How to Build a Data-Driven Marketing Strategy

Data-driven marketing is all about making decisions with real numbers rather than gut feelings. 

Nearly 80% of business representatives say data-driven marketing increases both leads and customers. Thanks to new technologies, it has become easier than ever to connect in a meaningful way. 

Data-driven marketing is about collecting information from your customers on different platforms and tie it all together into one cohesive strategy that will help grow your business. It’s a must for business to grow. While companies can collect data in many ways, the following four can guarantee the most accurate information: e-books, blogs, interactive content, and live events.

E-books:

E-books are a great way to collect data because you can offer them for free, and they are easy to share. People usually love receiving E-books and are often willing to provide an actual e-mail addresses or contact information in exchange for a free copy. Remember, e-mail marketing is considered one of the most effective ways to generate a higher return on investment (ROI). It must be a key component of your data-driven marketing strategy. 

Blogs: 

Blogs are another excellent way for businesses to collect information from their target audience. They are also considered a highly effective lead generation tool. Blog posts must end with a call-to-action message, allowing readers to sign up for updates or download your E-book. This way, you can get their contact information, too.

Furthermore, a blog post can give you an idea of what people are sharing on social media about specific topics or products as well as on consumer interests. For instance, if someone shares an article with friends, more people may read it and get involved, giving companies critical insight into customer behavior online. 

Interactive Content: 

Interactive content is basically any type of content that builds on the user's involvement. This could be a quiz, an offer for coupons, or polls to see how your customers feel about certain topics. You can leverage other data sources to provide personalized responses to those participating in the interactive content. For example, you can use a quiz to segment your audience and then target them with personalized offers. More than 87% of marketing professionals agree that using interactive content is beneficial to gain visitors' attention. 

Live Events: 

Live events are another excellent way to gather specific user data. First, you can use RSVP for your live events days in advance to gather contact information such as names and e-mails. During or after the event, you can also use surveys to collect feedback from the attendees. This can be done for both online and onsite events. While there are tools that allow you to survey attendees online, you can distribute post-event survey papers in a physical setting. 

Tools to Use: 

There are numerous tools that can help make the process of building a data-driven marketing strategy easier. Here are some of the most common ones: 

Online Survey Tools: Tools such as Survey Monkey allow you to create a survey and then e-mail the link out, for instance, after your live event concludes. 

Social Media Management Tools: Tools such as Hootsuite and Oktopost can be used to track how your content is performing on all social media platforms in one place and see what resources people are finding most useful. 

Tools to Grow Your E-mail List: Websites such as Wistia are excellent to grow your e-mail list through videos. After publishing your live event video, you can use Wistia to ask viewers for their e-mail addresses halfway through the video, for example. 

In brief, marketers have no choice but to be data-driven, gathering information from various content formats. Without data, it's virtually impossible to make informed business decisions. In the era of Big Data, you don't want to "guess" what your customers may want or need, or else you risk being out of touch and, ultimately, out-of-business.