The impact of Big Data on Direct Marketing

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Big Data is certainly the buzzword in the industry right now, but I was wondering how the average company would be able to leverage the complexity of big data in a meaningful and cost-effective way.

We are all aware that the Internet has facilitated a data explosion. We are creating and consuming more data now than ever before. So what exactly do we mean by big data? In order to be considered big data, it must meet three criteria: Volume, Variety, and Velocity.

The classic example of a company that has used big data is Amazon. In the early stages of Amazon, they used big data, sometimes poorly, especially in personalized recommendations. Now their big data model is quite sophisticated. They still leverage data for personalization and recommendation, but they also use it for discount offers, warehouses, and shipping decisions.

One of Amazon's biggest advantages over other companies is its all contact number list with name agility. The day Michael Jackson passed away, they reconfigured their entire MP3 store within 2 hours. Think of the amount of revenue they were able to achieve in those first few hours while other companies were still figuring out how to react.

Here is a list of the major impacts of Big Data on direct marketing

Better personalisation. Big data and direct marketing work must go hand in hand in the digital world. A strong direct marketing campaign cannot be successful without data analytics to gather insights from your potential customers to drive targeting, personalisation, etc. Gone are the days of batch-and-blast (e-mails or messages); social media and other digital channels need to personalise consumer messages and experiences.

Single customer view. In order to properly target customers and personalize messages, marketers must create customer profiles based on available data. These profiles create a single marketing view that aggregates multiple online and offline data streams. Marketers should try to make these profiles as comprehensive as possible, capturing the maximum amount of data. However, it is also important to remember that data is only good if it is used and processed.

Content Delivery. Big data and a well-established customer profile can provide direct marketers with an in-depth look at the type of content to deliver to each customer through specific, well-researched channels. With so many digital channels available, this can be a crucial step, combining timing, content, and channel in message delivery tactics.

SOLOMIO. Big data also enables direct marketers to deliver messages in real time, opening up new possibilities for Solomo (social, local, mobile) marketing. While in shopping, for example, push notifications could be sent via mobile devices based on location and past data relating to the customer's purchasing profile.

How is your company leveraging the data it cares about? And how can you use it more effectively to increase profits?