Every company has sales, provides “great deals,” or “deep discounts,”. Customers can now throw a dart at a wall full of deals and find something they want or need. The key to success in the 21st century is information. You can’t just open your doors and expect customers to come flying in anymore. Business data lists are “where it’s at,” so to speak.
You now must know which customers want what. You must know the right demographics to which you should market to and you must know what kinds of marketing each demographic prefers.
Information of this type has several buzzword names: big data, business data, mass data, or if you’re really fancy, data analytics. It all comes down to knowing what you need to know to market effectively.
In the days of yore, managers and businesses as a whole “went with their collective gut” or “did things the way they’ve always been done.” That won’t cut it anymore. The business world is too fluid. Things change weekly, if not daily. Businesses need to be well-informed to be able to change along with the market. Savvy businesses do enough research to predict changes before they happen, how? Through analysing data.
Where does all this data come from? Gone are the cash registers being used to provide information, in come the point-of-sale computers. Out with the Rolodexes of contacts. Say hello to the laptop with the latest customer-relationship management software. You must be careful, as technology advances at an almost geometric pace, the proliferation of data will swamp you if you’re not careful. You must know what data you need. Irrelevant data is worse than no data at all. Knowing what you need comes from data analytics.
So, what do you actually need when it comes to big data? That depends on your business. Do you sell something, or do you provide a service? Do you do both? Who uses your service or your products? Are you planning on expanding into new or different markets? Are you adding new products for different demographics? You need not only to know these answers but also be able to collate the information and distribute it to the people in your organization.
For example, let’s say your product is a nifty travel bag with spaces for laptop, cell phone, extra thumb drives, and big interior compartments for clothes and toiletries. The demographic involved would be business people on-the-go. Depending on the styling of the bag, it could be for millennials, Generation Z, or boomers. If your business is international, the marketing could also be country-specific or language-specific.
You would base your marketing upon which demographic preferred which method. For example, if boomers preferred billboards, you would ensure that all the billboards you bought would have the bag styled for boomers printed upon them. If Germans prefer certain colours, then the bag should be made in those colours for distribution and sale in Germany. These are simple examples of finding the right information and applying it to your marketing.
Now that you know what you need to know, you need to know where to get that information. Look for companies that do the collating for you, and deliver only what you need to know when you need to know it.
Only purchase data from companies that scrub their databases of old or outdated information so that you only ever have the latest at your fingertips, and combine new information with the relevant information in your database so that you always have integrated data.
Look for transparency: Those with nothing to hide, hide nothing. Ensure you know how the company got the data, how it was verified and how their efforts have assisted others in the past.
If you’re promised the moon “for a song”, somethings not right. Understand, pricing must be fair. If you want quality, you must pay for quality.
Remember, static data is useless in an ever-changing business world, and it would be disingenuous to provide static data. Buy from companies that constantly upgrade and update the business data lists they provide.
No one likes getting irrelevant ads in their various electronic feeds or mailboxes, real or virtual. Whilst this is irritating for the consumer it’s also just as damaging for advertiser. Not only will this cost them financially, but it will also tarnish their reputation. Find a company that will help you get the right information to the right customers and then help you determine the best marketing strategies for those customers.
Lastly, don’t rush your decision. Do your research, look through a company’s website and contact them to discuss and understand the best ways they can help you.
