In modern-day marketing, the relevance of data is paramount. Without the right data set on prospective consumers, any marketing campaign is doomed to fail before it even begins. But merely voluminous data cannot address your needs and requirements. The need of the hour is qualitative data. Data that can be segregated into meaningful groups that aid the progress of any marketing campaign becomes a secret weapon that no organization can do without in this competitive world.
Having a qualitative marketing database has a series of business benefits that brands can’t afford to sideline, let’s briefly discuss what the major ones are:
1) Focused Analysis: Consumer data gathered with scientific techniques such as the usage of relevant surveys and questionnaires can provide the organization with definitive indicators of why a consumer chose or intends to choose a particular product or service, combining this with other meaningful insights from your customer database can give you the edge in ensuring that you target the right customer personas with a specific product or service.
2) Understanding your Audience: Merely knowing if a particular product was purchased by a consumer does not give the organization enough information, in fact knowing why a consumer chose a particular service or why a product was rejected gives more insights into consumer psychology, purchase triggers and the dynamics that control it.
3) Source of Truth: Qualitative data is information that is directly received from the ultimate source: The customer. This ensures you are receiving the right information and a sense of objectivity which is vital in building the right profile for your target audience. Your customer database will remain ineffective if all it contains is transactional data and no other segments which can assist a marketing campaign. Maintaining data accuracy from time to time yes is extremely crucial and cannot be ignored, however updating it with relevant insights and segmenting your database based on the core customer personas can guarantee your edge as a B2B marketer.
4) Finding the Right Profiles: No, this does not refer to a dating app!! What this implies is finding the right customer profile for your product. Using qualitative data to ensure that your campaign reaches the audience it is meant for can make those conversion rates skyrocket! A marketing database that contains qualitative data allows you to target specific slices of the market and elevate your campaign to reflect the true market response.
5) Reaction Time: Having the right dataset in your customer database reduces the time taken to react to market changes or changes to your own product line. A service offering that has been identified to serve a certain set of audiences can be redirected toward another segment through the right use of qualitative data. Having the flexibility to adapt to these micro-changes in your organization and the market can be a key differentiator between the rest of the industry and your organization as a trustworthy customer database provider.
Essentials for every B2B database marketer across industries
In the ever-expanding B2B marketing world, the consumer trends are constantly evolving. Gone are the days of direct outbound marketing, where sales-focused outreach was the core focus and purpose to reach out to prospective buyers. The objective was to be persuasive and compelling to a fault where the consumer reacted and engaged based on the service being provided. However, the behavior of consumers has changed remarkably over the years, it is more likely that a buyer will run a Google search to find and evaluate a service provider basis the consumer value being offered rather than the core service itself. So how would you as a B2B database marketer add value to your customers while ensuring an edge over your competitors?
In order to stay relevant, you need to broaden your approach and utilize a variety of strategies in the current hyper-competitive environment. While the following techniques may seem too basic at the moment, a thumb rule is to stay focused on these integral foundations of database marketing, in order to stay relevant and competitive in your niche as a B2B marketer.
1) Automation & Analytics: Marketing Automation uses technology to replace repetitive processes which are people-dependent, with automated solutions. It enables you to consolidate your online marketing channels into one centralized tool to manage all your campaigns. Combine this with a targeted and analytical-based e-mail campaign utilizing B2B marketing databases, and your lead conversion rate will increase exponentially.
2) Search Engine Optimization: A vital component of marketing, SEO has the ability to ensure you elucidate your concepts to the customer via the right usage of keywords. This is particularly helpful as your audience relies heavily on online search results. The trick is to address the key consumer pain points that are compelling enough to persuade and stand out in the crowd.
3) Personalized Advertising: Sounds like the most basic approach for a database marketer, doesn’t it? Yes, this age-old technique continues to remain relevant, however, the methods and strategies have evolved. Choosing the right platform and medium is simply the first step, ensuring your strategy incorporates a personalized approach to target the right audience will increase your chances of success. A quick workaround for this is to always have an up-to-date and accurate marketing database based on the core personas that you intend to target.
4) Social Media Listening: Ignore this at your peril! The impact that social media can have is evident from the fact that over 80% of buyers check out service providers on social media today and over 28% of referrals made are based on interactions on social media. In a nutshell, social media can maximize your reach and help you monitor your brand via social listening.
5) Reporting: All efforts made towards achieving your goals can become meaningless quite quickly if you do not possess the right reporting techniques for your campaigns. The ability to modify campaigns based on ongoing trends and results can be a powerful tool for course correction. Using this in conjunction with a robust ‘Database Marketing’ approach with relevant and accurate data will ensure that you reach out to the right customers at the right time with the right messaging.
