Why data matters in marketing, and how can it be used as competitive edge?

It is getting harder to know which channels work best in marketing, and how they truly perform. The truth is: you get what you measure. Making decisions based on flawed or inaccurate data can lead to lost sales, missed opportunities, and wasted budgets. To my mind, this is a challenge to many companies. Yet, making informed marketing and business decisions is essential to success. With limited budgets, every dollar counts, and using data effectively can be the difference between succeeding and falling behind.

Bad data doesn’t always look obviously flawed. Sometimes, it might seem reliable, yet still lead to inaccurate insights. The consequences of poor data can be severe, even resulting in:

• Missed opportunities: Without a clear understanding of which channels are working, you could miss out on high-potential strategies.
• Lost sales: Focusing on underperforming channels or the wrong audience reduces your chances of converting leads into customers.
• Wasted marketing spend: Allocating resources based on misleading data can drain your budget without yielding the expected ROI. Imagine a company using most of its budget to social media ads based on inaccurate engagement data, only to realize later that their audience prefers email marketing. The result? Wasted spend, missed connections, and fewer sales.
• Poor decision-making: Inaccurate data can lead to strategies that fail to address your audience's actual needs or behaviors.

Good data is the foundation of marketing. Data sources in marketing can be data from, for example, paid media, social media, e-commerce, web analytics, CRM, and marketing automation.

Good data for accurate decision making should be:

• Accurate and no outdated information.
• Relevant: Data should be relevant with your business goals.
• Validity: Verified, credible data is essential.
• Timeliness: Data must be current.

The best practices of using data includes collecting all data from all platforms, and it should include a variety of data. After collecting all of it, one can measure is the amount of it enough. If not, then collect more. After collecting and analyzing the data, it is crucial to keep on monitoring regularly and create good practices for data collection. Automating data collection can help too.

Good data can enable:

• Improved ROI: Marketing spend becomes more effective, as investments are directed toward high-performing channels.
• Efficient Budget use: With limited marketing budgets, good data allows for better resource allocation, focusing on strategies that drive real value.
• Informed decision-making: Instead of relying on intuition, teams can use solid data to make decisions that meet with business goals.

Large companies may have entire teams dedicated to data, but in my opinion, small businesses can also benefit from good data practices. Even a simple data collection process can give smaller companies a competitive edge, allowing them to use marketing resources wisely, and make strategic decisions based on concrete data, and not according to what just feels good.

Good data is the key to excellent marketing choices, whether you’re a large company or a startup. Collecting data, analyzing it, and monitoring can take time, but it is worth it in the end.

In marketing and business, you truly get what you measure.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Share your experiences in the comments, and let’s discuss how to make marketing data work better for everyone.