When I say Big Data, you say “Enough.” It’s true, big data has become an overused buzz word. And so when I received a copy of Lisa Arthur’s new book, Big Data Marketing: Engage Your Customers More Effectively and Drive Value, I expected more of the same. But I was pleasantly surprised.
Instead of a book peppered with buzz words, I was treated to a very comprehensive, but not overwhelming approach to understanding and integrating data-driven marketing into your marketing strategy.
Arthur, who you may know as the chief marketing officer at Teradata (previously Aprimo), shares her advice for making big data insights an essential part of company culture. While it isn’t always easy, we benefit from her experiences as she outlines the steps we need to take to make marketing strategies more relevant and valuable to the customer experience.
This handy infographic provides an excerpt of Arthur’s “5 Steps to Successfully Implement Data-Driven Marketing.”
You needn’t be a B2B marketer to benefit from this book, either. Her strategy will speak to those in small businesses to non profits as it’s more about a culture shift, than a budget shift. Sure, big data can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be and with so many accessible tools designed to measure insights at any level, more organizations can benefit from leveraging their value into their marketing efforts. The challenge of big data marketing isn’t in the data — surprisingly, that’s probably the easiest thing to manage. No, the real challenge is getting everyone on board so that they can make strategic decisions based on the data.
Arthur says that a company’s CMO can be an effective change agent, however. She writes:
… our job as leaders is to appeal to our team’s emotions while we guide them on the path to that change. As change agents, CMOs can’t merely paint the vision. They must inspire their teams to deliver on that vision, too. It is imperative that we establish a culture of trust–and a culture that accepts a measure of failure.
I couldn’t agree more. Most of the time, marketing isn’t about communicating the value of a product or service to customers; it’s about communicating the value of the customer experience to the company. Data driven marketing is just that — it’s using data to guide and inform the marketing process to better engage, attract and retain customers.
So, go ahead. Be a change agent and pick up a copy of Big Data Marketing as your guide.