Data-Driven Marketing

The first Heidelberg Marketing Manager Meetup took place on 18. February 2020.

These days, many Marketing Managers find they have to make decisions about marketing areas that are outside their own field of expertise. The group offers Managers an informal venue to exchange ideas, expertise and learn from each other; a way to understand new marketing developments and how they can be applied to achieve digital transformation.

Our first meeting adressed Data Driven Marketing: what it is, how it works, what others have learned from experience. Here are the notes of the meeting ...

Data quality

•  The first step for many companies is to begin data-driven marketing by analysing the data that they already have, which is mostly 1st party generated Data, collected probably over years of business activities and stored in a CRM data silo, a service/ support data silo, marketing contacts data silo etc.
• The second step required is to assess the completeness as well as GDPR-compliance of the relevant data. A useful exercise to determine compliance is to identify the exact customer persona and the required data set to describe it.
• The search for available data quickly revels the extent of data silos within the organisation – individual data sources that have not previously been combined, as outlined before
• Also attempts to combine data can (and probably will) reveal inconsistencies in format, timescale, frequency, accuracy, completeness, definition and granularity (to name just a few typical issues).
• Data that is immediately available can be used to optimise existing processes (only).
• Marketers quickly discover that existing data is insufficient to answer questions directed at the future – new systems, methods, processes.
• Example: analysis of existing customers provides insights into “best customers” according to current market segments, product positioning, etc. These insights can be used to identify more customers of the same / similar profile for cross-sell or up-sell within the existing customer base.

Marketing Actions

• The next step is to determine what questions need to be answered to address issues outside current markets or for the future.
• The value of a question is determined by the impact of the answer (scale, scope, impact).
• After that the Marketers defines what new data needs to be collected to answer those new questions.
• The first issue at the core of driven marketing is therefore: “what decision do you want to make?”
• The second issue is: “how to get the data you need to support that decision?”

Ressources

•  The marketer will probably need to think outside the box and beyond current methods
• There are pros and cons when using either internal or external resources.
• External resources could include Marketing consulting to set up strategy and an implementation plan.
• External support for Implementation may include consulting to define and set-up an IT-landscape to automate Marketing etc.
• Issues with External Resources: pro – fast start / skills readily available; contra – budget availability / not acquiring skills internally / data alignment and integration is done by others.
•  Issues with Internal Resources: pro – knowledge of customer / knowledge of products; contra – limited choice of tools / lack of resource volume / slow start because of the volume of existing work on other projects.

Summary

 To deliver 360° Customer support, data management must be aligned along the entire value chain [marketing > sales > support > service] to ensure collection, alignment and integration of the right information in an effective manner.