You can not work in the marketing industry these days without talking about data all the time. Data-driven marketing. Big Data. Marketing analysis. Facebook is worth more than $ 650 billion, and that's not because photos of cats and grilled cheese sandwich selfies are so precious. This is because Facebook is just a big bag of user data.

But I have to admit that you might be in the same boat using data does not come naturally to me. I work in marketing because I am a creator, not a statistician.

If you have the same, here's an analogy that changed your mind. I interviewed Peter Father and Sarah Toms of Wharton. We discussed how Electronic Arts used data to improve the product. “When they realized the power of data that Pete was just talking about, they had a little identity crisis. They are like, “But we are a creative company. How can we all be given all the time now? Said Toms.

Zach Anderson, research director at Electronic Arts, captured these creative hearts and minds with this analogy: Cooking competitions show where chefs do incredibly creative things with ingredients given to them.

So data is really just another ingredient you have when you bring your creativity to a classic matzoh scoop soup or marketing campaign.

“Data is actually a good thing that they need to embrace because it allows them to be even more creative,” Toms said.

So with this approach in mind, let's look at some examples of using data as a strength for good while improving marketing performance.

Example # 1: A focused view of data helps nonprofits that sell through e-commerce identify the best way to increase revenue

Data can quickly become overwhelming. So many numbers. How do you find the opportunity?

TenbyThree © is a non-profit organization that sells products. The charity sells baskets created by rural artisans in developing countries to help artisans lift themselves out of extreme poverty.
And there was a lot to do with his team pulling in so many directions. Where to concentrate? This target is particularly important with the increase in COVID-19.

TenbyThree primarily sold these baskets in physical stores such as Whole Foods Market, Disney theme parks and specialty retailers. But with the pandemic, there has been a massive drop in foot traffic and therefore sales, so nonprofit has been trying to increase e-commerce through its website.
The team at MECLABS Institute (MarketingSherpa's parent organization) worked with TenbyThree to decide where to concentrate their conversion optimization results.

This data analysis revealed a hidden possibility in the product brands on sight. Each basket sold in the stores had a tag with information on how to connect to the individual craftsman who created the basket by going to the TenbyThree website.

Very few customers used this feature. If tags could be optimized to get more people to use the site's craft search feature, this increase in traffic would probably also help increase web page sales.

In The Marketer as Philosopher Episode 2, The Data Pattern Analysis: 3 Ways to Turn Insights Into Insights, you can see the methodological approach used to uncover this insight to help you identify more possibilities in your own data. The episode also teaches viewers how to use a data model analysis tool (you can download the tool for free here).

For more help with data, attend a live coaching session with Flint McGlaughlin, CEO and CEO, MECLABS Institute, Thursday, August 20, 2020, starting at 7 p.m. at 14 EDT. In this question-and-answer session, participants learn how to set up and use the data model analysis tool, simplify their data with three call keys, and apply the principles of The Marketer as Philosopher: Episode 2 to their own business.

Example 2: Targeted database helps Tentmaker rotate

It would be an understatement to say that COVID-19 has forced companies to make significant changes. We all live, we all know the impact.

But some changes are harder than others. When this shift focuses on a new ideal customer, it can be difficult to turn around quickly. Many companies have built their customer base and customer contacts over many years.

This is where external data can come in handy.

For example, TentCraft sells tents to concert event producers. But the event industry closed worldwide in March. While the team always knew they were too narrowly focused on one industry and needed to diversify the business, they never had time to trade.

But as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of the invention.

Suddenly, they had to turn their entire go-to-market approach and quickly find a new target customer. The team came up with the idea of ​​turning the concert tents into drive-through COVID-19 test facilities, but they never sold to hospitals and knew no hospital administrators.
The team was looking for a way to quickly enter a new market without increasing costs. They worked with ZoomInfo to gather data and information for hospitals and other healthcare systems.
They used the company and the contact search to quickly perform a layered approach. The marketing team would start with a broader outreach approach by creating an outreach list of 2,000 to 3,000 contacts. Based on open prices, responses and conversations, they learned not only what specific roles to target, but also what their weaknesses were.

The sales team would use this information to create a more targeted outreach list of 100 to 200 contacts and then tailor messaging and visuals to demonstrate how TentCraft could solve specific problems.

The click-through rate for opening larger emails ranged from 15% to 28%, while more targeted lists typically ranged from 35% to 45% with a handful of 60%. Remember when you see these numbers that it was just cold.

