Four Data-Driven Strategies To Leapfrog Your Competition

Are you taking a data-driven approach to your marketing strategy? As a marketer, you have likely been on the receiving end of this question. I know I have, and I think we can all agree on the immense benefits that come with it. I find it particularly inspiring and of immense value when data returns unexpected solutions or opens my eyes to new approaches to the problem at hand.

Astudyrecently released by Bain & Company on the value that marketers have gained from their data and technology investments uncovered an interesting angle on how to connect with consumers in the most effective way. While most marketers leverage data analytics to identify the right consumers and personalize their messaging to fit each segment, that is only half of the puzzle. The other half, widely untapped, consists of identifying the right moments to communicate with them based on their behaviors and interests.

I work for a location intelligence and consumer insights company, and we see this often in our business. Marketing budgets are tighter than ever and competition is fierce. Being able to identify the best opportunities to create meaningful connections with target audiences and, once the message has been delivered, understand if it generated results is a must for advertisers today, is what separates leaders from laggards.

Here are four ways leading marketers are successfully using data to leapfrog the competition:

Not only is it important to identify the right consumer segments to target, it is also crucial to engage them at the right time. Traditionally, a way to achieve such an in-the-moment opportunity would be to deliver an ad or push notification as a consumer visits a particular store. For example, the consumer walks into a grocery store and gets a 20% coupon for a product. What if, instead of reaching consumers at the end of their journey, you could engage them while they are still deciding which product to purchase, right when they recognize they have a need or just at the perfect time to spark their desire for your product? By understanding consumers’ offline behaviors and interests, marketers are taking their segmentation and targeting capabilities a step further to create meaningful experiences for their audiences.

The competitive intelligence arsenal for marketers has been somewhat limited — there is only so much you can learn about your competitors’ performance, especially in real time. A number of forward-thinking marketers, however, are leveraging location intelligence to paint a clearer picture of how consumers engage with their brands and their competitive set. For example, they can understand which customers are loyal to their competitors and which are the occasional visitors, and develop specific conquesting strategies to target those who will be the most receptive. As a result, not only can they keep an eye on how the competition is performing, but they can also create efficiencies with their media.