Question

A comprehensive analysis of how marketing analytics allows businesses to generate data-driven marketing and compete more effectively in the marketplace.

Answer 1

Marketing is an important aspect of any business and it only because of Marketing that a business can actually go ahead with its main operations i.e. lead generations, conversions, sales and profits. So, with Marketing being so important in facilitating the operations of a business, it becomes all the more important to evaluate the Marketing performances. All businesses have a wealth of data at their fingertips that can provide insights and strategies to attract and retain customers, and boost customer satisfaction. The key however lies in how a business gathers, analyses and leverages that data to achieve the desired outcome. Marketing Analytics empowers a business to do just that.

What is Marketing Analytics?

Marketing Analytics involves measuring and analysing data and metrics to understand the impact of marketing activities, maximize ROI and identify the areas of improvement. An effective marketing analytics collects data across multiple marketing channels and consolidates it into a single view.

“What gets measured gets managed.”- Peter Drucker

Why Marketing Analytics matters in business?

Analytics is not merely a fancy word. It is one of the best ways to find out what is working in a campaign and what isn’t. And having that information is crucial for future marketing efforts.

Marketing analytics enables a business to:

1) Quantify Claims – Numbers are persuasive. You could tell your CFO that content brings in customers, or you could tell them that 74 percent of marketers believe that content increases engagement. The latter is more likely to result in funding. People are more likely to care about claims when they are backed with numbers. Without specific data points before and after a campaign, you can only think in general terms. Analytics lets you take the data from that time period and determine how much revenue a particular campaign actually brought in. It enables us to clearly demonstrate not only if something is or isn’t working, but also explains us ‘Why’. This why can convince people to make a change.

2) Convert Data into Information - Most businesses have access to customer data. The key factor is how efficient a company is in utilizing that data. Too often, it just ends ups sitting in the server doing nothing useful. In a worst-case scenario, it can be misinterpreted that in turn will lead your marketing team astray. For a data to be useful, it needs to be subjected to relevant analysis. For example, at the beginning of a PPC campaign, your revenue is around Rs 100000/- per month. After the first campaign, the receipts are up to Rs 150000/- per month. Should you invest in the same ad again? It depends on many factors: Was there an industry-wide increase in sales that month? Did the products start trending for unrelated reasons? How many customers actually came from that PPC ad? Marketing Analytics provide answers to all these questions, and with those answers, decisions can be made based on facts rather than hunches.

3) Comparing and Contrasting the data - Analytics enable us to compare our data sets with each other. For instance:

- How did the PPC compare to the estimates?

- Were there any differences in revenue generated across demographics?

- How did ROI on the PPC campaign compare to the ROI on the Facebook ad campaign?

- How much did the PPC campaign generate in its first sale revenue versus lifetime revenue?

All these factors are interrelated and understanding these intersections can help filter out irrelevant information which in turn will help the business to make the best decisions that align with its goal.

4) Staying Goal Oriented

Every single Marketing activity has a goal in mind whether its increasing sales or simply driving more traffic to the company website. The more your data is analysed the more insights you receive about your progress and what is the reason for your progress. For instance, if a company runs a Facebook ad campaign, and the ROI was a little under 4:1. The team suggests to try something else, but a look at the analytics reveal that the campaign had a great click-through rate, but the homepage bounce rate was high. The PPC campaign was not the problem. But without good analytics, it could have never been known.

Conclusion - Marketing analytics is a solution for gaining customer insights to deliver superior customer experiences tailored to customers’ preferences and needs. Its assists in combining data to give a complete view of the Market and generate actionable insights to increase lifetime value of the customers.