Because they had phone numbers, job titles, and location data, the marketing team was able to provide this information to the sales team in real time when emails were opened and when they were clicked on. connections. This has helped teams prioritize, get into the conversation faster, and shorten the sales cycle.

Over $ 600,000 in revenue disappeared in March alone, but in the first two months of that speed, the company recorded over $ 2 million in revenue, and April was the biggest revenue month in history. of the company (during a pandemic with closure of basic income). They are now 12% ahead of last year's pace. In the first month of Pivot, they signed a contract with over 100 healthcare facilities, which, let us remember, is an industry that the tent manufacturer had no previous experience with.

This turn was reactive. And while it has worked so far, the mindset of the company has now changed.

“A big advantage for our team is that we always have to focus on new markets, new products, functions and partners. That means bringing speed and agility to the execution, ”said Matt Bulloch, president of TentCraft.
Example # 3: Test data shows the benefits of value sequencing for HR software

There are many compelling elements in your company's value proposition. But your client may not be ready to receive them all at the same time. That is why effective value sequencing is so important.

At what point in the customer journey should the customer be introduced to the various elements of the value of your business? Data can show you the way.

David Richter wanted to use marketing data to find out how he positioned his company’s brand and the messages used at each step of the marketing funnel.

Richter works for CIPHR, a software platform that serves HR departments. “It is a crowded market, and every year we compete with over fifty different suppliers. In terms of functionality, it is extremely rare for a supplier to have a significant advantage over the entire market. If game-changing features are developed, they are quickly replicated by other similar vendors, ”said Richter, Chief Marketing Officer, CIPHR.

The only thing that sets CIPHR apart, according to Richter, is its position on integrating its human resources management platform with specialized third-party tools. Because larger competitors have strategically acquired complementary companies, there is less incentive for them to integrate third-party tools that they do not own, Richter says.

Richter, however, had concerns about leading with this "connection" in the field of marketing communications.

"Connection is the USP (Unique Selling Proposition), which CIPHR has hung our hat on in our market, and the position we want to build a strong brand on," he said. "The problem is that most HR professionals at the time of the first engagement do not think about what it might fit in when looking for an HR system."
Inclusion of terms such as "API" or "integration" in the subject lines has reduced the email opening speed of the HR SaaS platform by half. Approximately two-thirds of all leads are generated through the CIPHR website. It is therefore important to optimize messages for conversion.

To demonstrate to management that CIPHR needs to adjust the focus of its messages at each step of the sales cycle, the Richter team decided to try different messages on different landing pages on the website. Landing pages were used only for PPC traffic from the exact same keywords with the same ads that were shown to generate clicks.
Landing page title # 1 - Generic HR software with benefit announcement, such as "HR software that reduces paperwork and helps you work more efficiently", converts traffic into demand of 14.1%.
Landing page title # 2 - HR software with connection message, eg "HR software with brilliant connection" converts traffic to survey by 10.2%.
Landing page title # 3 - Link post without mentioning HR software, e.g. "Connect Your Employee Data Across Your Organization" converts traffic to survey at 6.4%.
Armed with this data, CIPHR executives are now happy to lead with relevant, product- and benefit-focused announcements on the website (pre-engagement) that place connection as differentiator. "We now also have a strong leadership awareness campaign to educate the prospects for the benefits of connectivity," Richter said.
Example 4: Online Meditation School A / B test on blog doubles student enrollment rate

If you participate in A / B testing, you can learn from genuine customer behavior to better serve your customers while improving results. Here is an example.

"In setting up our platform, we've had tremendous success using a data-driven approach to most of our marketing decisions," said Kyle Greenfield, founder of TheJoyWithin.org. "An example is how we used Google Optimize testing combined with heat map and Hotjar feed data to improve the layout of our blog."

The online school for meditation, happiness and personal empowerment found that less than 1% of blog readers signed up for a free meditation course. The bounce rate was between 79% and 81%, although most readers spent three to five minutes on the site.

The team tested two elements of the blog layout: the sidebar and an internal online ad placement.

The team tested a new approach to be more direct about the different opportunities new students have on the platform. They walked away from a banner ad titled "Discover a clear, modern path to happiness" combined with a list of potential benefits. The new approach was a direct question to the user with the question "How can we help?" combined with a sentence explanation of what was offered and three possible paths: "learn to meditate", "increase my happiness" and "manifest my dream life".

