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What is Data-Driven Marketing?

Data-driven marketing is the practice of leveraging a data set to push a marketing strategy for a product, place, or service. The data used for this kind of advertising can range from market research for identifying a target audience, to sales and customer interaction data.

Advancements in marketing technology over the last few years have created entirely new opportunities to make informed decisions to influence your audience. According to CMO Survey, 37.5 percent of marketing projects in 2017 used analytics before decisions were made, up from 29 percent two years prior.

What data sources can I use in my marketing?

The most powerful channels of data are the ones in your own backyard: Your owned media channels, or channels that your company controls. While your company’s website might be the main channel that comes to mind for this, there are several other sources of data that you have access to right now.

1) Website

Your website is your company’s online storefront. On top of being the hub for most of your digital marketing initiatives, it is also the channel that can give you the most insight into prospect or customer behavior. Website data can tell you how well your advertising campaigns are performing, what your customers are looking for, and where you might be missing the mark.

Bounce Rate: Your bounce rate shows how often people visited your site and left without any meaningful engagement. When bringing visitors to your site, a high bounce rate can indicate that your marketing and advertising are driving traffic to a site or page that does not have the relevant information the user was expecting. Data like this can help you fine-tune your messaging across channels to create a better user experience on your website.
Page Views: Whether your website is structured around different products, services, or locations, page views give you insight into which pages matter to your audience. You can also measure visitors’ time on page to determine which content is most helpful to your audience.
Exit Pages: Your website data also includes exit pages to give you an idea of where your users are leaving your site, which is an especially important metric for businesses looking to convert traffic on their website. Use this data to understand why people are leaving your site, and improve these pages to increase time on site and conversions.

Google Analytics is a great (and free!) tool available for businesses of all sizes to gain website data. Many of these metrics are also available through website builders like SquareSpace and Wix.

2) Email

Email marketing is a great way to reach your customers when promoting your business. According to data from eMarketer, 81 percent of respondents said email marketing helps drives customer acquisition, and 80 percent said it helps improve customer retention. Here are some key data points you should use to measure the impact of your email campaigns:

Open Rate: The open rate measures how many people opened your marketing email. This is a key metric that is indicative of how well your email messaging resonated, and provides takeaways you can use to test and improve your marketing. A low open rate could be indicative of a bad mailing list or content that needs improvement. Use this data to test your next email campaign to better understand what’s working, and what isn’t.
Click-Through Rate: Like paid advertising, a high click-through rate in an email helps you understand what pushes an online user to convert to the next stage of your marketing campaign. Do you have clear calls to action in the email? Are the topics relevant to the the email list you’re messaging? Use your click-through rate as a conversion metric for your email campaigns.
Unsubscribes: An unsubscribe from an email list would suggest disinterest or dissatisfaction. Test content against your marketing lists to identify pain points that would cause a user to unsubscribe.

3) Phone

According to BIA/Kelsey, annual calls to businesses from smartphones are expected to reach 162 billion by 2019, representing a 73 percent increase over 2015’s figures. The phone is a direct line — literally — with your customers. Make sure you’re listening and using this data to make informed decisions.

Call Attribution: If your marketing efforts are driving calls to your business, call attribution can be the marketing hero that proves the effectiveness of a campaign and determines which channels are better at bringing in leads or calls.
Call Recording: Recording calls allows you to better understand your customers’ concerns and questions. Armed with this knowledge, you can provide better content during your sales process to help educate your audience. Recorded calls can also be a powerful tool in sales or agent training — since your phone team is on the frontlines handling customer inquiries and problems, you can use call recordings to identify knowledge gaps and help improve your training process, and boost the overall customer experience.
Call Routing: Whether you have multiple teams or individuals answering your phone calls, routing is a great way to make sure your customers are reaching the appropriate person at your organization. You can also measure how customers are getting routed; for example, if there are more calls for support than sales, or more calls in English versus Spanish, you can identify where you may need to hire more staff. From a marketing perspective, how a customer self-selects where they need to be transferred gives you an idea of what kind of content is driving them to make the phone call.

If you’re ready to step into the world of data-driven marketing and take your business to the next level, one great place to start is advanced call tracking and analytics: Request a demo of CallRail today or begin your 14-day free trial.