Most companies know that they can get more from their consumer data. However, the value of reliable and valuable data, such as Earned Data, can only be truly realized if you have the cohesive systems set up to analyze it. Bringing together your customer insights under one unified global lens will allow brands to generate the impactful insights that will transform the customer experience.
In part one of this article, we discussed “what is customer data?” and what the difference is between structured and unstructured data. Here’s we’re going to dive into understanding the value of consumer data and how to maximize the effect of that data.
The Value of Consumer Data
Gathering consumer data and storing it so that it remains accessible is important, but only if you can actually use that data to provide the insights that create impactful marketing.
Providing customer insights…
Deep-diving into your customer demographics, behavior and preferences will give brands a greater understanding of who their customers are. Brands will learn what their customers are interested in, which of their needs they are looking to be met, and whether they are easily finding what they are looking for. On top of this, tools like 3radical’s Voco will indicate customers’ relationship with your brand – are they a loyal brand advocate or a casual consumer?
All this can be used to drive segmentation. A technique that aligns content with the most relevant section of your audience. Greater segmentation leads to greater personalization. Being able to provide consumers with recommendations and services that are tailored to their needs and interests will have an immeasurable impact on repeat purchase rates. This data can also be fed into predictive modeling frameworks that present greater opportunities to uncover patterns and make predictions based on historical consumer behavior.
…that lead to impactful marketing.
By achieving deeper consumer data analysis and greater audience segmentation, brands are able to produce more timely and relevant marketing materials. They can produce dynamic content with messaging targeted towards specific audience segments, based on demographics and their relationship with the brand. It can be used to recommend specific products or services to specific customers, depending on previous purchases or what others in their segment have gone on to buy.
Marketers can be more assured that the content and imagery that they choose will have greater impact and engagement. Perhaps most crucially, they’ll know which channel is best to reach out to each member of their customer base.
Gaining valuable insights from consumer data, particularly unstructured data, can be time-consuming but will undoubtedly help brands achieve greater results.
Maximizing the effectiveness of consumer data
Knowing where to look within the maelstrom of data your CRM system can capture is essential to gleaning insights and unlocking solutions. Here are a couple of key considerations when looking to maximize the impact of your consumer insight efforts.
Earn it, don’t just buy it
Not all consumer data is created equal. Structured vs. unstructured, first-party vs. third-party – it’s worth paying close attention to the quality of your data as well as the quantity. At 3radical, we know that consumer data still belongs to the consumer, so treat it respectfully. We believe that Earned Data – provided first hand by the consumer in a mutually beneficial value exchange that includes the permission to deploy it – is the best data. Marketers can only gain this type of data by first cultivating trust-based relationships with their customers.
This approach to data capture results in totally reliable data that is entirely relevant for your brand. Earned Data is also future-proof, readily fitting into current regulations such as Europe’s GDPR and the CCPA/CPRA in the US and upcoming legislation in the APAC region. This makes a highly actionable and impactful data set that can maximize the effectiveness of your customer journey.
Avoid data silos
Within larger organizations, it is often the case that different departments will be operating on different CRM systems. Consumer data comes from various sources, and one of the biggest challenges companies face is centralizing that data into one overarching system. Forrester’s report mentioned earlier in this article suggested that consumer data is stored on an average of 5.5 separate tools within a single organization.
This kind of disparate storage of data prevents companies from compiling a full view of the customer, with each element of the customer journey sitting within siloes. Having a unified global lens from which to centralize the data will allow brands to fully realize the potential of their data assets and draw out actionable insights.
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Getting the full value from your consumer data
To find out more about the valuable possibilities of an effective data marketing strategy, get in touch via email or contact us.