How to Reach Your Audiences Better With Data Analytics

Data analytics is an instrumental but often overlooked driver for success in the digital marketing sphere. Without it, companies make poor decisions that often result in major losses. In a rapidly changing world hounded with crises like a global pandemic, companies need to make analytics-driven choices in order to succeed and even survive.

Admittedly, data-driven analytics developed at an alarming rate over the past decade alone. Until now, consumer behavior analytics is transforming faster than anyone could’ve ever imagined before.

The end of the decade is proving to be an even greater challenge to digital marketers. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing everyone indoors, companies are confronted with a digitally-dependent market.

Now more than ever, marketers need reliable information to understand customers, so that their businesses can thrive amid these tumultuous times. You need to dive deeper into your consumers’ data to understand their behavior and make strategic decisions for your company’s success.

Need more knowledge on data analytics? Learn more about this driver for your company’s success when you check out the rest of this comprehensive guide.

The state of digital marketing

So much happened in the realm of digital marketing over the past ten years alone. The rise of mobile social apps inspired a revolution in ecommerce and business, creating unbelievably rapid change in the digital marketing field within a single decade.

But if you want to succeed in digital, you need to learn more about it. It’s important for you to know what pivotal tech events sparked the movement towards data-driven insights in digital marketing.

Tech events in the past decade

Here are some of the most notable tech events that ended up defining the digital marketing field in the past decade alone:

• 2010-2011 saw the birth of the visual social app age, with apps like Instagram and Snapchat rising to prominence.
• Facebook and Twitter also launched their mobile apps around the same time, due to their popularity in prior years.

The accessibility and popularity of these mobile social media apps allowed for the inevitable shift to mobile-first marketing strategies. This eventually changed online behaviors altogether as well:

• Facebook and Google started making yearly changes to search engine optimization tools and accelerated mobile pages to adapt to user needs.
• App install campaigns and shopping campaigns became popular as digital marketing strategies over the decade too.

May they rest in peace

All these innovations changed the game for digital marketers everywhere. But these transformations also meant businesses were struggling to keep up with the pace.  Digital marketing horrors abounded in this rapidly changing landscape; many thrived through ecommerce and business online, while other businesses “died” trying to play catch-up.

Poor planning and the lack of data-driven strategy led to the following company “deaths” throughout the 2010s:

• Toys ‘R’ Us couldn’t implement the right strategies to sell their products online. Unable to compete with other online stores, they filed for bankruptcy in 2017.
• Vine, another visual social app from the past decade, could’ve thrived alongside its competitors. Lacking the information on its consumers to compete with the bite-sized video offerings of Instagram and Snapchat, Vine “died” in 2017.

In this data-driven marketing landscape, data analysis is king. With rapid changes like the COVID-19 pandemic revolutionizing consumer behaviors, it’s imperative that your business keeps up the data-driven pace if you want it to thrive in these difficult times.

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No more guessing with data analytics

If you want to succeed in these current global circumstances, you need to avoid poor guesswork and ill-advised choices. You can’t afford to guess when it comes to making decisions during the  COVID-19 pandemic. You need data analytics to survive and thrive in these difficult times.

What is data analytics?

Data analytics is the practice of studying data to make sound decisions, especially in digital fields like online marketing. Over the past decade, the processes of data analytics have been automated into algorithms, most often for human use.

Data is a goldmine of useful information for any online marketer. As a digital marketer or executive, you can use data analytics to do any of the following:

• Uncover patterns and trends among your customers’ metric tons of data.
• Use these trends to optimize all your digital marketing strategies.
• Increase the overall efficiency of your business, based on your company’s goals.

This key driver to success comes in different forms – predictive analytics, behavioral analytics, prescriptive analytics, and many more. Overall, you can use this practice to ensure accurate, precise, fact-driven approaches to all your digital strategies.

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What’s in It for You

You need data analytics because it helps your business optimize its performance – it’s that simple. When you implement data analytics into your business model, you’re already reducing costs and risks by identifying the hero data you need to run your company through the most efficient means possible.

Data-driven insights are practically the norm now for any business, even your own. If you’re using customer trends and information to make better decisions, products, and services, you’re already using data in a way – you just need to optimize your analytics.

Let’s think about the companies that succeeded and even thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the help of this key success driver.

Shopee

With everyone indoors due to the pandemic, it’s no surprise that ecommerce companies like Shopee found massive success in 2020. But no one could’ve expected how massive these successes would be. Record-breaking accomplishments included:

• 12 million items sold within the first 24 minutes of the 12.12 Big Christmas Sale in the Philippines.
• One million items bought in a single minute during the 12.12 peak.
• 2 billion products sold in the four weeks leading up to 12.12.

The key to Shopee’s success? Its unwavering commitment to growing data science talent. According to Shopee’s head of data science, Pan Yaozhang, they are heavily driven by data analytics to improve user experiences and optimize all internal processes.

Netflix

This media streaming behemoth dominated quarantine lifestyles and shaped the way people consumed entertainment throughout 2020. Check out these colossal markers of success for the company in the past year:

• Over 200 million paid subscribers in total worldwide, with 37 million new subscribers within 2020 alone.
• International popularity with 83% of new subscribers coming from regions outside the US and Canada.
• $6.6 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter alone, a notable 22% increase from their previous year.

Of course, Netflix’s secret to success is its information analytics. The company has touted a data-driven approach since its inception, using analysis to inform its decisions across every corner of the business. Netflix’s data-grounded perspective is a key driver to their continued success, even during a global pandemic.

Key Takeaways

In summary, data analytics is and always will be a driver for any company’s success, especially in these tumultuous times. Here are other key takeaways from this comprehensive guide:

• An effective analysis will make or break your business. When you lack the substantial data to back up actionable insights, you lose against your competitors and risk company bankruptcy.
• Data-driven strategy leads to profitable decisions. This applies to all aspects of your business model, especially in digital marketing.
• You can adapt the data-driven approach to your business. With the right tools and the best professional advice, you can take your business to the next level, even during a global pandemic.

Delve into the field of analytics and focus on the what-s and how-s of your market to execute the best why-s. Discover the best strategies and take the best courses of action based on effective consumer behavior analytics. Still, need more information when it comes to optimizing your data for digital marketing? Make sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn for more helpful advice.