Data-Driven Decisions in the Digital Marketing Industry

Data-driven decisions are an approach to business where decisions are made based upon verifiable data. These days, decisions based on trend or intuition is not enough if you want to remain competitive. Most organisations realise that data should lie at the heart of decision-making.

Currently, 73% of all UK video ad spend, goes towards smartphones as that is where users spend their time. Due to the high percentage of competition, it is vital to invest money in a successful data-driven media campaign. A study on the impact of data-driven decisions on business performance found that data-driven companies increase productivity by 5% to 6%.

A data-driven digital campaign will provide the following benefits:

• Smart Spending – Understanding the various revenue spends of your business and where to invest money will reduce unnecessary costs.
• Audience Analysis – Big data allows you to draw insights from your audience allowing you to create attractive and relevant products. This aspect has gained popularity at a rapid rate, with 78% of marketers using audience data insights.
• User Experience – You will be provided with a deeper insight into your audience’s behaviour allowing you to create a more engaging and interesting environment, thus resulting in higher conversion rates.
• Business Goals and Trajectory – By infusing relevant data into your business plan you will be able to map out a successful step by step plan with specific achievable goals to keep your business moving in the right direction.

Gathering Data

To Combine data-driven decisions into a digital marketing strategy the initial step is to gather data. To avoid just gathering any type of data it is advisable to collect relevant data from your target market, your competitors and social media, specifically the following:

• Organic traffic
• Referral traffic
• Social media traffic
• Email marketing
• Direct traffic
• Page impact (time spent on page and low bounce rate)

It is vital to also gather CTA (call to action) performance data to identify the following:

• Number of CTA clicks
• Conversion rate
• Where do the leads come from?
• Are the leads increasing or decreasing?

Evaluate your Data

You have all the relevant data, now what do you do with it? Well, the idea of gathering the data is so that you may have an understanding and insight into the industry that will aid your digital marketing. Data analytics can be generally split into two sections: Descriptive and Prescriptive.

The descriptive analysis focuses on historical data seeking to understand the causes and reactions to the solid data you have gathered.

Prescriptive analysis based on figures and trends found from the descriptive data are used to predict what will happen in the future, essentially posing the question “according to our insights, what will happen next?”

Turning Insights into Data-Driven Decisions in the Digital Marketing Industry

A strong marketing strategy will need both descriptive and prescriptive data to make well-discerned data-driven decisions. According to your findings, formulate an action plan for your digital marketing strategy, setting clear expectations around the decision-making process early on.

Following the implementation of the strategy, it is essential to continue in data analysis. This will enable you to have an insight into the response of your digital marketing, thus, allowing you to adapt and respond to the results, tweaking your marketing campaign where necessary to maximise the results.

The Full Process

The full process of creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy with data-driven decisions takes a considerable amount of time with ongoing steps and analysis to ensure a successful campaign. For support, advice and guidance with your digital marketing strategy, contact Web Theoria who have an experienced and skilled team with the necessary resources to plan and implement digital marketing strategies for a very highly successful campaign.