The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Marketing Data

Your business’s growth depends on how aware you are of your successes and failures. Acknowledging your victories and losses—and how these came about—can help you differentiate what works from what doesn’t. By analyzing your marketing data, you can identify which campaigns have generated the most engagement. You can then use these insights to produce customized content that resonates with your target audiences. 

With 64% of marketing executives attesting that data analytics in marketing is essential, your marketing data should be an integral part of your marketing strategy. In this article, we’ll uncover the crux and crannies of marketing data, revealing what it is, why you need it, and which marketing data types you should be tracking.

What Is Marketing Data?

Your marketing data allows you to discover customer behaviours, industry trends, and competitors’ strategies. Leveraged correctly, this information can help you bypass competitors and bridge the gap between your offerings and your customers’ needs. As such, data analytics in marketing can prove vital to your internal operations, reinforcing your marketing efforts with a customer-centric approach. 

How Marketing Data Can Empower Your Business 

Businesses’ use of data analytics in marketing has grown exponentially, with marketing teams benefiting greatly from interpreting and applying their marketing data. More specifically, there are five key ways your business can benefit from leveraging its online marketing analytics. These include:

1.  Gaining an In-Depth Understanding of Your Target Audience 

‘Know Your Customer’ is a well-known business adage, with most businesses viewing customer data as vital to their success. Your online marketing analytics enables an accurate understanding of your customers’ needs and pain points, revealing where they engage or drop off across the customer journey. 

2.  Improving Your Personalization Efforts 

Personalization is paramount to successful marketing campaigns; sending customers the same generic marketing outreaches no longer captures their interest. As such, you should differentiate your communications to stand out from the crowd. Using data analytics, you can create comprehensive customer profiles and deliver the most appropriate campaigns to each customer segment. 

3.  Revealing the Most Suitable Marketing Channels

Your online marketing analytics are more powerful than you think; they can also suggest the best channels to reach your different customer segments effectively. Using this information, you can position your campaigns on platforms favoured by customers, increasing the likelihood that customers will read your messages. This level of insight is particularly useful for omnichannel customer journeys, allowing you to create seamless customer journeys that coincide with your customers’ online behaviours.

4.  Refining Products and Services 

After observing how your customers respond to your communications, you understand how they perceive your offerings. Utilizing data analytics in marketing, you get a better idea of what products or services need improvement. For example, the data generated from your sales, customer inquiries, and feedback can help you improve products or services that aren’t purchased as often. This enables better alignment between your brand’s offerings and your customers’ preferences.

5. Boosting Your ROI 

Your data analytics can have a significantly positive impact on your ROI. Currently, 83% of marketers leveraging data-driven marketing benefit from 5-8 times the ROI compared to those who don’t! 

As online marketing analytics measure the success of your campaigns, you’re able to refine your marketing messages and cater to prospective and potential customers. As a result, your marketing data can help you deliver more qualified leads and generate higher profits.

Types of Marketing Data You Should Track 

You can monitor multiple types of marketing data for a comprehensive understanding of your marketing endeavours. These are:

1. Customer Data 

Customer data refers to information about your customers and can be collected using various channels and methods (e.g., social media, surveys, touchpoint analysis). This data includes customers’ personal information (e.g., their name, date of birth, contact details), interests, behaviours, and demographics.

2.  Competitor Data 

Competitor data encompasses information such as competitors' products, prices, online engagement levels, and content formats. This information is beneficial for assessing your competitive edge and can be easily obtained from competitors’ websites, annual reports, company news, and social channels.

3.  Market Research

Market research is information you gather about your target market to determine whether your products or services fill a gap in the market. More specifically, proper market research allows you to cultivate a buyer persona, pinpoint your target audience, and predict the success of your offer in your industry.

4.  Customer Feedback

The feedback you receive from your customers represents their perceptions of your company. This information can reveal customers’ satisfaction levels and help you create a more favourable customer experience. 

5.  Marketing Metrics 

Measuring your team’s performance is an excellent way to evaluate your campaigns. Depending on your goals, you may have to track multiple metrics to assess your channels. For example, you can monitor your email marketing activities by looking at your unsubscriber rates and link clicks. However, with social media, you’d benefit from tracking your follower counts and reach. 

In Brief  

For consistent growth, online marketing analytics should be a standard tool in your marketing toolbox. The foresight your marketing data provides can direct prospective customers down the sales funnel and create hefty business profits. 

Ready to make the most of your data analytics in marketing? Our omnichannel marketing solution can effortlessly collect your marketing data and create automated marketing reports. Book a demo to learn more about iwinBACK’s performance analytics!