personalized multi-channel, ie which cover all channels of communication with customers, solutions. It is so regardless of how the consumer interacts with the brand - responds the campaign carried out in Facebook, or makes a purchase via the call center.
Any action that is related to the optimization of marketing should begin with the data.
Simplifying Marketing Optimization
Pelin Thorogood, general director of the analytical startup Anametrix, advises marketers to start with the issues and solutions that help determine what type of data we will need in the future. The paradigm, ie a set of fundamental scientific installations and performances, will allow to collect as many multi-channel data, and so fast that it will be possible to answer almost any question. Therefore it is not so important to clearly identify the main questions in advance, but timely get access to high-quality disaggregated data, on which any iterative analysis should be based. With that in mind, let's look at the process of optimizing marketing into four main components:
▪ Data. What mechanisms do you use to collect the digital and offline data? Are they full and detailed? What is the guarantee that you own the data which you generate by yourself? How do you standardize the gathered information to use it?
▪ Analytics. Do you first collect and count the data, or conduct more sophisticated analytics, such as cross-device user identification, correlation and any other statistical modeling? How mature is your multi-channel attribution?
▪ Visualization. How effectively do your reports and monitoring dashboards unify multi-channel data? Do you have levers that allow you to make certain changes to your multi-channel marketing activities?
▪ Action. How personalized, targeted and timely can you call your actions that you take after the data collection and analysis? Can they be automated across multiple channels and platforms in order to provide timely marketing activities?
As you can see, data is the most objective element in the process of marketing optimization. And this is the fundamental principle. Analysis, visualization and the ability to use in practice, that, on the basis of personal or situational choices, become more subjective, are also based on this principle. No matter what tools you prefer to use for modeling and visualization, and what motivates you to commit a specific marketing activities, the importance of data quality for better decision-making is not even discussed.
DATA IS THE MOST OBJECTIVE ELEMENT
Let's start from the beginning. Research or action under any circumstances can not be better than the data on which it is based. That is why marketers should always begin with an assessment of the data sets. For this it is enough to answer all three questions.
● How much detailed is your data? Detailed data is always better than the aggregated one, because it can tell you about individual consumers, rather than its generic versions. Detailed data provides information that goes far beyond simply counting of visits to the website or the number of likes on the social network. Instead, the data tells you about the intersection of the brand and the consumer, and will provide the basis to identify hidden correlations across all channels and platforms.
● Do you use a first-party or third-party data? Own data makes it possible to monitor an individual user through the platform, which he visits and ads, which he clicks. Data is the key to understanding the interaction between different platforms used by your brand, allowing you to receive relevant multi-channel experience. Therefore there is nothing strange in the fact that you want to own the data.
● Is your data complete? The ability to consolidate and integrate data from multiple sources is fundamental to the effective multi-channel marketing. Marketers need to be able to combine data generated on different platforms: digital "cloud" applications, internal sales system, third-party sources such as statistics organizations involved in population census, and the reference data that sheds light on market trends. Ask yourself - whether you are able to identify the user when he enters the site from a social network or a mobile application? And if you can put the pieces of the puzzle in a single picture?
OPENNESS AND FLEXIBILITY ARE THE KEY FACTORS
Once the data is collected and integrated into the process of optimization, subjective criteria that are associated with different technological needs of the company, go to the base of analytics, visualization, and practical application. Because of this subjectivity, openness and flexibility are critical for effective analytics. Many of the major market players have built their own closed systems, which in the truest sense of the word hold data as a hostage in data centers with seven firewalls, limiting the possibility of their use. However, it is important to invest in open systems not only for the sake of available flexibility, but also for the opportunity to use new tools and solutions.
We could go on, but would like to leave you alone with a truism, which is in the fact that the level of the value of analytics and actions is directly related to the quality and completeness of data. In the end, everything really starts with the data!
Data is a modern oracle for companies that are in a permanent search for wise advice and deep understanding of the needs of the target audience. Sometimes it seems that the big data took an almost mythical image in imagination of marketers who seek to understand the art and science of analytics to examine the hearts and minds of consumers. However, you need to start from the very beginning - the quality and completeness of the data.
