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How to use data for better marketing decisions

How to use data for better marketing decisions

data-driven marketing

In this digital age, the race between the businesses to increase their market share has risen by a good margin. Enterprises are using different techniques of branding and marketing. This race is likely to grow because a lot of companies have switched to online selling. The most common type of marketing strategy is data-driven marketing. In this type of marketing, companies try to find the actual needs of the consumers through different surveys and tactics. For example, during this pandemic, demand for medical goods increased a lot. The businesses that were already into selling medical products made big profits. But, other companies looking at market trends used this opportunity to tap this market and made huge profits out of this opportunity. That is how the data helped the businesses earn profit. But this is a small example of how you can use the data to your advantage. If you look at it precisely, the big organizations collect data from their customers or those who visit their websites—observing their potential buyer's behaviour on their websites. They are most interested in which items are most bought and how much consumers are willing to buy your product. It provides them with a better idea of how the consumers' trends are changing to cope with the ever-moving market. If you look at it a step further, this data can be used in big data analytics to process real-time information. This information helps the companies decide how to react to the changes in the market trends.

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What is data-driven marketing?

To increase your share in the market, you should opt for efficient methods in every aspect. I mean making sure that your customers are getting what they are willing to see from every aspect. Yet, it does not mean that you should change how you were or adapt to something in vain. Thinking in broader terms will assist in finalizing your methods, and that's how businesses grow. Websites usually target their potential buyers and mould their results according to their customers' needs. They set up different techniques to catch their customers. Suppose you optimize your website to be more customer-oriented and target specific buyers by answering common queries, then it is known as data-driven marketing. It helps in targeting customers towards your brand or website. For instance, if someone is running a clothing brand and his annual revenue is not meeting his standard, he will opt for methods according to customers' preferences. He will determine the demand for different groups of people and change his products. To illustrate this further, let us take a look at the deviation in the choices of people.

Some people can't afford expensive dresses and look for things within their budget, whereas some prefer more modern looks and go for costly items. The owner will have to collect this data and present the items. Other methods include launching different campaigns for better advertisements, efficiently promoting strategies, and creating automated emails that target their customers. Studies have shown that analyzing information is the best tactic to expand your business, and it's right, considering that people nowadays get the thing of their choice. In addition to this, they go with the flow of trends. 

Furthermore, quantitative and qualitative exploring are two different tactics to run simultaneously as world-changing trends. Quantitative analysis includes utilizing data based on several demands for a specific item, and it is a statistical approach. In contrast, a qualitative study relies on observation and covers the creative side of a business. 

Data-driven marketing's importance lies in the rapid growth of business along with satisfied customers. It will assist you in compiling relative information which centralizes customers' demands.

The benefits of using big data in marketing

Big data is vital for your business in this era where the traits change within a flash. You must have heard about that cliched story of turtle and rabbit, in which they decide to do a race to determine their speed. Rabbit considered itself faster than a turtle and slept on the way, whereas turtle was wise. He slowly reached his destination before the rabbit. Similarly, if you consider your business the most successful setup, you will be like a rabbit. Therefore, companies need to utilize big data. But why should you do it? Big data comes with numerous benefits.

ASSIST IN PRICING:

For instance, it allows you to set your pricing according to the classes and regular customers. Setting up your prices without giving importance to your surroundings will lead to efforts in vain. Adjustments in pricing will have a direct effect on the ratio of buyers. Using the right piece of information through big data at the perfect time is a necessity. People will be more attracted to your brand if you offer a lower price, and ultimately your revenue will increase. Planning is crucial in every stage of life, and big data allows you to be more planned. It provides the right

information on varying trends in the market. It has been proved that companies that modify their items accordingly have an edge over other companies.

BETTER CUSTOMIZATION:

Everyone has different tastes and styles. Big data will present the choices of people in a systematic way that is easy to analyze. With big data, brands can customize their products. It will help in meeting the demands of different sectors, thus increasing the satisfied customers.

BETTER PREDICTIONS :

Big data helps in predicting future sale results and other customer responses. It is based on looking at past statistics carefully and determining future successes or losses.

