Data-driven strategy

Cassie Marvin, marketing consultant at Sense Marketing, on utilising data to enhance your marketing strategy

It was 17 years ago that I studied Management by Objectives – known as MBO - by Drucker. His philosophy focused around ‘What gets measured gets managed’ and he talked about company goals and S.M.A.R.T objectives.

I won’t lie, I found it fairly tedious and didn’t appreciate the significance of it at the time, but I did take away the principle of the topic - don’t waste time measuring everything that moves. Instead, spend your energy determining what to measure, and what importance will be placed on those numbers.

I think one of the issues with measurement and data is that not everyone is analytical. Sometimes the task of trawling through spreadsheets and CRM systems can be a daunting one, particularly when we are all so busy. However, our world has changed, and businesses need to get smarter in how they market themselves to existing and potential customers.

Competition is fierce, and customers can be fickle, so how can a data-driven strategy benefit office dealers? And how do they go about creating one?

Before embarking on any new strategy it’s worth remembering that nothing worthwhile ever comes easily, and if developing a data-driven strategy was simple every business would be doing it. But don’t be deterred, the rewards for doing it well are significant.

So, you have a stack of ‘customer information’, where do you begin? It’s important at the start to draft your goals – what do you want to achieve? Higher customer retention rates? More new leads from your website? Building better brand reputation? Or maybe your goal relates to your products, services or pricing? Starting with one clear objective will give you focus and clarity on why you are going to invest valuable time in looking into your data.

Consider what data will be the most useful and relevant in supporting your goal. Sources could include Google and social media analytics, your in-house database or CRM system, customer survey information - or even information collected by your customer service team.

Taking an initial look at your data may deliver some interesting results - such as patterns or trends that you may not have not noticed before. If you’re looking at website analytics, is there a certain day that you receive more visits? If you ran a social media promotion, which post delivered the most engagement? Why might that be?

The power of data lies in what you do with it. Many times I have heard businesses talk about the ‘thousands’ of customer records that they historically hold, and yet no analysis, reporting or activity is done with these.

Data can be the fuel that lights the fire for a business. My advice? Find the time to spark interest within your business to consider a data-driven approach.