Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Marketing Article


10 Ways -Big Data Is Shaping Marketing

With businesses collecting mounds of data today, it is critical that they know what to do with it once they have all that information.

Over the past year, more and more companies have used their big data analytics to support their marketing efforts. With that practice expected to continue in 2014, AgilOne, a cloud-based predictive marketing company, has identified 10 big data marketing predictions for 2014 that will affect mid-market retailers.

Their predictions include: 
  • Eighty percent of retailers will have a central customer data warehouse with the ability to link all data points to unique customer channels. 
  • More companies will integrate offline; call center and loyalty transactions with their online customer data. 
  • Nearly 70 percent of retailers will use predictive analytics for at least one of their sales
  • Marketers will no longer limit themselves to predictions of customers' likelihood-to-buy. Businesses will instead add other data, such as recommendations, customer clusters and likelihood-to-churn predictions. 
  • Predictive modeling will move beyond email and direct mail to include social media and offline transactions. 
  • Nearly 70 percent of retailers will do customer segmentation. 
  • Marketers will move beyond new-customer welcome campaigns and (finally) launch abandoned cart campaigns, customer win-back campaigns and VIP customer appreciation programs. 
  • More than two-thirds of retail marketers will decide how to invest their marketing dollars based on which channels attract the most customers with the highest lifetime value. 
  • Almost half of marketers will try Facebook look-alike campaigns to acquire more valuable customers. 
  • Half of retailers will outsource the creation of analytics models, but most will have marketers on staff that can use those models. 

Dominique Levin, Vice-President of Marketing at AgilOne, said it's no surprise that big data marketing will continue to grow in 2014. 

"Mid-market retailers know that being able to predict a buyer's next move is what can set them apart from their biggest competitors," Levin said. "The better they can communicate with their customer base, the more likely they are to retain high-value customers and grow their overall bottom line."