Data is a powerful marketing tool for any business. From predicting consumer behavior to optimizing campaigns, it’s become an indispensable asset that could separate the winners from the losers. This is why big brands invest big in market research, while the smaller enterprises fall behind with their limited budgets. But digital marketing has transformed data-driven decision making for businesses of all scales. And its impact is felt even more by small businesses whose growth was once held back by the inability to access insightful and actionable data.
So, how can data-driven digital marketing help grow your small business? Let’s take a look.
1. Leveling the data playing field
In the old days, access to data was a privilege enjoyed by a few. You needed heavy budgets to conduct market research and gain in-depth customer insights. And this provided an unfair advantage to larger players.
But digital marketing tools have created a level playing field. They have brought in greater transparency with universal access for anyone with interest, often for free or at a minimal cost.
From Google Analytics to Search Console, you can now get hold of a whole lot of insightful data, not just about your business and customers but also of your competitors. So, needless to say, with increased accessibility to data, you get a fair chance to compete and grow your business.
2. Building agility and speed with real-time data
Most traditional marketing mediums take time to generate important reports and analyses. So, decision making takes longer, making course corrections gets delayed, and you could often end up with many missed opportunities.
On the contrary, digital marketing channels can deliver data in real time. For example, you can instantly find out the reach, impressions, click-through rates, and conversions of your social media campaigns. You get to listen in on the brand conversations and feel the pulse of your customers. Built-in features could trigger instant brand engagement with likes, comments, tags, and sharing. All these will help you access a massive amount of insightful data in real time. This allows faster decision making so you can react and respond with greater agility and speed.
3. Increased decision accuracy with data deep dive
The data you get from traditional marketing mediums are often estimates or sample-based extrapolations. For example, you’ll estimate the readership of a magazine based on its circulation or determine the effectiveness of a billboard based on average traffic data. But these can often be misleading and will not provide enough information to make accurate decisions. You could also face limitations such as geographical constraints or resource-restrictions, preventing you from gathering objective, accurate, and complete information.
But digital marketing tools can provide in-depth and actionable data to improve decision making. For example, by setting up a website, you can get hold of an incredible amount of information—from the exact number of visitors and their geographic locations to the type of device they used, the exact pages they visited, and the amount of time they spent on each page. And when you have in-depth and accurate insights about your marketing activities, you get to make much more accurate and effective decisions.
4. Shifting control of data from gatekeepers to brands.
The gatekeepers of data, such as advertising media and expert research teams, had a disproportionate level of power in the old days. This model posed many challenges, especially for small business owners. The cost of data was high, yet its reliability was often low, with plenty of room for subjectivity and manipulation.
But digital marketing tools have made it possible for businesses to track their own data. For example, you can monitor the performance of your social media ad campaigns or SEO strategies. You also get to own various data assets like your website and social media profiles. And this provides businesses better control over their data so they can have reliable information to make timely decisions.
For small businesses struggling with limited budgets, data-driven digital marketing tools will serve as a powerful weapon for insightful decision making. They can eliminate many of the common challenges associated with traditional data sources and provide real-time, actionable data that’s highly accurate and in-depth. In today’s data economy, this will prove invaluable to compete effectively and grow your small business in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
2 Comments
Comments are closed.