Data Marketers are the Modern Marketing Evolution

Successful marketers today are data-driven. Data powers transparency and agility, providing the insights needed to double-down on effective programs and purge the line-items that yield a disappointing return on investment (ROI), writes, Ashley Hart, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Infor.

Successful marketers today are data-driven. Harnessing the power of data with modern business intelligence (BI) tools has become a necessity, as marketing departments face constricted budgets and pressure to make every campaign dollar pay high dividends in new leads, well-nurtured accounts, and ready-to-buy prospects. Data powers transparency and agility, providing the insights needed to double-down on effective programs and purge the line-items that yield a disappointing return on investment (ROI).  

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It’s not just large enterprise companies, which are taking advantage of data-driven insights. Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), as well as investor-backed start-ups and newly minted public companies, all are joining the ranks of data masters. As digitalization brings sweeping transformation across all industries, from banking to entertainment, software innovation is paving the way for new thinking, creative applications, and a new breed of professional who is comfortable with data analysis, artificial-intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-driven analytics, and owning the responsibility for advanced reporting. Modern software gives front-line business users the tools to ask complex questions and delve into the answers — and the all-important “why” behind events and trends. Not only do the tools look at historical trends, but predictive analytics help anticipate likely outcomes. Marketers can explore “what-if” scenarios, as if they have a window into the future.

Also Read: 5 Trends Marketing Analytics Companies Should Be Preparing For

Marketing automation tools are just part of the equation. Data scientists are now key players in helping drive marketing decisions. Uber is a great example. The company, which transformed how individuals get from point A to point B, leverages the work of more than 200 data scientists to help determine pricing, hiring decisions, regions for growth, and tactics for optimizing market-share and profitability.  At Uber – and at other forward-thinking companies – data scientists and data analysts report to marketers to help them make decisions on how to build campaigns, where to focus efforts, where they fail, and which campaigns are worthy of further funding. Data provides transparency.  It fuels start-up-style agility, and points marketers toward positive change and growth.    

Digitalization is changing the way we work in marketing and in every functional area of a company. But, too often, the focus seems to be on making the job easier—not in achieving better answers or smarter insights. Tools to help with the “heavy lifting” for major initiatives can be largely tactical and project-management types of solutions. They may have limited scale and scope for big-picture analysis.

From Tactical to Strategic

Data must also be applied to strategic planning. Predictive sciences and augmented analytics can help hone holistic approaches to discovering opportunities, fine tuning messaging, and aligning with prospects. Strategic planning can stress science-backed ideas, not just hunches and creative visions.  Marketers today must cost-justify every investment and plan top-down efforts that target potential buyers when and where they are ready to make purchase decisions, whether the customer is a parent buying a baby stroller or a factory CFO investing in a fleet of forklifts.

Budget dollars can’t be wasted on individuals that are unlikely to become buyers or influencers. As e-commerce, social media, and sophisticated tracking of customer preferences change the communications paradigm, marketers must adapt. They must be smarter in their messaging, more selective about demographic profiles, and laser-focused in their media strategies. Advanced business intelligence solutions make this type of analytical thinking possible.

Also Read: Why the Zero-Party Data Strategy is a Consumer Relationship Goldmine

Out with the Old, Reinforcing the New

Most marketing teams can perform some level of basic data analysis, but many lack the tools, such as AI and machine learning-driven analytics, needed to move to the next level of strategic planning.  Some teams, even among the Fortune 1000 firms, financial powerhouses on Wall Street, and Madison Avenue ad agencies, struggle with how to connect, prepare and relate data. In many cases, data scientists are a premium, hard to recruit and retain. While universities are stepping up their emphasis on STEM courses, in the near term, companies may need to take the reins and ensure that their marketing recruits have the necessary training in data analysis and know how to separate relevant data from distracting noise.   

Fortunately, modern business intelligence solutions provide easy-to-use interfaces that step the business user through defining questions and applying data resources in drag-and-drop screens. Behind the scenes, sophisticated back-end technology, driven by AI and machine learning solutions, decides what algorithms to apply. Business users, with no coding experience, can generate reports that spot trends, monitor results, predict likely outcomes, and hone in on factors influencing the data — the “why” behind the outcome.

 Visibility First

The skills to analyze data are of little use if the data is not there — nor accessible in a consumable format. Marketers require visibility into customer behaviors, sales activities, interactions with inside sales and service desk personnel, orders placed and shipped, traffic on the website, and inquiries from potential buyers.

Disparate systems, or poorly integrated solutions, can create contradictory versions of the truth, causing more confusion than insight. One end-to-end solution, managing details from customer buying cycles to product lifecycles, will provide a more comprehensive view of the enterprise status in real-time. This big-picture view is needed to measure the full impact of marketing-related activities and to spot gaps in performance needing attention.    

Then Agility

The insights derived from the data, in turn, require agile response. Decisions must be made in a timely manner, taking advantage of new opportunities as they arise. Today’s rapid speed of change requires organizations to be highly responsive and action-oriented. The growing numbers of start-ups began changing the global economy in the late ‘90s. Today, a company operating out of a garage in a small island-nation with an angel investor, crowd-sourcing, a website, and a FedEx account can sell products worldwide. Digitalization has further rewritten the best practices for go-to-market strategies, opening doors for a wide range of innovative ideas.

Ideas are only new for a limited time. Often, the company that pioneers a concept owns it (for at least a while), giving it sizable opportunities to benefit from the novelty — before others join in with imitation offerings. Several breakthrough concepts are changing the landscape, from manufacturers selling directly to the consumer, selling services as products (servitization), and value-add programs that pick products and package them for consumers.  Think razors, watches, mattresses, boxes of ingredients and a recipe. It’s a new world. Marketers must be able to move quickly to take advantage of product trends.

They must also move quickly to take advantage of media opportunities, find where their potential buyers are gathering, and how to reach them with fresh messaging, before the channel becomes expensive and over-saturated.     

Finally, Culture

The first elements are worthless if marketers aren’t continuously probing for data insights. Marketers need to be curious, continually asking questions, and committed to digging deeper into causes and achieving repeatable results. They must have the temperament, but the overall company culture must align, too. The organization can support innovation and risk-taking, or it can subtly tell team members to always “play it safe” and choose traditional marketing tactics.

For the organization to be responsive to changing demands, the company culture must support an environment that embraces change. This means it’s flexible, supports continuous improvement, and encourages controlled risk-taking. Managers will make it easy for team members to share new ideas, work on projects that are fulfilling, provide growth opportunities, and support a balance between work and home.

Also Read: Enterprises Are Overexposed and Underinvested in Preventing Data Breaches

Main takeaways

Software technology – including marketing resource management (MRM) tools, BI solutions, and AI and machine learning-driven analytics – are changing the way marketers meet the challenges of tight budgets and global competition. Relying on data to make smart, timely decisions is important. But, marketers also need the ability to apply strategic thinking, and react quickly and confidently. Companies must encourage out-of-the-box thinking and embrace change. It starts with the leadership team and the way it encourages people, motivates them, and rewards their efforts. Data fuels the fire.