B2B Data-driven Marketing: What Is It and Why Is It a Challenge?
Data – whether big or small – is the hottest topic in business today.
You know you should be using it, but often you’re just not sure how or really why? For the next few columns, we’ll look into what a business-to-business (B2B) data-driven marketing approach can do for you and your business. Let’s begin with the marketing database, the recorded memory of your relationship with your customers. It tells you not only what they bought, but when and how. It helps you stay in touch with them as you both grow. And it helps you reconnect with customers when they have strayed. Marketing databases should be your view of your marketplace through your customers. It should help you:- Capture information about your customers behavior from all sales, communications channels, partners and even social media
- Model and predict customer behavior
- Perform “what-if” analyses to stimulate marketing ideas and actions
- Profile customers to gain insight into their needs and how your product or service helps
- Address customers in groups or segments to position your products better
- Identify prospects and nurture them until they are ready to buy
- Select customers and prospects for specific promotional offers
- Measure performance of your marketing dollars
- Sustain customer relationships and develop evangelists for your business
- Calculate the value of each of your customers