5 WAYS BIG DATA CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS

Big Data now appears in the characteristics and descriptions of nearly any IT products. At the same time, the right analysis of large amounts data can bring practical benefits for solving business tasks.

According to Statista, the Big Data market size was about $7.6 billion in 2011. The agency forecasts that this market will reach the value of $33.5 billion by the end of 2017 and $92.2 billion in 2026. The reasons for such a fast growth lie in the advantages of this technology for companies. In this article, we will cover particular ways how Big Data can benefit your business.

 Way #1: Monitoring Sentiment

 The time of commercial travellers has passed and, even modern methods of persuasion to buy something doesn’t work anymore.

With the growing competition in most markets, advertising is no longer about manipulating customer opinions about products. Instead of encouraging target audiences to purchase certain products, marketing now provides advanced tools that can determine or even predict customer sentiment. Due to Big Data algorithms, you can solve the following issues:

• Find hidden patterns in the customer behaviour;
• Make convenient personal offers;
• Analyze customer behaviour in digital-marketing channels, etc.

This technology allows retailers implement predictive analytics and leverage their investments in order to develop an effective marketing strategy. Therefore, those companies that use Big Data-based predictive analytics are always aware of market trends.

 Way #2: Knowing Your Target Audience

Big Data is not just large amounts of unstructured data. This is an advanced tool that can describe your audience in details. However, it does not matter how precise your data is. The more important thing is how you utilize it and how useful your analytics is. Using Big Data, you can learn the following about your target audience:

• Where your customers live;
• How old they are;
• What their interests are;
• Where they work;
• What types of customers you attract;
• How your customers find you;
• How they interact with your emails or other marketing channels;
• What their lifestyle is, and so on.

Furthermore, learning your target audience can sometimes save from wrong business decisions. Using data analysis, banks can understand whether the borrower can pay the loan and quickly analyze the whole credit history. Financial institutions can learn they target audience before making any decision.

Moreover, financial organizations can even prevent fraud due to knowing their target audience. Thanks to Big Data, VISA annually prevents financial fraud and saves more than 2 billion dollars. Their software detects suspicious transactions and informs the staff about the case.

 Way #3: Offering Relevant Content

Big data is a highly effective tool for advertising purposes. You can implement a recommendation system aimed at processing large data sets and analyzing customer information, such as a history of their purchases, age, gender, or even mood. This data will help you understand which products your customers are most likely to need at the current moment.

Dunkin`Donuts use Big Data technologies to offer products that are most likely to interest customers. In their stores, screens they display current offers and change them every minute depending on the time of day and the availability of products. Due to analyzing cash checks, the company determines the most valuable offer. This approach to data processing has allowed Dunkin`Donuts to increase both a profit and turnover of goods.

 Way #4: Monitoring Competition

Social Media is one of the most significant sources of Big Data. CMS Wire reports that 90% of the world’s data has been collected in the previous several years. 80% of this data comes from “unstructured” sources, such as social networks.

Social media insights will allow you to understand marketing strategies of your competitors. Using Big Data and analyzing social media, you can determine intentions, innovations, and further development vectors of those companies that strive to defeat your market share.

 Way #5: Improving Business Decisions

Big Data can help businesses make effective business decisions. Due to useful insights, companies can be more creative and flexible in their business development strategies. Some insurance companies track data from fitness bracelets and other smart devices that help monitor the health and lifestyles of their clients. The American insurance company John Hancock Financial offers free fitness trackers from Fitbit or Apple if the client reaches certain sports goals.

Some other insurers gather data from their customers’ lifestyles and monitor how correctly they brush their teeth. In particular, the insurance company Beam Technologies uses a smart toothbrush to control the duration of tooth cleaning. If the process takes more than two minutes, customers regularly receive free brushes and a discount on insurance services.

Big Data with smart devices help insurance companies better assess risks. However, it can lead to certain issue for customers. For example, the American company called Root Insurance provides their services to those car owners who have installed a tracking device into their car and showed themselves to be accurate drivers.

 How Leading Companies Use Big Data

In this paragraph, you will learn how some worldwide-known organizations use Big Data to enhance their marketing strategy.

 Amazon

Amazon has its own recommendation system that allows them to significantly increase their average paychecks. Moreover, they use obtained information for technical support purposes. This helps Amazon save time on consulting customers.

 American Express

 American Express use Big Data to predict customer behaviour. They monitor customer loyalty analyzing transactions by more than 100 different variables. It helps them predict 24% of those accounts that are likely to close in the next 4 months.

 General Electric

Using special sensors, General Electric retrieve data from their turbines and engines, By analyzing received values, they estimate the condition of their machinery and regulate its productivity.

Big Data is a tool that can significantly improve business management. It has a strong impact on various markets due to enhancing existing methods of data processing. Indeed, Big Data has enormous potential, especially for technological companies. Those businesses who will invest in data analytics and use it throughout their organizations will conquer the market. Contact the UnicSoft team at jm@unicsoft.net and get started with your advanced analytics!

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