They tested different variations of this idea and eventually found that making the message clearer and more direct with less graphics and design elements resulted in better conversion.

This change was combined with the integrated ad placement test. It started as a front-line effort before the post. But the team found that users were more engaged when the ad was placed a few paragraphs into the blog post. Previous data informed about this decision as the team knew that users were already reading the content and scrolling down the page.

With this change, the team was able to more than double the student enrollment rate and reduce the bounce rate from 12.5% ​​to 70%.
Example 5: The incubator generates 300 leads that help fight hunger

For marketers who want to do good in the world, they sometimes forget a basic piece of data, your site needs to have a landing page with the ability to retrieve data from those who want to help the cause.

For example, Not Impossible Labs (NIL) describes itself as a unique technological incubator and content study dedicated to changing the world and making the impossible possible for individuals facing a range of problems (which it calls "nonsense").

Recently, NIL has tackled the absurd hunger that is all the more urgent by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, NIL began working with Salesforce and Postmates on a prototype platform to feed large-scale insecure people. The incubator has set up a text-based service that connects people in need of food with prepaid, nutritious take-out meals from nearby restaurants. A child or family in need of food can send a text message to the "hungry", and the solution connects them to nearby restaurants with additional food that would probably be wasted.

In March 2020, when the pandemic hit the United States, the NIL launched programs across the country to serve some of the 42 million people, including 15.9 million children suffering from hunger. annual.

How did they make it possible, or should I say, not impossible to fight hunger? A marketing site.

Verndale and Sitecore offered pro bono help to create a landing page on the site to obtain visitor information in a form associated with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform for storing data.

“We have kept everything simple, from messaging design and experience to providing more friction-free opportunities to get involved. More conversion points created more opportunities to get involved, ”said Ross Lucivero, general manager of the Verndale office in Los Angeles.

NIL was able to collect data about approximately 300 potential customers who were ready to donate, collaborate, spread the word, designate a new city, or become involved in their communities.
"The new ability to capture individual leads and increase our ability to engage audiences again is a game changer," said Joseph Babarsky, Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Not Impossible Labs.

This resume relies on being able to have data about who previously visited the landing page and then presenting them with another marketing message, a call to action on the Not Impossible website for those who have visited. Hunger campaign page, but not converted via form submission or donation. "This personalized invitation reactivates informed visitors and brings them back to the campaign environment for action," said Liz Spranzani, senior vice president of technology, Verndale.

“If you have an open mind, what seems impossible may become possible. You can see this again and again through the work that Not Impossible Labs is doing to help people with various disabilities and of course with their anti-hunger project, ”said Paige O'Neill, CMO, Sitecore.
Example 6: the internal work at a customer review site

Most of the discussions I have seen about the use of data in marketing focus on categorizing how data is collected. First-party data is collected by the company itself, and third-party data is sold to you by a company that collects data from many other companies.

In addition to how the data is collected, you also need to consider how customers perceive the data. I would classify this data in two ways: the data you control and the data you do not control.

The data you monitor may be in your ad or on your website, such as "Nine out of ten dentists recommend Brusha Brusha toothbrushes."

Data that you do not control can be shared in the press or on social networks and especially on review pages. An example is a site called Best Company.

“The best mission of the best company is to leverage data to improve the decision-making process for consumers across multiple industries. As a company, we believe that we are changing the world for the better by giving consumers the opportunity to make the best possible decisions with their money. We are a truly independent and impartial review site, we promise accurate rankings and honest reviews and refuse to reward undeserved ranks for money, ”said Rebecca Graham, Content Manager, Best Company.

This means for your business that customer experience with products and services is also part of your marketing. The more you master and optimize the experience, the more you can optimize this type of data for your brand. "When reviews are available to everyone, companies that do business with high value and integrity will naturally emerge as reputable leaders, while less credible companies will lose their rank," Graham said.

You can also learn from these sites. They provide valuable customer insight into how your brand is viewed by genuine customers as well as social proof and third-party credibility opportunities that you can leverage in your marketing. "Eg. On the Lendio Commercial Lenders page, potential customers can see the distribution of star ratings across more than 400 verified customer reviews, including assessments of emotional criteria such as value for money and customer service. Lendio, which currently has an average rating of 4.7 / 5 stars based on customer reviews, can leverage the above data by sharing on social media and through content marketing and e-marketing. mail, ”said Graham.

