We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: if you’re going to get the most out of your CRM and deliver outstanding campaigns, it all begins with data.
Data-driven marketing has a wealth of benefits. For starters, it allows you to get to grips with what your potential customers truly want, need, and value. Then, it enables you to use that information to engage with your audience and convert them to customers.
Plus, data-driven marketing will also give you the intel you need to understand which campaigns were successful and why, so you can make informed decisions on the marketing strategies you choose to mobilise in the future.
It’s no wonder, then, that businesses who use data-driven strategies drive five to eight times as much ROI as businesses that don’t! Yet, despite this, 87% of marketers say data is their company’s most under-utilised asset, whilst over one-third of Chief Marketing Officers don’t trust their data.
So, if you need your data to clean up its act so you can deliver clever campaigns that your customers will love, read on to discover five ways a CRM consultancy can help…
5 ways a CRM consultancy will help you clean up your data
1. They’ll help you to audit your data
If you’re going to build a solid data-driven marketing strategy, you need to use your data to inform your decisions. Whether you’re using data analysis to review the success of previous campaigns or are turning to data science to plan for the future, it all begins with data.
However, to get the most out of your data and create marketing campaigns that deliver real results, you need to make sure you can trust your data by conducting a thorough data audit so you can understand the state of your insights.
From then on, your CRM consultancy will help you keep your data in tip-top shape by regularly cleansing it. By updating client information and deleting any old contacts, you can make sure your data is as relevant and accurate as possible – giving you the foundation you need to create effective campaigns.
2. They’ll make sure you’re using good quality data
It’s not just about auditing your data, though. If you are going to be able to truly trust your data and use it to inform your marketing decisions, you need to make sure you are collecting good data. Basically, when it comes to customer data, it’s about quality over quantity.
To access the best clean data, you need to get it first hand and directly from your customers. With the shift from third party to first party data, changes to cookies, and the types of data accessible for marketing purposes, data privacy and clean data are more important than ever before, making it an essential part of your data strategy.
3. They’ll help you to manage and store your data
Once you have audited your data, you need to think about managing and storing it if you are going to unlock the full potential and build data-driven campaigns based on the strongest possible foundations – especially as the volume of data you are handling increases over time.
Plus, data privacy and protection practices are essential if you’re going to build trust with your customers and strengthen your customer relationships.
Essentially, by making sure that your customer data is well managed, well organised, and ethically and efficiently validated, you will earn the trust of your customers, giving you access to first party data and ensuring that you have the most accurate information to inform your decision.
4. They’ll make sure your data is secure
As your business continues to grow, the volume of data you’ll be dealing with will continue to grow – and whilst this is great for customer segmentation and delivering targeted campaigns, it could become unmanageable and result in mistakes being made.
There’s a lot at stake: data breaches are expensive and can have a negative impact on your customers’ trust in your brand. So, if you are going to ensure your data is as clean, reliable, and trustworthy as possible, you need to make sure that it is secure, compliant, and stored accordingly to GDPR rules.
5. They’ll use data science to create a data-driven strategy
When it comes to data-driven marketing campaigns, there are four main categories of data science techniques that our team of Editors swear by:
Profiling and segmentation
This is the process of defining the ideal customer based on a set of unique characteristics.
Segmentation entails splitting an existing customer database into more specific subgroups, and each of these smaller groups shares unique characteristics based on information drawn from existing data.
By combining the two practices, businesses can deliver more personalised campaigns that appeal more to the needs of specific groups.
Attribution modelling
This provides a framework for analysing which channels or individual touchpoints lead to a sale or conversion.
In today’s omnichannel environment, it is rarely sufficient to credit the “last touch” a customer has had with a brand before purchase as it is likely the customer has had several prior interactions, all of which were exerted influence.
By employing attribution modelling, marketers can measure the impact of each interaction to assess their impact on the bottom line.
Predictive models
This is a technique which is employed to identify customers or prospects who are highly likely to purchase a given product given their demographic characteristics or past purchase behaviours.
Marketers can then determine where to focus ad spends and resources based on the value the customer engaging with them presents.
Market sizing and sensing
Finally, market sizing and sensing is the process of estimating the capability of a market to buy a product or service in terms of the total revenue it could generate.
This helps marketers decide whether they should invest campaign resources to target it and, if so, at what level.
By creating a data-driven strategy, a CRM consultancy can help ensure that you get the most out of your data both now and in the future. The result? Targeted campaigns, improved customer retention, and a higher return on investment.
Want to use your data to understand customer behaviour?
Here at Edit, we consider ourselves to be data wizards. When you enlist the help of our expert team of Editors to help with your data-driven marketing strategy, we will strip everything back and use real data to ensure we create powerful, bespoke CRM strategies that work hard for you.
This data-driven, audience-first approach means that you reach your customers in the right way, at the right time so you can benefit from better sales, award-winning campaigns, and unforgettable customer experiences.
Sound good? To find out more about our intelligent data and transformational CRM services, be sure to get in touch today.
