Size Doesn’t Matter for B2B ‘Big Data’

In today’s digital marketing arena, one of the latest buzzwords is ‘big data’. This is the data that is captured by latest digital marketing technologies that allow marketers to better understand the way their marketing message is received, and how customers and potential customers interact with their business.

The problem with the term ‘big data’ is that it is all too easy to fall into the trap of believing that the data needs to be ‘big’. If your business is in a highly niche B2B-focused industry – and this can be anything from legal services to industrial technologies – the likelihood is you won’t have the volume of customer data that the big B2C businesses such as Facebook, Amazon and Google have available to them.

The fact is that what really matters is how you understand your customers, and tailor your message and offer to them. If you have a product or service that is targeted at a highly specific marketplace, then you will likely have a very small database of customers and prospects to analyse.

But it is the way you utilise this data that is important.

Through the use of integrated marketing systems, such as marketing automation and CRM platforms, it is possible to measure customer interactions across a wide range of on- and off-line sales and marketing touch points. You can also combine this data with publicly available databases to give you greater insight into your target audience.

You can then use this data to better understand what motivates your customers and prospects; which means you can better understand what your wider marketplace wants from you. This means you can then develop and improve your offer to meet these requirements, and therefore become more relevant to them.

And with this relevance comes opportunities. Opportunities to generate new leads, develop new relationships and grow sales revenues. By taking an integrated approach working with data taken from your sales, marketing, customer service and operations functions, and asking the right questions of it, you can build a truly valuable picture of your marketplace which will give you real competitive advantage.

via Business 2 Community http://ift.tt/1ngHcZe