As businesses gain more access to consumer data, the companies are finding it easier to target their customers and expand conversions without wasting further resources. Are you aware of how such organizations are using the data they have access to?
The Role of Data in Consumer Targeting
Although there are times when a shotgun-style approach may work, most contemporary firms understand the advantage of targeting highly specific customers in their digital marketing efforts.
As Conor Grant of Fuelx notes, “A huge part of targeting is understanding past consumer behavior, which involves looking at your first party data, looking at past users who converted, looking at users who are most engaged on your site, or looking at brand affinities (who are your key competitors, who are you losing customers to, what consumers are like and what brands they like).”
But how do successful businesses use such data to enhance their targeting efforts? Take a look at three specific applications.
Market Segmentation
Given the right data, you can enhance your market segmentation and gain a much more accurate and comprehensive view of your surroundings. As Internet marketing expert Neil Patel notes, this can help you in multiple respects.
“Segmenting your database can improve your conversion rates as you focus your promotions on a tight, highly-interested market,” Patel explains. “And it can also help you understand who your competitors are in each of those segments, allowing you to customize products and promotions that satisfy the needs of that audience in a way a generic, broad promotion never will.”
Once you understand precisely who your target customers are, as well as who your competition is, you’ll have a much easier time selling. Whether you’re creating highly targeted Facebook ads or developing customer-specific landing pages to drive product sales, everything is easier when you can achieve clear segmentation.
A/B Split Testing
The process of testing a website used to take weeks or months to fully develop. You had to publish a design, wait for people to use it, gather feedback, implement changes, and repeat the process multiple times until you had a final product.
Today things are much easier. A/B testing has made it simple to test multiple variations of a website, gather data, tweak various elements, and come up with a final version, all within a matter of hours or days.
This remarkable speed and coverage is attributable to platforms that can strategically collect and analyze thousands of data points.
Predictive Analytics
Figuring out which leads to pursue and which ones aren’t worth your time can be an involved process. When performed manually, it’s also been a sadly inaccurate process, traditionally.
Enter predictive analytics. With a predictive analytics platform, which generally uses a company’s CRM data and other publicly available online data to generate models, future lead behavior can be predicted with amazing accuracy.
And the longer a predictive analytics platform is used, the smarter it gets. Using the right data, some companies have been able to generate 50 percent more sales-ready leads at one-third of the total cost.
It’s possible that your firm could also improve lead scoring and save money by utilizing predictive analytics in the consumer targeting process. At the very least, it’s worth a try.
Are You Prioritizing Data?
The question is: are you making data collection and analysis a large-enough priority in your business? When it comes to targeting customers and moving them through the conversion process, data plays a vital role in lubricating the funnel and empowering you to reach the right people at the right time, and in the right place.
It’s time to get straight on how you can leverage data for good.
Edited by
Alicia Young
