Successful companies use targeted marketing campaigns to reach their customers and drive sales. How do they know who to target and which products to advertise? Data analytics provides invaluable information.
What Is Data Analytics?
Data analytics uses raw data to answer questions, identify trends, understand past and current trends, and predict future trends. Analysts use software tools that gather data from many sources, including:
- Your CRM sales history
- Products or services sold
- Advertising methods
- Competitor’s sales and advertising performance
- Your website’s traffic
- Search engines
- Product or service pricing
These software tools use algorithms to process the raw data. There are four basic categories of data analytics:
- Descriptive — identify what happened
- Diagnostic — find out why it happened
- Predictive — if you do this, what might happen
- Prescriptive — what you should do to achieve your goals
Successful business owners and marketing experts use data analysis results to make better, more informed decisions.
How Can You Use Data Analytics?
Data analytics finds patterns that can help you grow your business. Today’s technologies allow companies to use real-time information gathered by data analytics to:
- Plan marketing strategies
- Find and retain customers
- Decide what products to retire or introduce
- Plan inventory amounts
Analysis will show you what products are popular and trending, allowing you to ramp up your inventory or develop new offerings. It will also tell you where and how best to reach customers who might buy those products.
Analytics become most useful when they are integrated within a Business Process Automation practice. This practice combines automation tools + business process management to create a holistic system where core business systems are continuously monitored, analyzed, and adjusted to increase efficiency and drive down costs. This finds its highest utility in complex systems undergoing digital transformation.
What Should You Include in Your Marketing Plan?
It’s important to include several things in your marketing plan:
- Target market
- Budget
- Strategies
- Sales goals
- A way to define your success
Your target market is the group or groups of people who are most likely to buy from your company. This could be as broad as defining either men or women or as specific as women ages 20–24 who live in small towns.
Experts agree that your marketing budget should be large enough to accomplish your goals but small enough that you can comfortably afford it. You’ll need to find out the best ways to reach those in your target market. Social media advertising is a must these days, but the best platform varies depending on whom you’re trying to reach.
Clearly defining the sales goals that you hope to reach with your marketing campaign can create motivation and innovation within your company. These goals need to be realistic but don’t be afraid to make them ambitious as well.
There are different types of sales goals, and your baseline for deciding if your marketing strategy is successful can vary depending on your goals. You can set a time span for measuring your success according to each platform you use, each group of campaigns advertising the same products or service on multiple platforms, or other ways that work best for you. Some common sales goals are:
- Increasing the amount of each sale
- Improving sales figures by a certain percentage
- Reaching sales quotas
- Forming successful sales teams
- Specifying a particular activity
Who Can Help You?
Small businesses and entrepreneurs often outsource several kinds of digital marketing tasks. You can choose a different company for each need or one to handle many of your projects. Some of these projects may include:
- Logo design
- Branding
- Website design and maintenance
- Social media advertising
- Professional product photography
Are You Ready to Get Started?
Savvy business owners use data analytics to make important decisions to help their companies grow, especially for marketing strategies. Many turn to outside experts to manage their marketing campaigns.
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