The Screaming Garlic Way

Marketers love data, but very often they lack the tools, training or mandate to mine that data and tease out meaningful insights that can change a course of a company or product for the good.

It's surprising how many organizations struggle with marketing data tools, this may include folks in their own IT departments, who may not have the time or analysis expertise to be helpful.

We like to help collect the right data, and help your organization use it to improve results along several fronts. Here's how we think about mining data:

Look Inward

There is data all around you. Don't be afraid to collect it, even if the truth isn't as pretty as you'd like it to be. The data is your friend and will help put you on a path of profitability. Where is the data? It could be inside your existing customer base, or locked within your sales teams heads. Maybe your dealer network has hidden data? One thing we do know is that data can only assist after it's been collected and analyzed.

Look Outward

You're probably afraid because the data points might not all have nice things to say. But, guess what? If you talk to your customers, you'll find out for sure. The goal is to talk to all of them. Well, as many as you can access cost effectively. One-on-one interviews, paid surveys, anonymous shopping questionnaires, monitoring the social web. These are all great ways to get data that you can use to immediately improve your business and your processes.

Given the tools, will you finish the job?

Are you using the right data and or campaign management system? Are you using one at all? The best of breed out there will help you do things you never thought possible using the data already gathered from your customers' behaviors and purchasing habits. For example, many of these systems will allow you to set triggers when patterns of purchase habits arise, or those habits are discontinued. Recognizing these patterns early can help you to reduce attrition, increase customer loyalty, even attract new customers.

Did we mention speaking to your customers?

Real data provides insight into every audience segment. Which communications channels do your customers prefer? Do they respond or interact with your Twitter stream? How did that postcard campaign pull? Is customer weariness affecting your email deliverability? You can set success metrics unique to your business, and you can understand which inputs drive success and then do more of that.

Refine, refine, refine

One of the luxuries of data-driven marketing is that it both connects you to your customer and allows you to make informed decisions based on their habits and preferences. Once you've wrestled the data to the ground, every marketing decision you make, be it a strategic or a tactical one, has the power to move the needle because it's based in reality, not whispers, hopes and prayers. When you have control over the inputs because of what the data has shown you, refinement in creative execution, dollars spent and where to apportion them becomes a matter of testing to tweak results, rather than a hope and dream to get results in the first place.

Data-driven marketing in practice is critical to the success of your business.