Agency Execs: 3 Advices for Being a Smart Analytics Firm

It is clear that the coming of Big Data era has changed the marketing landscape a lot. According to the data from CMOSurvey.org, marketers are predicted to increase their budget on marketing analytics by 83% over the next 3 years, which is for sure a great news for marketing analytics firms. But have you been prepared for it? As a M.S candidate in the Integrated Marketing Communications program at Medill School of Journalism, I believe the following 2 article will help you gear up to be a smart analytics firm.

In the article "The Value of Big DataIsn’t the Data", Kristian J. Hammond provides us with a new thinking about how to make value out of data, which is really important to marketing analytics. He suggests that we should try to turn data into a story and argues that the starting point has to be the story (or the communication) itself, which defines the data needs. Marketers or analysts should pay attention to how to turn the data collected into a story instead of just exposing or displaying it. And in his article, he defines the overall analytics flow, which goes from data to fact to angle to story to language.

(Source: https://hbr.org/)

In the article "Big Data Driven Marketing Analytics Invades the Enterprise", the author also provides some suggestions on how to be a smart analytical guy. On the one hand, he/she reminds marketing analysts not to neglect pre-purchase behaviors data by saying that studying and analyzing the development of customer decisions prior to a particular purchase can unravel potential customer winning strategies. On the other hand, he/she calls on to strengthen the link between technology and marketing expertise by pointing out the issue that marketing departments have to serve as advisors to their technology peers.

Based on the two articles discussed above, my graduate education as well as my working experience in marketing research firm, here are three advices for becoming a smart analytics firm:

• Conceive Story first - Think of the story you want to tell before collecting data and analyzing data.
• Focus on Pre-purchase - Study and analyze the data concerning the development of customer decisions prior to a particular purchase, instead of just digging the purchase behavior data.
• Think skill set - It's O.K. to have marketing guys along with statisticians, but it would be even better to have someone who is expert in both marketing and analytics join the firm.

Being a smart analytical firm means doing things effectively and efficiently. Think of the story you want to tell before heading toward data things. By doing this, you will have a clear mind of what data needs to be collected and what analysis needs to be done, which greatly lift the efficiency of marketing analytics. Spending efforts on pre-purchase data instead of only on post-purchase data can unravel potential customer winning strategies as well as protect existing customers from the prying eyes of competition, which effectively adds value to client’s business. Finally, it is crucial not to separate marketing with analytics. While more and more companies set direct link between marketing and technology departments, it is time for analytical firms to equip its analyst with both expertise.

Qimin Wu is a MS candidate in the Integrated Marketing Communication program at Northwestern University. He is now pursing the track of marketing analytics as well as digital and interactive marketing. He has a good command of quantitative analytical tools and has considerable experience in applying these tools for solving real problems. Before he came to this program, he had worked for 3 years as an analyst in Shanghai Sinotes Consulting Co., Ltd., which is a major market research partner of China Mobile and Lenovo. Please connect with him on Twitter (@QiminWu111) for more information.

Use Big Data to Make Big Impressions with Consumers in 3 Easy Steps

As a consultant, it is important to evaluate the state of your customer's database. The amount and breadth of information available can drastically change the strategy behind customer service, marketing and even product development. As a graduate student studying Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School at Northwestern University, I have found two articles that address the ways that business can use customer data improve service, engage their customers and start taking steps into the big data world.

In 5 ways companies are using big data to help their customers, VentureBeat gives a great overview on how companies should be using big data to help predict customer needs and how utilize feedback to improve pain points. They also note how you can improve customer service interactions by having more robust information such as how the customer has engaged with the company socially or any past purchases. For businesses with a customer services focus, making sure the service metrics are being plugged into your database can help you identify trends as they happen, so you can know what to focus your energies on the most important opportunities in real time.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Still at a loss on how you can make big data work for you? Nicole Fallon of Business News Daily instructs businesses to leverage their internal information to build out customer loyalty programs in her article Boosting Customer Loyalty with Big Data. The loyalty programs, or even a baseline customer newsletter can help engage customers to buy more of your products and boost sentiments towards your brand. This is excellent advice as most business are probably not utilizing their customer data to its fullest and even simple analysis can help you identify customer that could spend more if they were part of a loyalty program.

After analyzing these two articles, here are three action items you need to implement to start tapping the power of big data:

1. Get your data in order

The usefulness of big data can be hindered by what information you have available on your customers. From contact information to purchase history, be sure that you have an accurate and reliable database solution and try to maintain as much information about the customer journey as possible.

2. Listen to your customers

Now that you have some quantitative data on purchase history, work to include qualitative points based on customer feedback to help move your business forward. You can gain insights from surveys, social media monitoring and even service representatives if available. These insights can help make your products and service better for returning and new customers alike.

3. Communicate with your customers

For the majority of small business, more than half of their annual revenue comes from repeat buyers, which makes cross selling your other products key. In addition to introducing new products and services, useful news and best practices for your specific industry can help create value for your brand. Be sure to set goals attached to your outreach, whether they be to increase sales or even just to improve engagement.

Big data can seem daunting depending upon where you are in the process, but by taking small steps you can get headed in path to better utilizing information you already have. If you haven’t gotten started yet though, consider this your wake up call. If you won’t take action and use data to improve your customers interactions with you company, your competitors certainly will.

Jay Hover is the Senior Manager of Customer Engagement at Rakuten Marketing, an ecommerce marketing services firm specializing in affiliate, display, search and retargeting. He oversees internal client communications and is responsible for engaging more than 2,000,000 partners. Jay is currently pursuing his M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications from the Medill School at Northwestern University and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Follow him on Twitter @jmhover or connect via LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaymhover/.