Big data technology has been extremely valuable for businesses of all sizes and in all industries. However, many companies still are not using big data to its full potential. According to one survey cited by Dataversity, only 53% of companies report having formalized data strategies.
The good news is that there are a lot of steps that brands can take to better utilize big data. Keep reading to learn more as you strive to use big data to boost the profitability of your company.
What Are Some of the Best Ways to Leverage Big Data for Your Company?
You’ve heard about the benefits of being a data-driven organization and are fully aware it’s something you want your business to be. The problem is, you’re not sure what this looks like. How do you leverage the information you collect so it helps you grow? And what kind of data will be beneficial to your company?
Although the answers will vary depending on your business model and goals, a few tips can inform your approach. Take it from those who have made the journey to data-driven strategies before you. It’s a scientific process with a bit of art mixed in for good measure. Let’s look at four different ways to leverage data for business growth.
1. Nurture Customer Relationships
There are a number of powerful benefits of using big data in marketing. A growing number of companies are using data analytics to better understand their customers and refine their marketing strategies.
Most marketing campaigns aim to boost activity by motivating audiences to do something. Those actions could be walking into a store, requesting additional information, or registering for a presentation. Even if all you’re doing is boosting awareness with a campaign, you’re still planting the seed for future sales.
But it’s not a secret that conventional marketing campaigns only go so far. Once you’ve piqued an audience’s interest and acquired customers, then what happens? Do you track how leads become clients while leveraging their positive experiences to attract more? If not, you’re missing out on the key advantages of data-driven growth marketing strategies.
With these strategies, you’re using information to perfect your marketing at every stage of what’s known as the Pirate Funnel. Those stages are awareness, acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral (AAARRR — get it?). It’s about listening to the feedback you get from various tactics to see what moves the needle with your audience.
For instance, one version of an email may outperform another when it comes to getting existing clients to level up. By finding what works best, you can continue growing the number of leads you attract and customers you retain. You’re nurturing long-term relationships with your audience members, making campaign decisions based on what the data tells you.
2. Design Better Solutions
Some companies spend billions of dollars each year on research and development. For example, Amazon spent a gobsmacking $73 billion in 2022. While you may not be able to invest even a fraction of that, you can use data to improve your product strategy. After all, your solutions’ appeal is a big driver behind business growth.
If your products and services aren’t meeting customers’ needs, they’ll abandon them. The same goes for solutions that lose their shine. Competing products with more appealing features may make yours irrelevant if you’re not paying attention. Feedback from early adopters and pre-launch focus groups is one source of information. However, it also helps to dial into feedback from the current market, including laggards or late adopters.
In other words, what features does your target market find the most useful? Maybe something they would like to see is missing. There could also be features they want more of. With the right competitor analysis and survey data, you’ll improve products and increase their appeal in the marketplace. You’ll be creating added value for your audience and your bottom line.
3. Analyze Industry Trends
Sometimes, it pays to go against the crowd. However, growth may stall if you miss key industry developments. In some cases, it can significantly impact your company’s longevity. Think about former top dogs in the home video rental space. They lost big time because they overlooked how emerging technologies influenced consumer preferences.
By using outside information, such as market research and even government data, you can analyze what’s happening around you. This information will help determine whether you need to pivot your business model or wait. It may not make sense to jump on a new bandwagon if the data indicates it’s a fad. But growth potential may exist if a more permanently disruptive development is at play.
Analyzing industry trends may also help you further segment your audience according to different needs. An example impacting many service-oriented industries is the growing use of automated technology, including apps and chatbots. People don’t always have to talk to someone to pay a bill or file an insurance claim. They can check on reported power outages and get order refunds from an app or a text.
Yet an overreliance on automation to service your clients may alienate and frustrate some of them. Eventually, the inability to get human-to-human service will impact how and whether they spend money with your business. Combining first-party data with external sources will ensure you develop well-rounded solutions with your entire audience in mind.
4. Optimize Resources
Productivity and resource allocation are significant growth influencers. It’ll be challenging to achieve sustainability if your company has unnecessary waste. With internal data about your processes and resources, you can optimize or scale both.
Perhaps you discover your customer service and sales team aren’t in sync. The information sales gathers doesn’t match with what customer service does. Consequently, processes aren’t as efficient as they could be, and customers are growing impatient with delays. You implement a shared customer relationship management application to eliminate discrepancies. Handoffs between the two departments are more efficient, increasing client satisfaction and spending.
Of course, internal data can reveal more productivity and resource allocation issues than just this one. You might identify opportunities to eliminate underutilized resources you don’t need, such as overlapping or seldom used software subscriptions. Allocating these funds to other priorities may help create budgets for new roles, product development, or market expansions.
Achieving Data-Driven Growth
The information your business collects informs everything from marketing strategies to resource allocation. While data quality will impact the results you see from leveraging data, it provides more guidance than your gut. Yet when combined, intuition and objective data can increase your company’s growth potential.