3 January 2024 | Marketing & Communication
Data-driven marketing – big, messy and mega complicated? No, it doesn't have to be very advanced. On the contrary, working with data-driven marketing can be absolutely wonderful and so can the effects of the work! But where do you start? And what does the data-driven process look like?
Data-driven marketing is about being customer-centric. It's also about basing your activities and decisions on data instead of gut feeling. With the help of data, you can identify your customers' behaviors, interests and driving forces – insights that you can then use in your marketing and communication with the customer. Data is, in short, your conclusion.
Data-driven marketing is a strategy you use to personalize and target group your communication. The strategy gives you many advantages:
• Sales effective: With the help of data, you can analyze the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. For example, you can see which campaigns were most successful, which e-mails received the highest click-through rates and which segments bought the most. You then use this data to create more effective marketing and communication that reaches the right target group and generates the desired results.
• Higher spend among customers: When you talk to the customers in the right channel, with the right message and at the right time – knowledge that you get through your data – you can count on your customers to spend more. On the one hand, you get more repeat customers, and on the other hand, they buy more.
• More satisfied customers: By working data-driven, you can create more personalized and relevant marketing that enhances the customer experience. Communication that is on point gives you happier, more loyal customers who keep coming back. In addition, you are perceived as more credible when you talk relevantly with your customers and visitors.
The very first step in a data-driven process is to collect data. What data sources do you use? Is all incoming data necessary?
You probably don't need all the data, but you and your colleagues need to clarify what you want to achieve. You can then choose which data to focus on in order to reach the set goals.
What do you want to measure?
For example, you can measure:
• What it costs to sell a ticket or a room
• How much is spent throughout the guest journey
• How often your customers return
• The length of time between purchase and visit
• How long you can keep a visitor
• What you earn from a customer over a lifetime
• Churn
Examples of data sources:
• Transaction data
• Behavioral data
• Website statistics
• Data from your ticket software
• Data from your booking software
• Social media statistics
• Data from your membership club
• Streaming service data
Remember that you don't have to collect all the data at once, but that it's about starting to start. Start easy!
People leave little bits of data all the time – at lunch, when the alarm goes off in the morning, and when the Google Assistant is asked to tell them the weather for the day.
It's important that you as a company take care of the data that is important for your business. You don't have to look into all data.
The data is collected, so now it's time to analyze it! By also visualizing it, it becomes easier for everyone involved – including yourself – to understand your data and gain valuable customer insights.
As you want your company to be cost-effective and credible, you need to find out who your best guest is. Who buys? What does the customer buy? How often does she or he buy?
In connection with analyzing your data, you also take the opportunity to segment your customers. Skip to step 3!
In step 3 of the data-driven process, you segment and build clusters of your customers. Why? Because you want to know who to talk to, when to talk to the customer, in which channel and with what frequency.
Segments can be created based on interests – jazz, metal or pop – but also demographics, geography, purchasing behavior and order history. Seniors, early birds and football fans are three examples of segments.
Psst! Keep in mind that segments are dynamic. Guests go in and out through the various segments depending on new behaviors, interests and what is communicated to the customers.
Perhaps step 4 is the most fun step in the data-driven process? To carry out marketing activities, based on your data and the segments you have built. You want to get more guests now!
Now that you know who you want to communicate with, you need to know where your customers are. What channels do they use? Email, Instagram, TikTok or another platform? Use multiple channels and dare to send multiple times. Buying a ticket to an event is a bigger step than buying, for example, a shirt at H&M or a coffee at Espresso House. The customer needs to be warmed up.
When communicating with the customer, you should know:
• Content: What do you want to say? What does the recipient want to hear?
• Target group: Who are your recipients?
• Channels: In which channel are you going to say it?
• Frequency: How often and when should you talk to the customer?
• Goals & purpose: What do you want to achieve with your communication efforts? What is your call-to-action?
Identified guests are the key to successful marketing, right? (Yes!)
You want to get as many identified guests and consents as possible. The larger your customer base, the more data you have access to and the more relevant communication you can create. In the fifth and final step, you must therefore plan how you can get the guests' attention. How can you increase the number of consents? Can you promise the customers to only send relevant content if they sign up for your newsletter? How can you convert the customers into your friends?
Here it's important to think creatively! It can be about inviting the guest to a member's club with exclusive offers, creating great newsletters that provide added value or letting the guest bring their best friend for free on their next visit. Just start testing!
And hey, don't forget to evaluate your strategies. Data-driven marketing is not a one-time effort, but an ongoing process.
"It's definitely a strength to have analytics, segments and automations in the same tool. We get a good overview and can work smartly with our entire customer database – all in the same tool."
Christine “Titte” Carlsson
Market Analyst, GöteborgsOperan
MarketHype is your system for marketing experiences, developed by and for people in the same industry as you. We have broad experience from both ticket systems and events as well as marketing. And now we want to help you get everything in order. From handling the data – to a bigger, happier and more engaged audience.
With MarketHype you collect all customer data from your ticket or booking software. The data is retrieved, verified and updated automatically – all the time, in one and the same platform. In addition, there is a direct connection between the customer data, your own segments and several different channels, which makes it very easy to direct your communication. Data-driven marketing has never been this easy!
