Big Data: Why it should matter to you
Big Data has been a buzzword tossed about alot this year - but how do you go about gathering such data, and more importantly, how do you use data to benefit your business? As a marketer, strategy and campaign planning is a careful balance of creativity and actual statistics. You can't market effectively and accurately without knowing your customer, their needs, preferences and how they consume their media.
Take for example, fascinating statistics from L2 Think Tank that indicate the following:
- Instagram has the highest engagement rates followed by Facebook, then Pinterest
- Research shows that Foursquare, Tumblr and Twitter are losing their relevance to brands in terms of engagement
- Pinterest is still the "It Girl" of social media, but usage data may not be supporting the hype around it
- YouTube and video platforms such as Vine are increasing steadily and brands are flocking towards videos for increasing brand engagement and rich traffic
- Pinterest may be the first transactional platform - the average order per user is $140-180 which is much higher than Facebook ($80) or Twitter ($60)
For more insights, check out the livestream feed of Professor Scott Galloway's keynote at IWNY 2013 - CLICK HERE
With the advent of Google Analytics and the boom of metrics platforms, marketers now have the option of tracking consumers' daily digital footprints; their social preferences and internet usage patterns. Having a grasp of such data enables marketers to:
- better align branding strategy and goals with actual marketing executions
- manipulate data as a test bed with which to try new marketing ideas and plans
- remove some of the uncertainty with targeting and assists in the identification of key market segments
- streamline and remove the complexity of media planning
- identify key brand advocates and influencers that can help spread the word about their brand
If you think you're ready to take the plunge into big data, here are some tips to bear in mind:
- Set out a strategy and plan for the kinds of things you need to measure in relation to your larger organizational goals - are you looking to boost engagement? Build word of mouth traffic or increase conversions and sales? Whatever they may be, spare some time to really understand the kind of metrics you need to meet your goals
- Realize which platforms work for you and how they measure up to your desired metric goals - not all media platforms may be relevant to your brand company. Pick the platforms that are most relevant to you and set out a strategy to best utilize that platform for your needs
- Consider if you will be leveraging a third-party vendor or if you have the ability to, create your own in-house team. Whatever your choice may be, evaluate the depth of information that you would like to have. Doing it in-house will enable you to have full control of your data and provide greater depth of knowledge. Conversely, a third-party vendor should be able to provide you with comprehensive data that is has greater industry breadth.
Lastly, here are some services to look into get you going:
- Lattice salesPRISM: this Big Data Analytics platform processes both internal and external data,which includes information from CRM, purchase histories, Linkedin and OneSource, social data is combined with a predictive analysis tool to help provide marketers with a better picture of potential sales leads and customers.
- Google Big Query: Analyze Big Data in the cloud using SQL and get real-time business insights in seconds using Google BigQuery. Use a fully-managed data analysis service with no servers to install or maintain.
- Clear Story Data: modernizes data analysis with a solution that innovates on how business users discover, analyze and consume data at scale from corporate, web and premium data sources for combined, differentiated, and up-to-date insights.
(For a list of more technology platforms and solutions providers, do take a look at this article)
