Partner Article

With infinite amounts of data available, how do you connect with consumers in a meaningful way?

Glen Calvert is CEO of Affectv, an international leader in audience technology, who are committed to making advertising more relevant. In his first guest column for Business Daily, Glen explains how to successfully use data and leverage it to connect with consumers in a meaningful way.

Data drives the modern world. Business have always tracked transactions, successes or results, and more and more so are able to measure activity. From views on your website, to calls through to your switchboard. Even the smallest business is acutely aware of how many sales it’s made, and potential customers it’s talking to.

Until recent years utilising that data was only in the realms of big business with the infrastructure, budgets and dedicated data scientists to log, manage and mine the information.

Whilst having the processes in place to collect it are critical, how can you make it work for your business, and how do you approach it?

Data is simply information that provides insights that can be used analysis and action. The data businesses accumulate can be a Pandora’s Box for understanding customer behaviour. And understanding the behaviours of your existing customers, is key to winning more.

For a start up the opportunity can be even easier. Big data is great if you have the ability to crunch it, but even the smallest amount of data can provide insight. Incorporating data analytics from the beginning gives you understanding of your customers from the offset. It means you know who your customers are early, and see what tactics they respond to.

The more knowledge you have on your customers and your business, the more you can tailor your engagement with them. And, moreover, you will be able to spot behaviours, or signals, which you can use to identify potential customers.

Businesses should first understand the KPI’s that are important for their business. Is it getting more sign ups, retaining customers for longer, increasing their average basket value? Once you know the KPIs that are important for your business, what are the levers that affect them? These levers are what you need to track. By measuring the outcomes and actions that relate to these levers will enable you to fine tune performance and your KPIs will improve over time.

The measurement tools used to measure your KPIs can vary. It may be a CRM system, it may be simply documenting factors in excel. What’s important is that the rules you set around updating them, and how they’re recorded need to be consistent. You then need to give responsibility to certain individuals, or teams, for the upkeep and distribution of the data.

Once data analysis and tracking is within your company’s culture and DNA, you can then start to automate processes centred on them. At which point you will no doubt reap the benefits.

Any business can use this approach by having data analytics at their heart and the correct approach to interpret it, they can provide a better service on top because of the insights they have gained.

Data is a treasure map, and once you understand the key and how to read the map it will deliver you to where X marks the spot. Fail to learn these steps and it will take you along way from where you want to go and even further from what you wanted to know.

The world we live in is truly #PoweredBySignals, but it’s how you act on them that will make you stand out.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Glen Calvert .