Analytics, built on shoddy or incomplete data, a priori can be considered a failure. Visualization, which is based on poor quality data and analytics, is not more than just pretty pictures. Actions taken on the basis of such "revelations" are not able to achieve their goals and may even mislead, what is detrimental to any business. In simple terms, the quality of output depends on the quality of input.
What does all this mean for marketers seeking to make data-driven decisions? Customers today are counting on highly relevant and personalized multi-channel, ie which cover all channels of communication with customers, solutions. It is so regardless of how the consumer interacts with the brand - responds the campaign carried out in Facebook, or makes a purchase via the call center.
Any action that is related to the optimization of marketing should begin with the data.
Simplifying Marketing Optimization
Pelin Thorogood, general director of the analytical startup Anametrix, advises marketers to start with the issues and solutions that help determine what type of data we will need in the future. The paradigm, ie a set of fundamental scientific installations and performances, will allow to collect as many multi-channel data, and so fast that it will be possible to answer almost any question. Therefore it is not so important to clearly identify the main questions in advance, but timely get access to high-quality disaggregated data, on which any iterative analysis should be based. With that in mind, let's look at the process of optimizing marketing into four main components:
▪ Data. What mechanisms do you use to collect the digital and offline data? Are they full and detailed? What is the guarantee that you own the data which you generate by yourself? How do you standardize the gathered information to use it?
▪ Analytics. Do you first collect and count the data, or conduct more sophisticated analytics, such as cross-device user identification, correlation and any other statistical modeling? How mature is your multi-channel attribution?
▪ Visualization. How effectively do your reports and monitoring dashboards unify multi-channel data? Do you have levers that allow you to make certain changes to your multi-channel marketing activities?
▪ Action. How personalized, targeted and timely can you call your actions that you take after the data collection and analysis? Can they be automated across multiple channels and platforms in order to provide timely marketing activities?
As you can see, data is the most objective element in the process of marketing optimization. And this is the fundamental principle. Analysis, visualization and the ability to use in practice, that, on the basis of personal or situational choices, become more subjective, are also based on this principle. No matter what tools you prefer to use for modeling and visualization, and what motivates you to commit a specific marketing activities, the importance of data quality for better decision-making is not even discussed.
DATA IS THE MOST OBJECTIVE ELEMENT
Let's start from the beginning. Research or action under any circumstances can not be better than the data on which it is based. That is why marketers should always begin with an assessment of the data sets. For this it is enough to answer all three questions.
● How much detailed is your data? Detailed data is always better than the aggregated one, because it can tell you about individual consumers, rather than its generic versions. Detailed data provides information that goes far beyond simply counting of visits to the website or the number of likes on the social network. Instead, the data tells you about the intersection of the brand and the consumer, and will provide the basis to identify hidden correlations across all channels and platforms.
● Do you use a first-party or third-party data? Own data makes it possible to monitor an individual user through the platform, which he visits and ads, which he clicks. Data is the key to understanding the interaction between different platforms used by your brand, allowing you to receive relevant multi-channel experience. Therefore there is nothing strange in the fact that you want to own the data.
● Is your data complete? The ability to consolidate and integrate data from multiple sources is fundamental to the effective multi-channel marketing. Marketers need to be able to combine data generated on different platforms: digital "cloud" applications, internal sales system, third-party sources such as statistics organizations involved in population census, and the reference data that sheds light on market trends. Ask yourself - whether you are able to identify the user when he enters the site from a social network or a mobile application? And if you can put the pieces of the puzzle in a single picture?
OPENNESS AND FLEXIBILITY ARE THE KEY FACTORS
Once the data is collected and integrated into the process of optimization, subjective criteria that are associated with different technological needs of the company, go to the base of analytics, visualization, and practical application. Because of this subjectivity, openness and flexibility are critical for effective analytics. Many of the major market players have built their own closed systems, which in the truest sense of the word hold data as a hostage in data centers with seven firewalls, limiting the possibility of their use. However, it is important to invest in open systems not only for the sake of available flexibility, but also for the opportunity to use new tools and solutions.
We could go on, but would like to leave you alone with a truism, which is in the fact that the level of the value of analytics and actions is directly related to the quality and completeness of data. In the end, everything really starts with the data!