Using marketing data analytics for your online strategy

Innovation

FEBRUARY, 2024

Understanding your audience is the cornerstone of any successful online strategy.

Marketing data analytics have become essential tools to analyse user behaviour, providing opportunities to craft hyper-focused digital strategies. 

With these insights, businesses gain a greater understanding of their customers' preferences so they can tailor precise marketing campaigns. 

From website traffic patterns to social media engagement metrics, data analytics provide a solid foundation for campaign strategies. In a highly competitive market, marketing data analytics is an invaluable guide for businesses that strive for effective, personalised, and impactful digital campaigns. 

Let’s explore the transformative potential of data-driven decision-making. 

Marketing Data Analytics – What is it? 

Marketing data analytics is the structured analysis of data gathered from multiple marketing channels. This process reveals key insights that help devise effective marketing campaigns and the strategies behind them. 

It consists of statistical techniques, data model application, and machine learning, to uncover patterns and trends within marketing data. 

By converting raw user data into actionable information, it allows businesses to optimise their marketing strategies, encourage customer engagement, and ultimately drive growth. 

  • 87% of marketers say data is their business' most under-utilised asset.

  • 40% of brands plan to increase their data-driven marketing budgets.

  • Businesses using data-driven strategies drive five to eight times as much ROI as those who don’t.

Source: Invesp, The Importance of Data Driven Marketing – Statistics and Trends.

Which model of marketing data analysis is right for you? 

Experienced digital marketers use various types of analytic models to plan, manage and optimise their marketing campaigns. 

We’ve listed some examples of data analysis models below: 

Descriptive Analytics learns from the past to define your future

This model focuses on summarising user’s historical data to interpret past behaviours and interactions. A descriptive analytics model helps businesses understand trends, user behaviours, and the overall performance of previous marketing campaigns. 

Diagnostic Analytics reveals the mysteries of your data

Diagnostic analytics elaborates on the descriptive model - aiming to identify the reasons behind specific outcomes by examining the factors that determined success or failure. It pinpoints areas that need improvement, evaluate marketing strategies, and review the impact of multiple factors. 

Predictive Analytics anticipates your customers’ needs with psychic precision

This leverages historical user data and statistical algorithms to predict future trends, allowing businesses to anticipate customer behaviour and market dynamics. Use this model to forecast which strategies will work best so marketers can shape campaigns quickly and proactively. 

Prescriptive Analytics helps craft your perfect strategy

A proactive approach: prescriptive analytics recommend optimal actions to achieve desired outcomes based on predictive models. Use this model to refine marketing strategies in real-time and maximise the chances of producing successful campaigns. 

Attribution Modelling crunches the numbers and conquers the competition

Attribution modelling assigns value to each touchpoint across the customer journey. This helps businesses understand the contribution of various channels to conversions. It allows effective marketing budget allocation by identifying the channels with the most significant impact on achieving goals. 

Each model can shape a comprehensive marketing data analytics strategy to reveal valuable insights that drive campaign strategies. More importantly, they help cultivate strategic growth across a fiercely competitive digital marketplace. 

Benefits of marketing data analysis 

Marketing data analytics provide many benefits for businesses looking to optimise their online strategies and drive growth. 

Here are the key advantages: 

Data-driven insights help make informed decisions. 

Engaging with invaluable marketing data allows businesses to make data-driven decisions by providing insights into consumer behaviour, preferences, and trends. Marketing data analytics helps to determine what customers want - effectively minimising customer churn and removing guesswork. 

It helps to optimise campaign performance. 

Identifying high-performing marketing channels and campaigns is easier with real-time consumer data. It also helps to refine resource allocation and improve return on investment. Data driven digital marketing analytics aid the creation of personalised campaigns and targeted landing pages. Each campaign is based on customer segmentation and behaviour analysis to improve engagement and conversion rates. 

It can help create an improved customer experience. 

Enables businesses to understand customer journeys, pain points, and preferences, leading to the development of strategies that enhance overall customer satisfaction. 

It can help gain an advantage over competitors. 

Your customers’ data is integral to sustainable business growth. It’s essential to simultaneously utilise your customer data whilst gathering data on your competitors. Datadriven insights can be used to stay ahead of competitors and capitalise on emerging trends and opportunities. 

It helps with customer retention strategies. 

We’ve previously discussed the importance of collecting first party data from customers for retaining their loyalty. Datadriven insights support the development of customer loyalty programs and targeted retention strategies by understanding user behaviours and preferences over time. 

Actionable insights found in data analysis contribute significantly to realising business goals and achieving sustainable growth. 

How can data help formulate an online market penetration strategy? 

The aim of market penetration strategies is to increase market share, revenue, and customer loyalty within a competitive market. The scope of market penetration can be a measure of popularity, growth, and the level of risk involved.  

It’s important for evaluating the success of products and services and for developing an effective strategy.  

By leveraging data analytics tools, businesses gain deep insights into their target audience's behaviours, preferences, and demographics. It ensures that marketing efforts are tailored to specific consumer segments. 

Data analytics in marketing provide a comprehensive examination of competitor strategies and market trends, enabling businesses to identify unique opportunities and position themselves effectively.   

It helps identify high-performing online channels, guiding budget allocation to maximise impact. Real-time data monitoring allows for quick adaptations to marketing approaches, ensuring agility in response to changing market dynamics. 

Predictive analytics models empower businesses to forecast future trends, enabling proactive adjustments to strategies. Budget allocation becomes more effective as businesses discern the ROI from different channels, refining resources for optimal results. 

Monitor these important metrics 

When devising an online strategy, it’s important to ensure that it is driven by digital. Start by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and sales metrics aligned with your campaign goals.  Here are some key metrics that provide businesses with insight into the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.   

  • Click-through Rates 

  • Conversion Rate 

  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) 

  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) 

  • Churn Rate % (Lost Customers ÷ Total Customers at the Start of Time Period) x 100) 

  • Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) 

KPIs should reflect specific objectives such as increasing order values, raising brand awareness, or calculating customer lifetime value to help with retention strategies or devising customer loyalty programs. Tracking them can provide actionable insights to reliably inform marketing strategies. 

Why are data driven insights important for website improvements alone? 

Data driven insights are increasingly essential for improving the user experience and conversion rate. They provide a clear understanding of user behaviour, preferences, and interactions. Businesses can see exactly how users navigate through their site, which pages are most popular, and where users drop off. 

Data plays a significant role in conversion rate optimisation; allowing for precise optimisation that aligns with user expectations and improves overall site performance. Data driven insights help mould engaging and user-friendly digital experiences by refining content to optimising user journeys.

By analysing user interactions, businesses can identify conversion bottlenecks, optimise calls-to-action, and improve user journeys through the conversion funnel. 

Insights from heatmaps, user session recordings and feedback analytics effectively highlight areas of friction to help guide optimisation. Digital marketers can begin optimising page elements or streamline checkout processes to maximise conversion efficiency and user experience.  

Marketing analytics demonstrate the effectiveness of a marketing teams' campaigns. It’s a practical tool that illustrates the tangible impact that marketing has on business success.