What is Insights-driven Marketing?

Creating marketing strategies is heavily reliant on getting the right information to deliver results. Many economists have likened business to war. In any conflict, data about the enemy’s army, the lay of the land, and their soldiers can enable one company to perform better strategies than going into battle blind. In war, the general that has the most information is the one that can craft the best business strategy out of it. In the same way, it’s the business that has a competitive edge which will help propel them to the top. Insights-driven marketing is the secret weapon of that marketer: relying on insights driven by data to create marketing strategies that will work in the current business and competitive environment companies are in. 

For this reason, 63% of marketers have admitted in a Nielsen CMO report that data management platforms are crucial to formulating and executing their marketing strategies. The new trends in the information age have assured that the insight economy continues to flourish. From Facebook to sales team interactions, customer and business data is the new currency; those who are able to tap into them and utilize them effectively in marketing have seen their sales spike and their businesses flourish.

Companies are able to use insights-driven marketing in many ways, but the basic premise of this method is to create a consistent view of the customer that drives decisions in marketing and shapes consumer experiences. This means that collecting, storing and interpreting data gathered from multiple points are the keys to creating a cohesive insights-driven marketing solution for the company. According to Larisa Bedgood,  VP of Marketing at V12, 44% of marketers interviewed in a survey said that they have been increasing their investment in data-driven marketing.

There are a number of benefits for companies that focus on insights-driven marketing. According to MicroStrategy, companies that focus on this gain improvement as seen in:

• Improved efficiency and productivity: 63%
• Faster, more effective decision making: 57%
• Better financial performance: 51%
• Competitive advantage: 48%
• Improved customer experience: 48%
• Improved customer acquisition and retention: 46%
• Identification and creation of new revenue streams: 43%

These statistics can vastly improve the way marketing works and performs. Each slight improvement in each of these areas creates an opportunity for the company to gain the competitive advantage they need to rise above the competition. The first three improvements are internal and help create a positive culture within the department. The latter four points are a result of how the system and the first three improvements come together and come up with insights-driven marketing results.

That said, these improvements affect and are affected by several things including user engagement, content creation, and better audience targeting. With insights-driven marketing, user engagement increases as marketers understand what things their customers respond to and what resonates with them. Those armed with data understand that they can use the information at their fingertips to elicit reactions out of people to get the engagement they need.

Content creation is guided by what data says customers are most likely to be interested in. Data helps marketers understand their customers’ needs and why they need it. This allows marketers to craft content that will resonate with customer needs, especially when they are looking for answers that your company may provide.

And finally better audience targeting is possible because companies are better able to read which audiences respond to which type of content they put out, as well as which type of audiences will show interest in the products and/or services the company provides. This gives marketers a better chance of capturing valid leads as marketers are able to put out the right content toward the right audience when they need them the most.

There are certainly more marketing actions that are improved by insights-driven marketing that go beyond the realm of online marketing efforts. The actionable insights that marketing receives from the data they have also help the alignment issues among marketing, sales, and the rest of the c-suite. It is important, then, that insight from such technologies are shared with the rest of the company so that everyone will be on-board with marketing.

Using insights-driven marketing in marketing campaigns is a huge step up in the way marketing works. By streamlining their work according to the data they receive from their customers, marketers are able to strategize and create campaigns that bring better ROI. As marketing is always known to be the department that spends, marketers must be able to prove that each expenditure they make is worth the investment. Insights-driven marketing is one of the solutions to this.