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Customer data is the marketing overlord – but how can we harness its power for good?

March 30, 2020

Customer data is the marketing overlord. All sensible marketing decisions nowadays are based on this information. With the rich data marketers can have access to, the focus can be on the individual customer and discovering their intent to buy, with advertising being present at the right place and the right time for the customer, winning over their hearts, minds and money. 

We are of an age where every customer is looking for the better and faster services and products - whatever they may be. Customers like to be understood, heard and their demands met. The marketing world can now leverage the data that the customer puts out into the world. Data is taken from the pages they follow on social media, articles they engage with and products they buy to gain insight into the interests, buying behaviours and intent of potential customers. In theory, they are then able to give them exactly what they want. Intent marketing allows us to listen to what they have to say. We can prioritise prospective customers, target individuals based on their interest and leverage intent to buy your product.

There are two types of ways to collect this data,

  1. Engagement with your own digital content, whether that be your website, emails, social media or any other interactivity you put into the world
  2. Engagement with 3rd party sites, for example, looking at who your target is following or engaging with similar social media pages or publications and articles and seeing a trend.

So let’s get down to it - how can you harness all this data for good, I hear you cry! Well, there are 5 key benefits to having and using this data to its full potential.

  1. It helps when establishing your ideal customer. To make the most of harvesting this intelligent data, you must establish what data will be most beneficial. Establishing a target customer profile based on this data will mean your data and therefore subsequent marketing and engagement pieces are far more valuable as you only engage with established interested parties as opposed to a blanket campaign to many who may not fit your target criteria, and create an individual and personalised journey.
  2. Knowing who your customers are. A vital part of not only optimizing your engagement with customers but to answer questions, perhaps ones you may not have even thought of, to help provide insight into who your customers are and why they engage with your brand content and look at their other similar interests. By understanding your customer, you are focusing time and resources into marketing and engagement tools that work, for people will get involved.
  3. Establish what parts of your marketing and engagement are most effective - what is overall most popular, what content is bringing in new users and which content is closing the sales. By having all this rich data and knowledge of the market, your customer and their interests, you can target by personalizing the engagement in real-time by advertising your products in the pages that follow the purchase of similar products, with the intent to buy.

Using customer data is all about analysing, tracking and channelling effective marketing tactics to the right people in the most engaging and personalised way. Using intent marketing and utilizing the rich data that can be collected to identify intent of purchase and provide personalised advertising to promote the fast and effective products and services today’s consumers desire, as opposed to the out-dated demographic and assumed interest marketing of the past.

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