TPG constantly is warning our clients that you should not rush into new technology without first understanding how it is truly going to benefit you. Technology for Technology sake is not a good thing it has to fit with your needs, and generate results that benefit your organization. An example can be social media…unless you know how social media connects and interacts with your consumer audience it is foolish to even begin to develop a social media strategy. You need to know the results you expect to receive before you ever develop the campaign, or buy the software that you need to execute it. As we have always said at TPG…it all starts with the consumer and meeting their expectations from your brand.
Data Gold Rush: Are You Wasting Your Time and Money?
There’s a gold rush on and it’s all about the data. Data miners are scrambling to extra value from mountains of data. But like the 1849 gold rush in California, the data rush often has a similar frenetic feel about it. New tools, new technologies, new data sets all offer promises of wealth and value that too often result in companies rushing ahead without thinking through whether the effort is worth it.
Big Data has been top of many CEO agendas for a while now but when it comes to determining what to do with data, you shouldn’t take any steps until you clearly understand what it means for your customer.
The truth of that perspective really came home to me in an eBook we just published: Big Data, Analytics, and the Future of Marketing & Sales. It’s a collection of McKinsey’s best articles, videos, and presentations on the topic, but one of the biggest takeaways as I read this is the importance of grounding insights in a deep understanding of customer decision journeys (CDJ).
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, today’s consumer is the consummate channel-surfer, effortlessly moving between devices, tools, and technologies to complete tasks. That journey should determine where companies allocate budget and resources, what Big Data you need to gather to help generate insights into these behaviors, and what programs you need to develop. Did you know, for example, that:
– 70% of car customers start their decision journey online
– 35% of B2B pre-purchase activities are digital
– 66% of skincare consumers continue to research their brand choice after purchase
– 43% of consumers purchase via face-to-face but use digital channels to learn about and evaluate brands
– 40% of B2B re-purchases happen online
A detailed and relevant picture of customers that Big Data can provide also allows companies to create more personalized messages and products. Research shows that personalization can deliver five to eight times the ROI on marketing spend and lift sales 10 percent or more.
In practice, that means also understanding which customers to compete for based on their lifetime value. As any sales person can tell you, some customers are more valuable than others but too often investment decisions don’t take that into account enough. One online retailer, for example, tailors its offers and discounts based on predictions of how likely a valued customer is to defect—the greater the likelihood, the more compelling the offer.
I hope you’ll find some useful lessons and insights in Big Data, Analytics, and the Future of Marketing & Sales (you can get atiBookstore and Amazon)– I’d love to hear your thoughts and reactions to it. More importantly, where have you found Big Data and analytics delivering the most value?
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