MEASURING ROI :

Measuring ROI can be tough sometimes, even for professionals. Big data will remove that error of concluding marketing techniques and budget wrong.

ADVERTISEMENT BOOSTER:

Advertisements play a leading role in business. It convinces your customers and promotes your brand simultaneously. Ads were generalized before, but with the advancement in technology, they are personalized. It helps in providing more engaging content for people. With big data, you can personalize ads and convince a large audience.

The most common data-driven marketing challenges:

BIG COLLECTIONS OF DATA:

Compilation of big data can be hectic as sometimes it collects tons of information, and it becomes hard to fetch the data. Sometimes it contains useless details on every incident. Therefore, it's important to set up a system that organizes this information correctly. With large information being collected, the issue of sorting them arises. For example, when you collect a large amount of information, risk managers often ignore necessary data and shortlist the easier ones. It can lead to ignorance of real-time data and adversely affects decision-making. It is crucial to have a better organizing system that can automatically inform about changing trends. 

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIONS:

If real-time changes in traits are provided, then it will significantly increase the chances of better decisions. It is essential to have a graphical or pictorial representation of data to understand the trends precisely. However, doing this task is time-consuming. Data is collected from different resources stored in other systems. Lack of knowledge of employees about this may lead to inaccurate analysis. A centralized system will gather information regardless of location and will allow for better comparison. A centralized system has the disadvantage of not being accessible to everyone. A risk manager needs to have access to every piece of information for detailed analytics. It will enable them to make swift decisions. Entering data can increase the risk of mistakes and will influence the decision-making process. 

Reduced Chances of human-error:

To eliminate this, inputting data through software reduces the risk of human errors. Nobody can work under pressure, and a risk manager requires a lot of time to fetch data. Therefore, it is necessary to provide calm surroundings. It is vital to provide risk managers with proper support as they won't function fully without aid. They should be allowed to have access to every data required for analysis. Risk managers sometimes don't feel comfortable switching from conventional methods of data analysis. They should inform their employees about the latest technology and provide them with a detailed tutorial. Another problem for risk managers is that they are prohibited from spending outside the limit. Skills are required to use new technologies. Shortage of skills among employees can disrupt in-depth analysis.

Examples of data-driven marketing strategies:

About 29% of the marketers found data analysis more beneficial in marketing. Data-driven marketing has a lot to offer to marketers. You can use data in different forms and process it to make it useful for marketing purposes. You can use it to form different strategies which will help you in better and effective marketing overall. For example, when a user buys something from your website, a set of questions can be asked to him. 

It might include different inquiries related to your analysis that could have asked them what made you decide to try out a product from where they knew about your website. Or you could even ask what made them choose you over other competitors. This way, you can learn more about how your customers are approaching you, increasing your focus on that particular means of marketing. You can even ask your customers for post-sale reviews, which will improve your product shortcomings and give your users a better experience increasing your sales. 

A data-driven chatbot is also very useful because not every visitor is equally important to your business. Suppose the visitor starts to engage with the chatbot. It usually means they are interested in your product and want to inquire more about it. This data can be used to 

make your product more customized and user-friendly as needed by the users. If you have reliable data about a certain product or service, creating content on that particular product or service would do it right. Most of the trendy stuff has high search rates if you have your content ready on that topic. You will likely see a hike in your viewers' numbers. An increase in viewers will likely increase your conversion ratio. This way, you can grow your sales thanks to the use of reliable data. 

70% of marketers consider SEO as more beneficial in marketing than PPC so here you can use SEO for enhancing your viewers too. You can use search engine optimization to rank your website higher on the search engine you are optimizing. This way, your buyers will trust you more due to your higher visibility on the internet. 

Secondly, you will also see a great positive change in your website's potential buyers' views. It leads to a higher conversion ratio due to a positive brand image and good optimization of your website and the content placed for the viewers. 

This way, if used with the right approach, data-driven marketing can generate many leads for your business. It's important to note that the data must be reliable. If not, you will be in trouble.

How to create a marketing strategy based on the data?

