4 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Big Data
By Jonathan Buckley, Senior VP of Marketing, at Qubole
Big Data has become one of the most reliable tools for businesses to discover more about their audience, focus their marketing plans, and boost their sales. Although it’s a complicated process, once it’s understood and harnessed, the benefits are immediate and long lasting.
However, there are a few oversights that have led companies to missing out on Big Data’s true potential. The typical approach works fine, but with a few adjustments in tactics and a few changes in perspective, businesses can take Big Data to the next level and get the most out of this tool.
1. Enhance Communication
Although a very technical tool, a Big Data database still needs people at the helm to steer it in the right direction, and this requires strong communication. However, with so much information available, it’s impossible for one person to know and interpret all of it into a solid plan. The way to combat this is by exercising a chain function; linking several professionals with their own unique specialties and fields together so they can gather information, collaborate, and then translate it to the next person in line. Once it reaches the end of this chain, you have valuable information you can use immediately.
Big Data, after all, is analyzing a massive host of people and trying to forecast their tastes, opinions, and future desires. It’s a complicated tool, and to wield it — and wield it well — you need several great minds taking the task on in small bites.
2. Keep Up To Date
Interests shift incredibly fast, and the difference between who makes a sale comes down to one thing: who caters to a customer’s spur-of-the-moment interest first. Big Data is ever expanding and ever changing. While taking the entire elephant on at once may seem wise, it’s vital to reach for the most current data, as other portions of the elephant may be important yet irrelevant by the time you try to use it. This is especially true during marketing campaigns, where reaching the correct audience in the correct trends as they adjust and shift determines success or failure.
3. Focus Your Efforts
While clearly the most effective option is putting countless people on the job to discover the best results, even the most successful businesses cannot afford this. When approaching Big Data, it’s important to remember it’s a tool to assist, not a piece to complete. It takes time and money to use, so identify your high points and focus your efforts to prevent overspending and overtaxing workloads. If you are holding a marketing campaign or if there has been a massive shift in the target audience, then this is the time to devote resources into current, creative, and focused data so you can adjust immediately. In the meantime, you can use Big Data less intensely and save resources for the next high point.
4. Know What to Look For
Finding data that is relevant to a business and its marketing strategy is much like trying to find a needle in a field of hay; it’s an incredible task that takes either pure luck or a lot of manpower. Rather than taking years and countless employees to find the data you need, piece by piece, know what you need beforehand and focus your search accordingly. If you know the audience you’re seeking, if you know the exact taste you’re trying to target, only search for this data and let the other information pass you by; it is important, but not currently relevant. Understand what your marketing team needs and what information has been valuable before, so you can produce fast and much more cost effective results.
Big Data relies on focused systems and streamline tactics to accomplish goals, but there is more art to the science than expected. By applying a human perspective to how Big Data is approached, making sacrifices, becoming creative in approaches, and working a little harder, businesses can take this valuable marketing and analytics tool to the next level. This allows them to not only thrive ahead of their competition, but offer a more focused service to their target audience.