We work in an environment where customers are more value-oriented and less loyal than ever, ready to jump ship the moment they find something better. How can Marketing be smarter, faster, and stronger when expectations are on the rise and the competitive landscape continues to increase? This environment requires us to expand our capabilities with the power of analytics.
With analytics, you can transform the avalanche of data at your fingertips into actionable insights, enhance go-to-market and product strategies, optimize marketing programs, and improve Marketing performance.
Be Better, Faster, and Smarter
I. Better Demand Gen. Performing analytics, however, takes time and skill, so why make the effort and investment? A Big Data Analytics study by Accenture reported that companies that invested in analytics teams saw a 50% improvement in demand-driven operations over companies that did not invest, and that those that invested had more effective operations processes and higher sales volume.
Action Step:
- Be sure your budget has a line item for analytics skills development. Every marketer today needs analytics know-how.
- Make sure your new hires are analytically inclined, regardless of their role.
II. Faster Growth. While analytics can be used to answer questions in any area of your business, marketing analytics help answer questions such as: “Which customers are worth paying a lot of attention to? Which ones are worth less?”
Action Step: If you’re spread thin, and who isn’t these days, at a minimum, focus your analytics on evaluating these five growth opportunities:
- How to acquire more valuable customers
- How to acquire customers who will buy more
- How to acquire customers who will buy higher value products/services
- How to retain high-value customers longer
- Determine which marketing activities have the greatest impact on accelerating and improving customer acquisition and retention
III. Smarter Decisions. Companies use analytics to make decisions related to business operations, staffing and skill requirements, customer strategy, positioning and messaging, and Marketing optimization. With so many possible projects, it may be hard to determine where to start.
Action Step: Develop a method to prioritize your analytics projects. Here’s one method you might find easy to implement. Evaluate projects against two criteria: value derived (from low to high) and ease of execution (from easy to hard). Score each project and classify it into one of four categories.
- High-Value/Easy-to-Execute- Must Do’s
- Low-Value/Easy-to-Execute- Quick Hits (things you can do in 30 days or less)
- High-Value/Hard-to-Execute- Transformative
- Low-Value/Hard-to-Execute- Nice to Have, but Not Necessary
When prioritizing, we recommend you focus on the high-value/easy-to-execute first. Then tackle the low-value/easy-to-execute tasks while you put a plan in place to address the high-value/hard-to-execute projects.
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Build Your Muscle
It has probably become evident that an analytics approach to marketing takes skills and resources. In their book The Four Pillars of Profit-Driven Marketing, authors Leslie Moeller and Edward Landry claim that just being good at analytics is not enough. Analytics and the tools to disseminate the insights from them, and the organizational infrastructure, are the keys to success.
Are you ready to start building your analytical muscle? Start by reading our white paper “Marketing Analytics Centers of Excellence – Fueling Corporate Growth,” and then Contact Us to discover the specific areas you and your organization need to focus on.
FAQ:
A: Because customers are more value-oriented and less loyal, competition is intensifying, and expectations for Marketing performance continue to rise. Analytics helps Marketing become smarter, faster, and stronger by turning data into actionable insight that improves strategy, program performance, and decision-making.
A: Analytics enables Marketing to transform large volumes of data into insights that: improve go-to-market and product strategies, optimize programs and investments, and strengthen performance management—so decisions are fact-based, not assumption-driven.
A: Accenture’s Big Data Analytics study reported that companies investing in analytics teams saw a 50% improvement in demand-driven operations versus companies that did not invest, along with more effective operations processes and higher sales volume.
A:
- Ensure the Marketing budget includes a line item for analytics skills development (every marketer needs analytics know-how).
- Hire people who are analytically inclined, regardless of role, to strengthen the organization’s capability baseline.
A: At a minimum, focus analytics on:
- How to acquire more valuable customers
- How to acquire customers who will buy more
- How to acquire customers who will buy higher-value products/services
- How to retain high-value customers longer
- Which marketing activities have the greatest impact on accelerating and improving acquisition and retention
A: Analytics supports decisions related to business operations, staffing and skill requirements, customer strategy, positioning and messaging, and Marketing optimization—helping leaders allocate resources to what will create the greatest impact.
A: Use a simple two-by-two grid based on value derived (low → high) and ease of execution (easy → hard). Score each project and classify it into one of four categories:
- High-value / easy-to-execute: Must do’s
- Low-value / easy-to-execute: Quick hits (often 30 days or less)
- High-value / hard-to-execute: Transformative
- Low-value / hard-to-execute: Nice to have (not necessary)
A: Start with high-value/easy-to-execute projects to deliver fast wins and build credibility. Next, tackle low-value/easy-to-execute quick hits while putting a plan in place for high-value/hard-to-execute transformative work.
A: Analytics skill alone is not enough. Success requires tools to disseminate insights and the organizational infrastructure to operationalize them—so insights reliably translate into action and performance improvement.
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