In today’s modern world, businesses need to be tech-savvy to surprise. One of the most practical ways to get up-to-speed with technology is data analysis and digital marketing. These two avenues are the simplest and most effective ways to implement technology into your business. With these tools at your disposal, your business should be able to navigate the industry with modern eyes.
More importantly, the competition has become cutthroat, and capturing the attention of your target market has become more challenging. Businesses have seen the importance of adapting these tools to give them an edge over their competition and stay more relevant in today’s business landscape.
What’s Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is basically any form of advertising done through an electronic device or the internet. Pretty much every business needs to have a digital presence and virtual assistant can help with this. These days, it doesn’t even cost that much to get started, and scaling up is much simpler. Examples of digital marketing include:
- Affiliate Marketing
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Influencer/Ambassador Marketing
- Paid Search Ads
- Email Blasts
- Display Ads
- Social Media Pages
- Web Content (Blogs and Videos)
Back in the day, the traditional method would have been using the TV, putting stuff on flyers and billboards, and even direct snail mail. With the advent of technology, many of these practices have become supplementary. That means it’s supplementary marketing as opposed to being the primary one.
But your strategy can only be successful if you continuously adapt. That’s because the digital world rapidly changes day by day. Having well-defined goals and tactics would help solidify your digital presence
What is Data Analytics?
Data analytics, in the simplest terms, is the analysis of your business data in the pursuit of improving your business. Everything from surveys to website traffic is full of valuable data that can be used to make your business run better.
With sufficient knowledge of your customer database, you can make business decisions based on scientific methods, yielding more favorable results. You can gather well-defined data about your customers using a customer data platform. This tool collects all your customer information in one database, allowing you to analyze the information more easily.
The four main examples of data analytics are:
Descriptive
Descriptive data is the very fabric of reports. These answers all the how manys, whens, whats, and wheres of your business exploits. Things such as performance reports, inventory, and corporate social media profiles are examples of descriptive data.
Having this data will give you a complete overview of what happened in the past to make more informed future decisions. The data–driven decisions you’ll make will lead to improved performance of your organization and increased profitability.
You can create automated Google Analytics Reports to further streamline this process
Prescriptive
Prescriptive is AI-based data gathering that focuses on finding solutions to existing problems by predicting outcomes. Optimization and random tests are examples of prescriptive data analysis. These are incredibly useful when you are thinking of new projects to dip your toes into.
Analyzing data lets you see patterns and trends that can help you predict future outcomes. You can identify which path will lead to a better result using advanced algorithms and machine-learning capabilities.
The healthcare, finance, and supply chain industries utilize this type of data analytics to help them make informed decisions on product development and pricing, among other critical areas that affect their operations.
Diagnostic
Diagnostic data is the analysis of patterns and specific events n the past to guide one’s business. Drill downs, data mining, and correlation are good examples of diagnostic analysis. It’s a perfect addition to all other forms of reporting.
Predictive
Predictive analysis is by far the most common form of data analysis. With the help of data analytics tools, this method is often used to predict trends, find patterns in customer behavior and find out what the cause of all this is. These are incredibly useful for keeping your business on top of the industry.
Benefits of Data Analysis and Digital Marketing
To get a better ROI on your digital marketing and data analysis strategies, you need to understand the benefits of using both first.
Keeps You Competitive
Digital marketing levels the playing field for all businesses. While it’s’ certain that large businesses have an edge on budget, digital marketing isn’t expensive to start. In fact, a lot of it is more around quality content and optimizing your SEO quality. Money is still a factor, but it definitely keeps the ground more even. On the internet, everybody’s got a billboard.
Cost-Efficient Marketing
Digital marketing is incredibly cost-effective. Oftentimes, your expense will likely be your internet bill and your marketing team’s salary. No paying for printouts or gigantic tarpaulins needed. Small businesses in particular will benefits strongly from the word of mouth generated by a successful (and free) social media page.
Increase Brand Awareness
There is no bigger forum on the planet than the internet. If you can get your brand out on the web, it’s there practically for as long as your business remains afloat. Customers will feel safer if they can google your business. Doubly so if you have your own website. Brand awareness is the important first step for any business in gaining success.
Targeted Marketing
Data analysis in digital marketing makes targeting demographics much easier. For starters, everything benign digital means that even the most minute of clicks is recorded, so long as it’s on your site. For example, you can analyze your email campaigns and find out which leads clicked your emails.
From there, you can use data analysis to build a categorized population of these leads. Once they are categorized, you now use digital marketing to cater your products and newsletters to that business’ specific needs. It’s a very handy tool to have for keeping customers happy and heard.
Increase Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is much easier through a digital platform than it ever was physically. While there are more potent effects with one-on-one customer engagement, one employee can only deal with one person at any given time. Digitally, chatbots and automated stores keep your customers engaged.
For example, unlike a real store where people often have to wait for assistance, a virtual store might have a virtual assistant to help them find what they need. They are also far easier to adjust to your customers’ needs. It means that if anybody does call customer service, it is only when all obvious options have been exhausted.
To learn more about the nuances of digital businesses, click here for more career tips and tricks.
