Analytics Advantage: How to use marketing analytics to your advantage in 2024
Has anyone ever said to you marketing is an easy job? I'm willing to bet you've heard that a time or two.
The truth is, we have a great job! Marketers get to be creative and have fun with work. Still, I think we would all agree that creativity and viral trends aren't half of what goes into our job. One of the major components that comes to mind? Analytics.
Just as quickly as technology and trends are changing, so do our marketing analytics. We should be reviewing data on a consistent basis to analyze our audience behavior and see what's changing, what's working, and what's not.
According to marketing statistics cited from Zipdo, 53% of organizations consider data-driven marketing an integral part of their marketing approach. And yet, only 24% of marketers have a system in place for managing and updating their customer data.
Once upon a time, marketers were challenged with the lack of access to customer data. (Don't you sometimes wish that was still an issue?) We now have an influx of customer data to measure and it can get overwhelming. Deciding exactly what to measure and how to include that data into our strategy is a challenge many marketers face.
So what are the types of marketing analytics? And how can we hone in and use analytics to our advantage going into 2024? Grab your caffeine, put on your comfy clothes, and let's get into it.
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#1: Descriptive Marketing Analytics
Descriptive analytics are the statistical interpretation of historical data marketers use to better understand and compare.
This type of data answers the question: What has happened?
We use descriptive analytics in the research phase of the content marketing lifecycle, which is essential in creating a successful overall strategy.
How can we use descriptive analytics to our advantage in 2024?
Descriptive analytics provide marketers with the data that helps most with understanding our audience. One of the best ways to gather that data? Surveys! When executed correctly, surveys give marketers some of our most valuable audience data. In fact, People Pulse conducted client research that showed survey response rates are over 85% when the respondent population is motivated and the survey is well-executed.
Surveys allow marketers to gain customers insights first-hand, without the guess work. That direct feedback can be crucial to not just building future marketing strategies, but adjusting our current marketing strategy. To ensure you get the survey data you're looking for, check out these tips from Survey Monkey.
Descriptive analytics allow us to track key performance indicators (KPI's). These metrics provide insight into our overall business health. Some KPI's include measuring product information, YOY sales, website and social data. Evaluating and reporting on these metrics allows us to move forward making data-driven decisions based on those KPI's.
To set ourselves up for success, we have to dive deep in the data provided by descriptive analytics. We can use these to our advantage in the new year by understanding our customer and tracking our KPI's.
#2: Predictive Marketing Analytics
Predictive analytics use insights from historical data (descriptive analytics) to predict customer behavior and market trends.
This type of data answers the question: What's going to happen next?
According to Salesforce Research, 63% of consumers expect businesses to know their unique needs and expectations, while 76% of B2B buyers expect the same thing. In the world of advanced technology, our audience to know them and to market to them effectively. Predictive analytics help us do just that.
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How can we use predictive analytics to our advantage in 2024?
Predictive analytics help connect the data dots by finding relationships between customers (clustering model). The clustering model of predictive analytics segments customers that have similar attributes, which allow us to create buyer personas. Not only can customer segmentation be used in forecasting, but marketers can also tailor our messaging and optimize our campaigns using those personas. In the new year, let's use predictive analytics to better segment our customers.
Descriptive and predictive analytics give us the formula needed in the 3rd type of data. Once we review historical data and we've segmented and forecasted consumer behavior, we can then create action items to better market to our audience. Enter prescriptive marketing analytics.
Prescriptive Marketing Analytics
Prescriptive marketing analytics is the process for using data to provide an optimal and impactful course of action.
This type of data answers the questions: What should we do next?
Prescriptive analytics apply to both customer acquisition marketing and customer retention marketing. It's important to remember that our prescriptive marketing comes from the insights we gain from reviewing our descriptive and predictive analytics.
How can we use prescriptive marketing analytics to our advantage in 2024?
Prescriptive marketing analytics should determine the course(s) of action needed to creating a personalized customer journey. We can use this to our advantage by building effective marketing messaging and suggesting relevant products. If Salesforce Research shows 63% of consumers expect businesses to know their unique needs and expectations, and 76% of B2B buyers expect the same thing, buyers are anticipating their customer journey will be tailored toward their wants and needs.
In 2024, let's use predictive analytics to our advantage by personalizing our customer experience.
Now that we've reviewed how we can use these analytics to our advantage, let's take a look at an example of the process.
Scene: The Baltimore Ravens just clinched the #1 seed in the AFC and I am looking to buy Baltimore merch on their website.
In research from S&P Global (2022), 70% of respondents selected "most" or "nearly all" strategic decisions at their organizations are currently data-driven. In 2024, let's take the time to understand our descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive marketing analytics. Knowledge is power. The deeper we understand our audience, the better, more informed, data-driven decisions we will make.
Next week we'll take a look at our New Year's resolutions. Cheers!