Blending Your Intuition and Proven Data to Improve Your Marketing Efforts
There is a lot of work that goes into planning out new sales and marketing initiatives. In most cases, the first step for most businesses will be to review past advertising data and engagement rates to find a formula for success.
However, in many cases, the data you find may not tell the entire story behind your customer’s preferences. Over time, purchasing habits can change, or new industry trends may render the current data you have less relevant moving forward.
As businesses move forward, it is essential for company leaders to utilize a combination of proven data and their own intuition when making marketing decisions.
The Benefits of Data-Driven Marketing
Data analysis can be a critical element of every marketing initiative. It not only shows you what’s working, but it can also help you avoid costly setbacks. Without proven data to back up your theories, it can be easy to get sidetracked and send your business down the wrong path.
Below are some of the benefits that data-driven marketing approaches can bring:
Measurable Results - Data sets give your business something to measure. For example, when using A/B tests, it helps marketing teams to identify which tactics are providing effective results and which ones either bring limited results or lead to diminishing returns.
Reduced Marketing Risks - When you rely on data to help drive your decisions, you’re effectively minimizing your marketing risks. Having more information to work with helps to take the guesswork out of your initiatives, which is especially valuable when working with company advertising budgets.
Helps You Fine-Tune Your Audience Targeting - Market research can be a powerful tool for businesses. Extracting key marketing demographics helps businesses to better understand their target audience and ensure their marketing efforts are aligned with their actual needs. This can significantly enhance lead generation efforts and increase the likelihood of additional sales conversions over time.
Improves Overall Efficiency - Marketing and sales efforts can exhaust significant company resources. It’s essential that the right motivations drive these efforts. By leveraging data, businesses can focus their attention on areas that are likely to yield the best returns.
How Can Your Intuition Improve Your Marketing Efforts?
While data can be a highly valuable asset for businesses, it’s not the only way to create effective marketing campaigns. At the end of the day, human intuition, especially when applied by experienced business leaders, can also be incredibly valuable in maximizing the value of your sales and marketing efforts.
Below are some of the reasons why intuition can be so important:
Sensing What’s Around the Corner - When using different analytics tools across different digital marketing channels, you’ll no doubt find certain patterns that can be helpful for future marketing efforts. However, there may be subtle shifts in customer demands that these tools struggle to detect. This is where intuition can be particularly helpful, as it leverages past personal experiences to predict future market outcomes.
Understanding the “Why” Behind Data Points - Data is great for tracking metrics and overall marketing successes or failures. However, this data often fails to clearly represent the underlying reasons behind certain market shifts or purchasing patterns. This is where intuition comes in. Adding a human element to your market research helps incorporate qualitative feedback into your data analysis, such as referencing recent customer comments or reviews, which can provide additional perspective to your numbers.
Adding More Creativity to Campaigns - Effective marketing is all about being creative. Unfortunately, starting with data can only help you so much in this area. You may also need to find clever ways to weave your brand story into your marketing efforts, which isn’t something that any type of algorithm will be able to help with.
Tackling New Challenges - While data is great for analyzing past purchase trends, businesses often experience a variety of changes in market conditions as they grow. When data becomes less relevant over time, it may be necessary to trust your instincts when exploring new paths with confidence.
Find the Right Balance When Trusting Your Gut and Using Data
While both data and intuition can be valuable on their own, incorporating both into your sales and marketing efforts can be highly effective. Here’s how you can make this happen:
Begin By Looking at the Numbers
Data should always be the foundation on which you base your business decisions. Take the time to gather any relevant information that can help you choose more profitable paths as you move forward.
Some of the common data points you should collect include operational metrics, past sales performance, and customer feedback.
Incorporate Your Own Thoughts
As you collect relevant business data, start analyzing its meaning while incorporating your own thoughts and perspectives. Look for patterns that you’re familiar with and try to uncover the meaning behind certain trends you see in the data.
When you discover certain data correlations, make note of them and dive deeper into why they’re present. Intuition is essential when you’re dealing with incomplete data or in situations where new previous baselines have been documented.
Bring in a Fresh Perspective
Although you may have your own thoughts and ideas surrounding data points, it can be incredibly valuable to bring in fresh perspectives. Discuss the data with those you work with and ask them to share their own opinions on what they see. Bounce ideas off one another and identify common assumptions you can incorporate into your marketing strategies moving forward.
Test Your Theories
Many times, you’ll want to test your theories on a smaller scale before committing to one particular strategy. For example, if you’re trying to market your restaurant, choose a small list of customers where you’ll test different promotional offers or messaging styles.
Depending on the results you obtain, you may decide to test a larger group of customers to see if you achieve the same results or modify your approach completely.
Maintain the Right Balance Moving Forward
Data can be an incredibly valuable asset as you start creating business marketing initiatives. However, you should never forget the power of human intuition. By combining both elements, you will ensure that you establish more balanced sales and marketing initiatives that yield better long-term results for your business.
About the Author
Chris Bretschger, Managing Partner at Bastion Agency, is a seasoned marketer with over 20 years of experience in integrated marketing. He has developed brand strategies, managed media campaigns, and built analytics tools for clients like Mazda, Adidas, Jenny Craig, and Kia. When not leading Bastion, Chris enjoys superyacht regatta racing on the open seas.