We talked earlier this week about how companies have all this customer data, but aren’t getting the insights they need because they aren’t asking the right questions.
While it’s a lot easier said than done, executives and decision makers are still captured by the allure of the promises about how analytics technologies will eliminate guesswork and replace it with data-driven, actionable insights.
After all, some research shows that companies using analytics grow their revenue year-over-year at a rate 184% higher than those who don’t use customer analytics.
But, how do you get to that same value from the technology?
Well, first things first – just having data is worthless.
Customer data only becomes valuable when you know how to structure it and how to use it – which brings us back to the point about asking the right questions.
It’s about asking questions like: “Who are my customers?” and “What’s the best way to communicate with my customers?”
Because when you ask questions like that, you’ll begin to understand how your customers engage with your brand, how they want to engage with your brand, which channels perform best and the types of messaging that will resonate best with current and potential customers.
When you begin to ask the right questions of your data, you can turn all your data into the answers you’re looking for – the answers that will allow you to understand your customers, understand how your best customers want to interact with your brand and products and build a marketing ecosystem of connected data that puts the customer first.
Without that insight into your customers, it becomes nearly impossible to optimize marketing programs and ensure that other activities drive a positive return.
The Bottom Line
Budgets are not endless. So focusing resources on aligning channels with the behaviors of your customers is necessary to delivering the greatest ROI.
If retailers use a customer analytic solution in the right way, it can provide a sharper perspective on customers that can be used not only for targeted marketing, but also for everything from site selection to relevant product offerings, promotions, store designs, and other elements of the overall brand.
If you want to learn more about how Buxton’s analytics solutions can help you get the most value out of your data, then we should talk.