Companies, big and small, are using big data to excel in every aspect of business and create differentiation to beat the competition. Data analytics has the power to drive growth with critical real-time information. It empowers marketers to improvise and enhance their campaigns instantaneously. Because of data analytics, organizations no longer have to wait for days or weeks to find out the results of their marketing campaigns. Data has consequential power on not just marketing but in the overall business strategy that extends to customer experience, sales, UI/UX design, business forecast, and much more. Data-driven strategies can lead to higher retention rates, increased brand loyalty, and longer CLTV. Data analytics helps to improve the entire buyer journey, thereby resulting in better customer experience.
Integration of data analytics reduces errors and takes the guesswork out of the loop. This translates to better productivity and better allocation of time and resources. Today, businesses are using big data to enhance their customer experience to drive sustainable business growth and build stronger relationships with their customer base. The advantage of big data and data analytics is that it helps companies to gain crucial insights into the consumer psyche and understand what makes them tick. Using the customer’s perspective to design products/services, buyer persona, marketing tactics, and buyers journey can deliver better ROI. Therefore, companies must use data analytics to know their target audience better and connect the voids in their marketing, sales, and communication strategies.
Market research reveals that 90% of business managers think that analytics is capable of boosting sales by more than 20%
So how do you use data analytics to improve customer experiences with your brand?
Here’s where you can start:
- Better audience segmentation– Data analytics is very useful in audience segmentation. Analysing your existing customers and their inherent data (likes, dislikes, preferences, and motivations) to create new buyer personas can help your company attract better quality leads and convert these leads into customers. The audience can be segmented into different categories- demographically, psychographically, behavioural, and progress status on the buyer’s journey. Proper audience segmentation will mean that you don’t waste time and resources on the wrong category of prospects. It enhances your overall targeting and marketing strategies. What is commonly witnessed in e-commerce platforms is that CRM and email marketing processes are integrated such that it enables marketers to segment the audience based on their transactional history, repeat purchases, and product searches on the platform.
- Better lead nurturing– An intrinsic understanding of the target audience’s interests, pain points, preferences, and buying behaviour allows you to provide them with relevant content, both promotional and non-promotional, to nurture them through the sales funnel. Delivering relevant content to your customers is a classic marketing move that enhances your chances of converting that lead into a sale. Non-promotional content that resonates with the lead’s interests motivates them to engage with your product or service; also it lets them know that you are thinking of them and catering to their specific needs. Data analytics helps provide insights about the personal preferences of the customer as well as identify customers that align with your buyer persona. Thus, it will help your company to formulate a better lead nurturing program.
- Personalized product recommendations– Personalised product recommendation is the best way to engage your leads and customers, and push them further down the silos. Promotional content should contain personalised content and product recommendations achieve better results. When you are promoting your product or service, use data analytics to compile the most relevant choices to offer to the prospect such that it would pique their interest.
- Augmentation of AI to personalize search results– Augmentation of AI will allow you to provide your customers with more personalised results based on their browsing history. AI automates the data mining process which would ultimately save you a ton of time and resources. Manually crunching huge datasets is a logistical nightmare and leaves room for error. With AI and machine learning, this process becomes quicker, efficient, and error-free.
- Better retargeting campaigns– Retargeting campaigns are intended for customers who are aware of your brand and maybe interested in purchase but don’t actually go through it. Data analytics can enhance your retargeting campaign immensely. Do follow up with customers who abandon their carts. You can use emails, social media ads, or website banner ads as a follow-up; this acts a reminder that nudges the customer to complete a purchase.
- Align sales processes with data– Data can help you streamline the sales processes to achieve overall business goals. A streamlined sales strategy will help you to meet your customers’ expectations quickly and easily. You can nurture the lead with relevant content across multiple channels and enhance their chances of converting to a sale. With the help of data, you can also optimise when and where you target your leads to achieve the desired result.
- Research and development of new products– By enabling social listening, gathering customer feedback, and conducting competitor analysis, you can identify the drawbacks of your products and address those issues. Data, whether it’s first-party or third-party, can help the company to better understand how the customers use their products and identify the areas of improvement. Such information can be used to develop new products or add features to existing products. A customer-centric approach to research and development can drastically improve the chances of your products being a hit with the target audience when launched.
- Better customer service– Data insight can help companies to elevate their customer service. Integration of AI-powered chatbots will ensure that your customers have access to customer service 24X7. 59% of customers in the 25-34 age group report experiencing poor customer service online. This just goes to show that there is much to improve in the customer service department. To deliver a superior experience to your customers, you must use data to find loopholes and address them quickly. Whether it’s an in-store experience or an online experience, customer service should be a top priority for every customer touchpoint. A timely communication that addresses customer questions and concerns will result in improved customer satisfaction and customer experience.
- Better website user experience– Data analytics can show you how customers navigate your website and app. It will help you identify the pages where visitors are spending too little time and where they are bouncing from pages too quickly. Allocating call-to-action buttons at the right place can improve a visitor’s user experience on the site. Use data to simplify the navigation of your website and make it more user-friendly. A UX that is created from the customer’s perspective and designed with artistic and functional elements elevates the customer experience of the visitors. It also increases their chances of coming back to your site or app.
In conclusion,
Data analytics impacts every business decision. Data-driven strategies always provide better ROI. When you know your prospects and customers well, you can design better campaigns to target them. Data analytics can help you optimise your existing strategies with real-time information and plan better for future campaigns.