The age of big data is here. Companies that don’t keep up are fast losing their competitive edge. Data on your clients or prospects is like digital gold, and you need to get a handle on it in order to focus your marketing efforts and product development perfectly.

That, in turn, means that data-driven marketing has become essential. You need to know where your clients hang out, what they’re interested in, their activity on your site, and so much more. Data is essential to understanding your client.

Nowadays, understanding your client is an essential part of creating a perfectly targeted marketing message. In this post, we’ll look at what changes you need to make to your data-driven marketing for 2019 in order to keep current.

Why Data-Driven Marketing is Essential

Twenty-odd years ago, marketing was something of a hit and miss affair. You understood the basic principles of what worked, but by and large, it was a guessing game. Your campaign could be a brilliant success or a complete flop. It just depended on whether or not you hit the right note.

At the time, this was fine. It was how everyone worked because, while there was a lot of data to draw from, analyzing it properly was difficult. Access to the most current data available was a lot more difficult too.

Fast-forward to today, and the amount of data that you can access easily is staggering. With artificial intelligence advancing in great leaps and bounds, analyzing that data has become a lot simpler. Twenty years ago, you would have had to dredge through reams of data. Today, a simple, relatively inexpensive program can do that for you.

In the modern age, you cannot afford not to base your marketing strategy on real data, and there is no excuse for not doing so. With this in mind, are you ready to see what changes you need to make to your data-driven strategy going forward? Let’s have a look.

• Clients Want Personalized Experiences

Head on to one of the large online retailers and do a quick search. It doesn’t matter what you’re looking for, just choose something. When you’re done, move away from the site and do a basic Google search or log onto your social media.

Do you notice anything? Let’s say that you looked for paperclips. How many ads do you see for paperclips, all of a sudden? What about other ads from other recent searches you made?

Big companies employ data-driven marketing strategies all the time. They follow your activities on their site and then use that data to find recommendations for you. These “recommendations” follow you to the sites that you use afterward so that you keep seeing deals for the items that you were looking for.

It’s marketing 101, creating as many touch points for clients as possible. This time, though, it’s with a data-driven twist.

As a small business, should you implement the same type of thing? That’s going to depend on your target market. If they’re mainly retired seniors with little experience online, then probably not. If they’re younger and more internet savvy, then go for it.

In general, clients are expecting companies to offer them a more personalized experience. That has to extend, as far as possible, from the point of contact on the site, through to the shopping experience.

You can create optimized email and marketing campaigns that are a lot more personalized. And, if we look at the EveryCloud infographic below, you’ll see that this tip can increase CTR by 14%, so it’s definitely worth doing.

• Make Use of Identity Resolution

This is taking getting to know your clients to a whole new level. You build an overall view of your clients that extends across their devices and channels, which you can use to follow them across multiple devices and applications to get a complete picture of their interests.

Say that they use Instagram and Facebook. Identity resolution means finding out what identities they use across different channels and applications. Specialized software then aggregates the data for you (something that would have been impossible just a few years ago).

It also means that you have several ways to reach out to each client. If they’re not opening your emails, you can reach out on social media.

• Omnichannel Marketing is No Longer a Nice to Have

Omnichannel sales and marketing is here to stay. Your prospects want to be able to receive messages and make purchases on the channels that they feel most comfortable with. So, if they’re on Instagram and see a cute pic of a sweater, they want to be able to buy it there without leaving the channel.

As a marketer, you have to get the message out to your clients where they are most comfortable. You cannot rely on them to go looking outside of these channels to find information about the products anymore.

Final Notes

Marketing is constantly evolving. In order to maintain a competitive advantage, you have to evolve with it. In its latest incarnation, great marketing means obtaining and using as much data as possible to create a complete picture of your client.

That way, you can create marketing that is more relevant for your clients. There is a lot more work involved, but the results make the effort worthwhile.