To create a strategy, you need to account for several factors while deciding how to utilize the data for a well-executed marketing plan.

INFORMATION OF AUDIENCE PREFERENCES:

Firstly, you need to know your target audience and what segment you are going to target.

You need to get an idea of your customers, think of who will buy this product and their budget. 

Match your product with their budget and analyze if this product can satisfy the clients' needs. 

If your product meets all the requirements, congrats, you are in the right segment. You are on the right path to dive into your next step. 

THROUGH THEIR AGES AND HOBBIES:

The next step is to look out for the best ways of marketing your product. 

Different products require different types of advertisement. Not every product is suitable for the same kind of advertisement. For example, Facebook advertisement is best for people aged between 25-35, Instagram advertising is best suited for teenagers, as most of them are young. Now you need to figure out the average age of the users of your product.

Suppose you are selling video games. They are most popular between the 14-25 age criteria. Now, email marketing or advertising on websites wouldn't simply do your job. 

You need to target relevant platforms to catch the attention of the gamers. 

Using TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat would be better in this case as the average age of the majority is lower. 

This way, you can target the maximum audience without wasting your efforts on the wrong platform. However, it would be best if you were precautious while analyzing the platform to advertise. 

If you research properly, you will be able to choose a suitable medium. Once you are done with researching, we move on to the last step. 

THROUGH LOCATION OF CUSTOMERS:

The last step is to identify the target location. The locations matter a lot because every region has different demands for different products. 

If we take the example of video games, the more developed economies would be the best market to tap. 

As those economies have high GDP growth and more income to purchase luxuries, it is obvious that they can spend on video games which is a luxury. 

Compared to Asia, which is not too much into video games and most countries with low GDP, Europe, and the USA are prime locations for video game marketing.

Why your marketing needs to be data-driven :

BETTER PLANNING: 

Data-driven marketing offers a plethora of benefits. To extract data through this method needs investment, but why should you invest in it? Data-driven marketing not only increases the number of satisfied customers but also emphasizes the need to make changes to your business for a better experience. Who doesn't want his business to climb the stairs of success? When you meet the demands of the public, it will ultimately increase your revenue. In addition to this, it will enable you to plan for your future strategies and present better tactics. Competition exists everywhere, no matter where you are. Competent people surround the market. It is optimal for you to be prepared to beat your competitor. Using data-driven marketing, you will be more prepared and more confident. 

Furthermore, it allows you to plan to make more customer-oriented decisions. 

REPRESENTATION OF DATA IS EASIER: 

It enables you to represent data in a pictorial form which is easy to analyze. It is a common experience to be overwhelmed by the amount of data received, and sorting them out can be time-consuming. Furthermore, data collection and categorization are made easy. It will help in prioritizing your information more precisely. 

IMPROVE ADVERTISEMENTS : 

Advertisements are a must for marketing, but making useless ads will not aid in better marketing. They should be engaging enough to cater to different audiences at the same time and fulfill their purpose. To improve your advertisements, acknowledging market trends is essential. Big data will assist you in collecting meaningful information for a better experience in ads. 

4 ways to make better decisions with marketing data: 

Utilizing data-driven marketing is important for a better conversion rate. To help you with your decisions, we have compiled 4 ways to make a better decision. 

USE IT FOR CRITICAL DECISIONS : 

It gets critical sometimes to predict and make decisions. Clouds of confusion encircle our minds and block our ability to make decisions. Elements were also organized using their past performance. Similarly, you can review your past performance to decide when to launch, what to establish, and some other common queries to efficiently plan your movements. Reviewing past performance will enable you to recognize your weaknesses, abilities, and least popular campaigns. By using previous information, you can avoid repeating those mistakes in the

TARGETING POTENTIAL BUYERS: 

Brands need to target specific buyers so that they give them more attention. Not every buyer is important. It doesn't mean you should start ignoring not interested customers; they should be given second priority. Your priority should be the potential buyers, and personalized results can be provided by reviewing their past performance. 

