Data-driven marketing first became popular in the 1980s, when the emergence of segmentation and database marketing revolutionised the way businesses personalised their communications with customers.
Since then, advances in data science and modern technology have made it even easier to analyse significant volumes of statistics and other information to best incorporate them within your marketing campaigns.
But how does it do that?
Here are six ways you can leverage data science to produce data-driven marketing programs that can significantly improve the profitability and sustainability of your business.
What is Data Science?
Before we look at the ways you can leverage data science for the betterment of your business it is worth clarifying what it actually is.
In short, data science is the study of data. Its purpose is to help businesses discover meaningful insights that can be used to establish trends and patterns which can be applied to various aspects of the business, including cost cutting, improving sales conversions and enhancing levels of customer satisfaction.
It is a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates practices and principles from the fields of statistics, mathematics, computer engineering and artificial intelligence to analyse massive amounts of data.
You can study online data science programs at UNSW or other major universities.
Ways to Leverage Data Science for Business
There are several ways you can leverage data science to the advantage of your business. But here are six of the main ones.
1. Understand the patterns and needs of your customers
Probably the primary way to leverage data science for the benefit of your business is to better understand the patterns and needs of your customers.
By using tools like SAS Business Analytics, you can discover a wealth of information about your business which can then be used to make your operations stronger and more effective. For instance, you can tell which audiences respond better to your latest advertising campaign or who your most prolific repeat customers are likely to be.
Armed with this information, you can then develop robust strategies based around the most valuable of these metrics that should help you achieve further growth and increased efficiency.
2. More streamlined targeting
Another huge benefit of data science is that you can drill down on customer statistics and data to gain a full appreciation of what services or products they expect and prefer from your company.
Based on information like buying habits, demographic information, and behavioural patterns, you will be able to segment your audience using very specific metrics that can be the focus of highly targeted campaigns.
This, in turn, will ensure you can run custom campaigns to them that can notably increase sales and streamline costs.
3. Product spec improvements
Data science cannot just be leveraged to increase sales or reduce costs, it can also be utilised to scrutinise customer feedback to determine which are the most and least popular products they offer.
This information can be collated in several ways including market research, focus groups, surveys and the use of analytical tools. Once they have gathered it, they can then establish, for instance, what features customers liked or disliked about any given product and which product pages they spent most time on whilst browsing your online store.
This could enable them to highlight some product features more prominently in their marketing campaigns, improve the design and functionality of certain aspects and promote specific products ahead of others.
4. Ensure business plans hold a lower-risk
Data science provides businesses with a wealth of quantifiable data which can be used to draw up business plans that hold a lesser or more calculated risk overall.
This provides them with increased peace of mind as it makes it easier to devise a roadmap that is more likely to be successful in achieving their strategic marketing goals. Partly through artificial intelligence, it does this by outlining any potentially problematic roadblocks you might experience down the line.
This, in turn, can save your business a lot of time, money and wasted resources.
5. Predicts outcomes and trends
By analysing factors identified from machine learning, such as sales, risk assessment and customer segmentation, data science can make accurate predictions about future outcomes and trends.
It can, for instance, highlight whether a particular market segment is flourishing, which enables your business to tap into the marketing and revenue generating potential this surge might bring.
Congruently, drawing upon predictive analysis, businesses can formulate budgets that are made around more prudent financial decisions. Alternatively, they can better anticipate market changes or set achievable objectives that can provide them with a competitive edge.
6. Find new opportunities
Businesses should always be looking to improve and grow, and data science is integral towards doing that.
By appraising all its different functions, businesses can spot opportunities to launch new products or sales channels. They can also determine what their weaknesses are and take steps to eradicate them.
For instance, a good way to do this is to use the data to find out which parts of your business’s website are receiving the least amount of data. This will enable the marketing department to take steps, including re-optimizing the page for SEO or creating advertising pages around it to improve its visibility and reach.
