Bigger Data, Better Analytics

The cool theme that connects this week’s articles, almost to the similarity in introduction paragraphs, is ubiquity. Both data and analytics are everywhere, growing bigger and being better used…and that’s a great thing for managing intent data, using predictive analysis and fine-tuning B2B marketing efforts.
In an outlook piece for MarketingLand, James Green talks about some of the Big Data trends for 2015:

1. Big Data will increase in size and strength, forming an insightful Big Data Blob. By combining all the data points, such as “sales, purchase history, search history and site interactions,” marketers will gain consumer insights never before revealed and be able to act on the customer profile, influencing creative decisions, audience strategy and more targeted media plans.
2. First and third party data, aka businesses’ own customer data plus intent data from the web—social, location and search among them, will merge to allow marketers to communicate with customers at various stages of the buying process more effectively.
3. Automation is still on the rise. Insertion orders already replace manual entry, there will be a move toward increased RTB, and systems will “seamlessly… improve accountability, measurability and efficiency.”
4. Crackdown on fraud continues as more search players enter the fray. More organizations are preparing to fight it, and there are more resources too.
5. Personalization will be more personalized. All the data elements will enable advertisers to “transform generic advertising into relevant marketing in real time, regardless of device or location.”

Big Data is a big win for B2B marketers because it allows for a very personalized, 360-degree knowledge of who the customer is and how to best inform and engage him or her. At its backbone is analytics. In the old days, B2B marketers collected tons of useful information on prospects and customers, but lacked the ability to crunch all the data and make it relevant.
In a very direct article for CMSwire, Tom Petrocelli explains why analytics “is” everywhere. It boils down to:

1. “The technology has matured.” Citing the new cloud analytic platforms and other tools that influence marketing decisions by delivering smart, segmented, useful information about prospective customers, analytics “delivers reliable and relevant results.”
2. Modern global business is complex. Analytics help businesses handle: social and digital data, purchase history and point-of-sale transactions, a customer’s journey through the sales funnel and other interactions.
3. Analytics creates intelligence. The previous method was to rely on luck and a few insightful interpreters of data. By processing the raw data, “machine learning, statistical analysis, software infrastructure and computer horsepower can now provide meaningful and actionable insights to help run businesses more efficiently.”

Analytics frees up the data analysts, the insightful experts and marketing gurus to work on strategy to keep up with the demands of global business, while the Big Data is sorted out and analyzed automatically. Both Big Data and Analytics are everywhere, and there symbiotic relationship will continue to improve B2B marketing efforts.
Image via Kevin Krejci