It’s a familiar scenario these days: You Google a new brand of cat food. Suddenly, all of your Facebook ads and email banners are showing you pictures of, and coupons for, the same brand of cat food.
Once considered a niche type of marketing, or an added bonus, data-driven marketing is very much becoming a key component to almost every advertising strategy. In a recent analysis of the industry, analytic data platform Teradata noted that real-time relevance (like the example listed above) was imperative in keeping customers engaged. In fact, there’s now a built-in expectation that a customer’s interaction with marketing should be both personalized and seamless. Additionally, it’s still incredibly important to keep your messaging consistent across multiple platforms and media.
According to the report: “[Customers] have grown accustomed to marketers’ knowledge of their preferences. … Fractured or conflicting messages from a brand make marketers seem unorganized and annoy customers, sometimes even driving them away.”
What does data-driven marketing mean for you?
For starters, it’s quickly becoming necessary if you want a competitive edge. Now, brands are being forced to rethink their entire advertising approach, thanks to a slew of new game-changing tools. Teradata’s survey of 15,000 international marketing and communication executives found that, while most marketers had some form of data-driven marketing already in place, a majority are making significant strides in restructuring their strategies in order to respond to this new technological reality.
The survey also found that the travel and retail industries were clear leaders, and that companies with substantial data-driven marketing strategies in place are achieving significant competitive advantage in customer engagement, loyalty and customer satisfaction.
To get a leg up with your marketing, consider it a wise investment of time and money to tailor ads to customer’s preferences for a seamless, consistent and highly personalized experience. Even if they don’t buy on the spot, you’re earning miles in brand favor.
If it’s not convincing enough yet, we’re backing it up with data of our own in our next blog on data-driven marketing.