High-quality data is essential to stand out when thousands of other things are vying for your customer’s attention.
Marketing is transforming to support the modern customer journey. With adults making 35000 decisions a day, the cognitive load can become too overwhelming. Marketers must gauge customer decision-making to craft the right strategy, creating more opportunities.
This blog post will illustrate the high-quality data imperative. Let’s dive in!
The newness
The volume of new tools and technologies entering the market is astonishing. The technology landscape has shifted substantially and continues to do so even now. These advancements have bestowed on people a plethora of choices and increased ease and convenience. The influx of new channels and platforms have paved the way for always-on communication and multiple touchpoints.
The modern marketing funnel isn’t linear. But with marketers not adapting to the changes in the market and consumer psychology, they fail to elevate the customer experience. And most customers make decisions based on the experiences brands create for them.
Here’s what to do next
Marketing leaders’ roles have drastically changed over the last few years. CMOs must set a clear vision for their team and their interactions with sales. Data should form the core of marketing capabilities and define the path ahead.
CMOs should begin with creating a framework for data collection and integration. Marketing data can’t be scattered anymore. Implementing a customer data platform is a must to form a single customer view and turn data into actionable insights. Most marketers are busy chasing dollars, aka, immediate impact, and though it’s crucial to tie marketing’s impact to revenue, long-term marketing goals matter as much. Brands must integrate short-term and long-term marketing plans to maximize their ROI and collect the right data to understand customers.
If modern marketers can’t rely on data, analytics turn meaningless. Data has to be accurate and accessible, and it’s just not the marketing department’s problem. Businesses must make data quality an organization-wide responsibility. But marketers need to define what quality data means to them and make it an ongoing effort.
They may also leverage external sources such as tech publications, peer groups, and communities to supplement customer research.
The Editor’s Note
Bad data costs a lot, but it’s no rocket science to minimize the costs that come with it. Start with connecting the impact of data quality with marketing KPIs. Use data profiling early to draw constructive conclusions and spot data problems before it’s too late. As they say, timing is the difference between success and failure.
