As marketers we all understand far too well the power and relevance of data and how it plays a vital role in equipping us with the insight and tools required to create highly effective campaigns. However, too much focus often seems to be placed on talking about a need for data, or the ability to understand what it is telling us, rather than interrogating it at grass roots level.
A campaign is only as good as the data that fuels it after all. If your customer database is not up to date, or at odds with the creative and messages being sent to those housed within it, the effectiveness of that campaign will ultimately be weakened. We therefore need to interrogate the data we have far more vigorously, and question whether we are collecting the right data and the extent to which it is generating enough value.
Data is a brand’s biggest asset outside its customers, but unless you know who your customers are, give them what they want (if you can, before they ask for it) and talk to them in a personalised manner they are unlikely to stick around. Equally if you can’t recognise them when they first start to interact with you, understand why they are interacting with you, and then fulfil that need, you’re unlikely to attract many new customers.
So what should brands do to ensure their data is up to scratch?
For starters, brands need to look carefully at where the gaps are across their data assets and work to identify ways to plug them accordingly. As part of this process it’s important to access what data each of the channels you are operating in is generating and how useful it is in shaping your understanding of your customer. Is the data giving you a clear picture of what they are expecting? Are there things you could do differently to extract more insights? Are there channels you should be operating in to generate more or missing insights?
Contrastingly, are other channels generating you too much information? Are your current systems fit for purpose to deal with this influx of information? Are you using all these insights effectively enough to offer your customers, both existing and potential, the best value and experience possible?
Some of these questions may sound obvious, but they are as intrinsically important to creating and delivering effective marketing as the technology, systems and people that drive them forward. In essence brands need to view evaluating their data as important as a reviewing their creative output.
If a campaign is not working, it’s standard practice to change the template, the email subject line, the positioning of certain pieces of content, as well as the content itself to drive better levels of engagement. In some cases you might even consider using eye-tracking technology to divert people to specific pieces of content that generate the most interest from recipients. You need to do the same with your data.
As well as evaluating how effective your data assets are, it’s also really important to ensure you have systems in place to constantly validate and cleanse the data you hold. Removing erroneous records, duplicated entries or details which are superfluous to requirements all help to improve your ability to communicate with the right audience. As you increase the number of touchpoints you have with your customers and the volume of channels through which you are creating and broadcasting content, your data assets will inevitably swell. Unmanaged, this could seriously affect the quality of your data and even result in multiple databases which are hard to consolidate.
As with any successful lead generation campaign, it’s all about quality not quantity. Just because you have 10,000 entries in your database it doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to build 10,000 relationships. Brands therefore need to make sure that they are nurturing their data, ring fence it within the organisation and work with the right partners that will equip them with a truly neutral data centre, which is independent of their business. Brands that operate in this way, will benefit from a sustainable process for protecting and maintaining relevant and accurate data assets, which can drive highly effective and engaging campaigns which generate high levels of customer satisfaction and financial return.