So leverage your business value proposition, see how you express it in your marketing, and then see where customers agree and disagree. Where can you learn from customers to express the valuable elements of your marketing that customers experience but you do not communicate well? For example, Cotton Mask Co. found that the face masks were particularly useful for hearing aid wearers by monitoring customer reviews and turning the marketing accordingly.

But also, carefully examine the reviews and determine your brand is missing. Is it because customers assume that your business has an element of value that is not part of your stated value proposition? If so, edit your marketing to clarify. Or is it just that your business is not living up to its value? In this case, you have the data to show why the marketing department needs to be involved in the customer's product and service experience to improve it.

Because consumer review platforms deliver data to customers when considering a purchasing decision, it is important for brands to understand how they work. So I asked Graham for an overview of the Best Company. There are some that she could not share (like how their algorithm works), but hopefully the mini-interview below will help you better understand how this data about your business ends up online and a little more about the companies that place them there. .

MarketingSherpa: How Do You Make Money? What is your business model?

Rebecca Graham: Our two sources of income come from:

1) Lead generation for affiliates partnerships

2) Business Suite subscriptions.
Like many sites, we can be rewarded through affiliated relationships with companies in BestCompany.com. But we have no relationship with any companies that guarantee or influence their ranking or score, and we will never do that.

A basic profile is free for any qualifying company in the United States. Purchasing our B2B Business Suite reputation management product may not increase your brand ranking, but it can provide traffic-based insight into your profile page and improve it to improve visually and performance. thoroughness, such as displaying product images and videos. , add a FAQ section and highlight how you stand out from your competition.
MS: How do you get reviews? How do you control them?

RG: Best Company receives thousands of reviews every week. Each submitted review goes through a very thorough moderation process to ensure that it is accurate before it is published on BestCompany.com.

Reviews are generated in four ways:

1) Organic and direct traffic, ie. users who visit our site

2) BestReviews, our process for generating reviews, where we collect customer reviews on behalf of the company. We offer fully managed email and phone calls to companies with customer contact lists as well as a custom form that companies can use to educate themselves.

3) Reviews from charity and fundraising groups

4) Statements from our members

ALL reviews, whether organic or corporate, go through our moderation review process, which includes email address verification and analysis through our scam limit algorithm (including we do not disclose details to prevent companies from trying to "play" the system) .

In addition, Best Company reserves the right to reject or remove reviews that violate our standards, which include content that is irrelevant to the company or the service of the company being reviewed, appears to be encouraged, or contains content. false information.

We also encourage consumers to resubmit reviews with their recent experience with a business.

MS: How do you make sure your data is not manipulated by companies to improve themselves?

RG: Here are some of the protocols we have in place to ensure the accuracy of data reporting on our site:
Companies do not receive a numbered placement until they have at least 10 reviews on their profile.
Badge accreditations are only available to companies that deserve them (e.g. Top-ranked company or Top 10 position)
A company cannot hide or remove negative reviews from their BestCompany.com profile
Best Company believes that the moderate reviews posted on its site are valid unless proven otherwise by the company with actual evidence of false information, moderation errors or duplication. You can find more information about disputes here.
Example 7: Independent financial advisor cites sources to increase credibility

This following example is a little different than using data for marketing, but I thought it was worth showing you when I noticed that the marketing industry has an endemic problem with credit sources.

There are so many bold marketing requirements that scream and brag. But why should anyone believe these claims?

Alec Tuckman shared with me the story of a seminar he hosted on the stock market performance. He was often challenged by a participant.

"I did not want to make him look bad in front of his wife, I did not face confrontation or anger, I just pulled out a thick notebook filled with clippings from the Wall Street Journal that I prepared these five. Last year," he said. Tuckman, owner / operator, Wealth Management Partners in Los Angeles.

Each of these articles supported Tuckman's statements in the market. Although he did not get the company from this particular participant, Tuckman felt that it gave him instant credibility. "Data is the best marketing tool," he said. "Being able to cite a credible and well-known source gives you credibility."

But do not just cite data, otherwise you risk damaging your brand's credibility. “Make sure the data comes from a reliable source. I would not recommend quoting anything you read from a friend on Facebook IM when trying to prove that you are an expert on a particular topic like the stock market. "Make sure you get material from credible sources like Kiplinger, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Bloomberg," Tuckman advised.

Read more: https://abm.report/resources/articles/data-driven-marketing-7-examples-of-using-data-as-a-force-for-the-good/8426?utm_source=Media%207&utm_medium=Neethu