Jump on Google and do a quick search for marketing quotes and you’ll probably come across this one, “I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted… I just don’t know which half” by John Wanamaker, a former marketer. Basically, he was saying without knowledge of what marketing activities are working well you cannot differentiate the good from the bad. The result, is more spending, and more work for a similar outcome compared to if you were to concentrate on just the successful activities.
So what’s the solution?
With Big Data, better tracking tools such as Google Analytics, social media measuring and existing transactional systems, you now have an unprecedented level of knowledge about your customers. Combine these together in a single platform and you have Business Intelligence (BI). What BI does for marketers is to provide a simplistic view of what marketing channels or activities are working and just as importantly, are not. Then you can focus your efforts and budget purely on the successful channels rather than trial and error.
Think about the benefits.
Say you work in a building supplies company; you could target all your customers who have purchased bricks but not cement in Cincinnati in the last month. You could then send a tailored email to all the key buyers with a special offer on cement. The response rate will be much higher than if you targeted the whole base with a generalized message. It doesn’t stop there either as over time you will be able to see who is buying more, where new customers have come from or which customers are becoming your brand advocates.
What next?
Today’s marketers have come a long way from being able to say, “I don’t know which half of my marketing works.” They are no longer a ‘nice to have’ department but an integral business asset. The challenge for marketing has now shifted, as more companies embrace BI, the more difficult it becomes for late adopters to find any competitive advantage, especially if you’re the last company in your industry to use BI.
Thinking of using Business Intelligence? See what sales-i can do. Request a free online demonstration at a time that suits you.
