In the new data economy, digital marketing and analytics is not a should-do thing but a must-do thing. As a graduate student in Northwestern University Medill's M.S. Integrated Marketing Communications program, with a focus on marketing analytics and digital marketing, I have discovered 2 essential articles for Digital Analysts who want to help companies in the new data economy to leverage digital analytics towards better performance.
One of the fascinating things in doing digital marketing is that it is always changing and evolving. According to an article by a blogger Joe McKendrick on Informatica Blog, Analytics 3.0 – The Emerging Data Economy, he summarizes, from a report by International Institute for Analytics, the evolution of data analytics from Analytics 1.0 which was based on relatively small and structured data sources internally to current Analytics 2.0 which are leveraging big data stores and employing prescriptive analytics to target customers. Then the arises Analytics 3.0, which is “Large organizations across industries are joining the data economy and they are not keeping traditional analytics and big data separate, but are combining them to form a new synthesis.” This new state of management “Analytics 3.0” coined by the International Institute for Analytics are the concepts and practices of competing on analytics are no longer confined to data management and IT departments or quants rather analytics are embedded into all key organizational processes. That means models in Analytics 3.0 are often being embedded into operational and decision processes, with dramatically increasing their speed and impact. So as a digital analyst, it is really important to understand this trend and seize the value of Analytics 3.0 to embed real-time analytics into business decisions.
Another important step in doing digital analytics is to have a clear framework to guide through the all process. Digital analytics can be confusing as data is overflowing, so as a digital analyst, you should have the clear objectives and goals to do the analysis and move them into business suggestion and decisions. In an article written by Avinash Kaushi (Author of Digital Marketing, Evangelist – Google and Co-founder - Market Motive), Digital Marketing and Measurement Model it introduces a digital marketing & Measurement Model to guide you as digital analyst to integrate digital analytics into digital marketing. According to Avinash Kaushi, you should always start with identify business objectives whether it is to create awareness, generate leads or highlight events. Then you identify the specific goals for your business objectives and identify the Key Performance Indicators associated with these goals. Finally, you should identify the Targets and valuable Segments for analytics. In a nutshell, the article maintains that it should always be associated with the objectives to have the better measurement.
After reviewing these two articles, as a digital analyst, there are three action items you should immediately consider for your company.
1. Go real-time with Analytics: Integrate Analytics into real time business decisions.
2. Always relate to the business objectives: When doing digital marketing, start with business objectives, stick with business objectives and end with them to measure.
3. Just identify your Key Performance Indicators: The KPIs you measure when doing digital analytics should be specific to your digital marketing
Today digital analytics is the new sexiness in business world. However, as a digital analyst you should really following the framework in this data economy-Analytics 3.0, which means you should embedded real time analytics into your business decisions, always be aware of the business objectives, and identify your KPIs to better measure the ROI of digital marketing.
Feng Liu is a master candidate of Integrated Marketing Communications in Medill, Northwestern University. Previously, he had experience as a market analyst and marketing researcher in China. And he has always been interested in marketing analytics and digital marketing and is dedicated to purse a career on these fields. If you have questions or comments, please contact me through Twitter @blakeliu0711 or Email: blake.liu@u.northwestern.edu
No comments:
Post a Comment