PERSONALIZED USER EXPERIENCE: 

Data-driven marketing allows you to personalize user experience and helps in determining potential buyers. It will enable marketers to filter necessary data and use it to analyze accurate results. Personalized emails and messages are generated with the help of gathering useful information. 

NO MORE PRODUCT FAILURE: 

It also reduces the risk of product failure as you will be aware of the trends and preferences of your customer.

REPRESENTATION OF DATA IS EASIER: 

It enables you to represent data in a pictorial form which is easy to analyze. It is a common experience to be overwhelmed by the amount of data received, and sorting them out can be time-consuming. Furthermore, data collection and categorization are made easy. It will help in prioritizing your information more precisely. 

IMPROVE ADVERTISEMENTS : 

Advertisements are a must for marketing, but making useless ads will not aid in better marketing. They should be engaging enough to cater to different audiences at the same time and fulfill their purpose. To improve your advertisements, acknowledging market trends is essential. Big data will assist you in collecting meaningful information for a better experience in ads. 

4 ways to make better decisions with marketing data: 

Utilizing data-driven marketing is important for a better conversion rate. To help you with your decisions, we have compiled 4 ways to make a better decision. 

USE IT FOR CRITICAL DECISIONS : 

It gets critical sometimes to predict and make decisions. Clouds of confusion encircle our minds and block our ability to make decisions. Elements were also organized using their past performance. Similarly, you can review your past performance to decide when to launch, what to establish, and some other common queries to efficiently plan your movements. Reviewing past performance will enable you to recognize your weaknesses, abilities, and least popular campaigns. By using previous information, you can avoid repeating those mistakes in the future. Before presenting any strategy, it is necessary to plan its price, product, place, and 

promotion. They are usually termed as 4ps in the marketing and combined to launch a well-planned campaign. Data analysis will aid in providing vital information to implement 4ps in your marketing strategy. 

DETAILED VIEW OF PAST PERFORMANCE:

It is important to acknowledge your mistakes and least appreciated campaigns to make them better in the future. In addition to this, using data can narrate past performance and determine traffic /campaigns that produced positive results. Using data-driven marketing can apply strategies that will dramatically increase your share in the market and remove mistakes that can draw you into danger. 

BEST WAY TO EXPLORE NEW OPPORTUNITIES: 

It will enable you to explore new opportunities to target campaigns with a better conversion rate. It will allow you to set prices by past analytics. For instance, What is the cost of the most sold items? Comparison of opportunities will help you in finding new opportunities. 

ANSWER COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS : 

The most common questions that arise whenever launching new campaigns are always the same. Where, when, why, and how? Past analysis can answer these questions. However, the location of your campaigns is crucial and depends on the number of consumers in that specific region. Often it is regarded as the place in the store or the store's location.

Is your marketing strategy based on the right data?

Good data refers to the one which is correct, fit for its intended uses in planning, operations, decision making and is up to date. One of the big reasons for the rapid growth of business markets is gathering accurate insights from data and integrating them in everything they do. To adopt a professional marketing strategy, one should be mindful of the real-world conditions an on-the-mark data aims to describe. Otherwise, if the information is not collected with the thought of its long-term effects on a business and actual outcomes, it will cause one to make incorrect decisions. For example, suppose data misleads a marketer that his customers are mostly kids, but in reality, they are substantially females in their 20s. In that case, they will target the wrong group with their advertisements. Also, if your data is not relevant to marketing, it is not useful for you. One should avoid gathering inessential data. For example, Pizza hut knows that its audience likes more pizza spices, which might not be useful for many businesses, but it will help Pizza hut with its content and promotions. The time expectation for accessibility of information matters a lot because outdated data leads to steps that do not match present-day realities. Hence, a good data collection by a competitive market means that it is well aware of the customers it aims to target, their preferences, and demand, which will ultimately lead to more effective work in the company. Altogether, there will be an increased number of sales and profitability. The strategic marketers who homogenize good data into their line don't fail behind the competitors. The location of your project also has a significant effect on your marketing. For example, you are willing to launch leather jackets in a place where winters have not arrived. Why would someone buy leather jackets in summer? It will ruin your efforts as your product won't be popular. The price of products also plays an important role as prices should be set accordingly by reviewing the best sellers' items and determining their price range. In the future, it is vital to use comparable prices to generate the best outcomes.

