The development of big data technologies has revolutionized many aspects of business, especially sales and marketing. The benefits of using analytics can help sales and marketing professionals improve their strategies in several ways including gaining greater customer insights, understanding the buyer’s journey, optimizing pricing, and automating the sales process. However, studies show that only 44% of CMOs say they can measure ROI. Which percentile are you in? If you’re in the 66%, here is how you can leverage the benefits of data analytics in sales.
What is Big Data and its Benefits?
According to the SAS Institute, big data is essentially a large volume of data – both structured and unstructured – that overwhelms a business daily. The characteristics of big data include volume, velocity, variety, variability, and complexity. As big data grows, the more potential its insights contain, meaning that businesses can reap many strategic benefits from big data analytics. One of the greatest advantages of big data analysis is improving business decisions at almost every level within an organization.
Big data analysis is very valuable to companies because it offers the ability to make faster and better business decisions. For example, Google Analytics has become one of the most used web analytics tools in the world, used by an estimate of as many as 30-50 million websites. With Google Analytics, companies can understand more about where their users travel from and to on their websites, and, as a result, make more insightful decisions on what changes to implement. With the correct tools, companies can break down big data and build up their businesses.
Data Analytics in Marketing and Sales
Today, data analytics can provide insights into which marketing content is most effective at each stage of the funnel and improve the quality of sales data. With today’s ever growing technology, here are three ways you can reap the benefits of using data analytics:
Optimizing Pricing Strategies – A number of studies have found that 75% of a typical company’s revenue comes from its standard products and companies fail to make the best pricing decisions 30% of the time, meaning that there is a lot of potential in raising profits if you can improve your business insights using the right pricing structure. Some of the best tools in the market use predictive analysis to gauge the market’s pricing in order to optimize the best prices.
Greater Customer Insights – In 2014, Forrester found that 44% of marketers were using big data analytics to improve the customer experience, specifically responsiveness. Another 36% of marketers were leveraging analytics to gain greater customer insights to establish better customer relationships. Marketers can leverage the benefits of analytics to gain a better understanding of the customer’s buyer’s journey. According to eMarketer, only 10% of marketers are able to measure customer experience “extremely well.” If you’re not yet able to do this, you are already behind the curve.
Automating the Process – With the correct tools and business insights, you can start automating your sales and marketing processes and become more efficient. Studies showed that companies using marketing automation saw a 53% higher conversion rate than non-users, implying that an automation process can generate more qualified leads.
Big data is more than just a buzzword; it’s becoming a prominent aspect of the business world, especially in sales and marketing. With the advantages of data analysis, you can find greater customer insights, automate your process, and optimize your pricing strategies. By leveraging the power of business analytics, you can begin to make better business decisions based on solid data for maximum results.
