Being a detective is about collecting the available evidence, doing thorough analysis and taking according action. Marketing is no different. Analysis is absolutely crucial if a business is to engage with its customers effectively through digital marketing.
Think of the world’s most brilliant detectives: Columbo, Inspector Morse, CSI’s Gil Grissom. Oh, and of course, Bob from Marketing. Being a good marketer is not dissimilar to being an ace detective. Marketers need to examine the evidence, and come up with a solution to that ultimate mystery – what is it that engages customers and gets results?
Of course, to solve the mystery, you need to process the evidence. The detectives may take all the credit, but the unsung heroes in those shows, and indeed real life, are the analysts – the people that take the information, process it, link it to what they already know, and help the detective come up with a solution. This is what digital marketers need to do too, but they don’t need a team of techies and boffins behind them, they just need the right marketing solution capable of comprehensive analytics.
One of the biggest strengths of digital marketing is that it’s easy to collect information about your campaigns. If you are working with a good email service provider (ESP) or digital marketing solution, results and data are accessible and interpretable at any time. By examining information, such as which customers have opened an email, how many have clicked on a link to your main site, and how many subsequently became customers, it is possible to build up an idea of what is engaging them, and which messages are failing to connect. But to come up with solutions before the trail goes cold, you need marketing software that allow you to examine and analyse statistics on the fly, presenting the data visually as diagrams and graphs so you can easily see what’s affecting campaigns and your customers. You want information laid out in front of the marketer, clearly indicating any trends or patterns. With all this processed evidence to hand, marketers can clearly see what is and isn’t working, allowing them to modify or abandon it accordingly. The information gained from the campaign can be added to other information you have and then be put to use to improve the organisation’s future marketing.
If you wish to engage customers and improve results, it’s also important to understand who they are exactly. After all, there’s little point in sending someone a message they won’t have any interest in – they’ll just ignore it, or be irritated by it. Without analytics software, knowing this is all but impossible. Marketers need to continue to act like detectives and collect evidence. A good way to do this is by encouraging customers to complete online forms, perhaps when signing up for a newsletter, or buying through a web site. Through a form it is possible to collect invaluable information about customers, such as age, income, location, preferences or interests. You can combine data from other sources in the business, building your intelligence. Through comprehensive analysis of this information, and by examining customers’ purchase history or online behaviour, marketers can identify what each customer will and won’t want to receive and what potential value they represent. They can also segment their database by grouping people with common traits and interests, and ensure they are targeting people with the messages they are most likely to respond to.
Once customers are engaged, the challenge marketers face is keeping them engaged and coming back for more. With the current economic instability, it is crucial for businesses that customers remain loyal. Through analysis of current and past campaigns and customer behaviour, it is possible for businesses to get a good idea of how loyal and engaged a customer is. Armed with this intelligence, a marketer could, for example, notice that a customer has stopped opening emails for the last couple of months. Examining the purchase history, the marketer may notice that the customer’s average spend has reduced. Perhaps the customer has less money to spend, so the messaging he or she receives needs to promote different or cheaper products. People are not static – their situation and interests change, and analysis is crucial if businesses are to adapt their marketing to address this.
Being able to see fully analysed customer behaviour also lets the marketer identify which customers may be on the verge of abandoning the company. Analytics allow the business to understand how often customers buy from the company, and how much money they spend. This intelligence allows the organisation to identify the customers that deviate from their usual behaviour, indicating they are on the verge of leaving. Marketers can specifically target these people with offers and incentives to lure them back into the fold.
At the heart of a successful marketing department is deduction, and yes, analysis. Businesses collect an extraordinary amount of information about their customers, and turning this into comprehensive and intelligent analysis that marketers can use, is of paramount importance. Ultimately, the more your marketing is driven by a deep understanding of your customers, the more engaged they will be and the better results you will get. It's elementary.
Bryan Black
Sales Director, smartFOCUS