How proxies and data extraction helps you in making better marketing decisions:

Proxies are servers that filter and pass your request to the website. It enables you to conceal your identity by hiding your IP address and making bulk searching possible without getting a ban. Furthermore, it allows you to change your geographical location for more careful research. Extraction of data involves collecting useful information and utilizing it to make your decision better. A better decision in marketing requires proper research, details of every happening in the market to be aware of every trend that is revolving in the market. 

To view your competitor's activities, you need to visit their website multiple times. It increases the risk of getting a ban as many requests from the same IP address aren't optimal for any website. Therefore, it is necessary to use a proxy while researching as it will allow you to surf. It removes this restriction by using a different Ip every time. It assists in keyword research as it is the essential part of optimizing your content. You can search keywords of your competitor's website and utilize them for your web page through data extraction. It's hard to judge which product will receive the most appreciation, but you can learn about ongoing market trends without any worries with data extraction. Business owners don't need localized results sometimes when they are willing to target the international market. When they surf without proxy, their outputs are localized due to their location. Proxies can be a game-changer to remove the restriction of geographical

location. It enables you to surf from the IP Address of that specific region, whose market you are chasing.

TOOLS FOR DATA EXTRACTION:

Import.io: 

It is the best extraction tool available in the market. What's more interesting is that it doesn't require codes to retrieve data, which is hard for naive people to do. There are different types of web scraping tools that you can find online, and scrapers need to know about them if they need to do web scraping at a professional level. You can find tools such as Import.io, HTTrack, Wget, Node.js, and cURL.

OuTWiT Hub: 

It only extracts relevant data and categorically divides it. Ideal for SEO use and emails etc. This technique is beneficial when someone wants to extract data from a website. you can also use this command IMPORT XML to check your website if it's scrape proof or not.

OctoParse: 

It can extract data from any website by just typing the URL of the desired webpage. Another feature of this tool is its ability to rotate your IP to prevent you from getting a ban. A scraper can use this function to extract data and information from websites. This technique is beneficial when someone wants to extract data from a website.

ParseHub: 

It enables you to scrape websites with login restrictions and infinite scrolling. Scrapers generally use ParseHub when they want a detailed view of the structure of a website. Also, scrapers use ParseHub analyzers to collect the tags containing data, and then they use tools like XPath to do web scraping. Mostly like internet explorers and Firefox are used for parsing.

Mail Parser: 

It can extract data from emails, and it doesn't require any special coding. It usually collects data from linear or nested pages of HTML. This method is commonly used to extract texts, extract links and emails, scrap the screen, and resource extraction.

FAQ's

Conclusion

With the fast-paced moving technology, the modes of marketing are also advancing. Companies are now analyzing real-time data with the help of big data to give them an edge over their rivals. Big data is super important in digital marketing as it can process huge amounts of information. So quickly, which is impossible for humans to do so in such a short time. But, the problem lies in the quality of data. If the data quality is not good, then the trend's result would not be reliable either. And if you want to target a certain segment, too much filtering would be needed because of unnecessary information processed by big data. If the information obtained is accurate, it could derive different strategies to target the

relevant audience. Knowing the customer's needs or where the paradigm is shifting is a big advantage to the business. Allows them to prepare themselves for the changing trends and provide what they need before anyone else can. Data-based marketing is much better than judgmental marketing. i.e., using your judgments for marketing purposes. Because using data-based information is based on the actual customers' trends rather than the assumptions made by the marketers. You can also use a proxy to assist you with targeting markets outside your region. Collecting data without getting caught through VPN is another advancement by the new systems available. It allows you to roam freely and get as much data as possible without fear of getting blocked. Therefore, information is very important for marketing. However, if this information is not used properly to make strategies, it could lead to potential failures. And last but not least, verify the integrity of the data you are working on because if you are not working on reliable information, it could lead to disasters.

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