An abundance of data: missing the wood for the trees

One of the biggest challenges marketers face today is understanding how and why consumers act the way they do. Ask anyone in the industry how to solve this and you’ll get the same answer – data.

For the last ten years, data has been one of, if not the, biggest business buzzwords. There’s been a strong sense that it’s impossible to collect ‘too much’ of it, and the concept of ‘data-driven marketing’ has exploded in popularity. In fact, Statista estimates that the amount of data created, consumed and stored globally since 2010 will rise from 2 zettabytes (that’s 2 trillion gigabytes) to a whopping 181 zettabytes by 2025.

So, it shouldn’t come as a shock that 82% of marketers have plans to increase their use of first-party data in 2023. They’re also doing this under more time pressure than ever before, meaning speed and convenience is often put ahead of other crucial considerations. But what does this all mean for marketers?

In an uncertain economic environment where marketing budgets are being cut left, right and centre, marketers need to be certain that campaigns will resonate with consumers. But instead of collecting data for data’s sake, the key to success is ‘answer-driven marketing’, which prioritizes meaningful outcomes for target audiences. An over-reliance on so-called ‘data-driven campaigns’ risks missing the wood for the trees.

Don’t be led down the garden path

Another issue is that data can be complicated, so they need to consider many different elements of what makes good data when such large volumes are being collected. So, what customers are expecting and looking for should be a big part of what informs marketers’ approaches.

To create successful campaigns, it’s important to understand that not all data is created equal. One of the most common mistakes made is using secondary data – information that’s already out there, collected by someone else for their own distinct purposes. This isn’t to say that data isn’t pivotal to campaigns, but assuming that ‘any data will do’ is misguided and won’t lead to successful outcomes.

Every piece of research is created to answer a specific question or delve into a particular consumer group. For instance, if you were collecting data on make-up products, you would want to gather information from regular users of make-up. Just like you wouldn’t ask a team of swimmers for their views on rock climbing, you shouldn’t embark on research that isn’t targeted at the right people to answer a particular question.

In this example, reusing others’ research doesn’t guarantee marketers the full picture. This is because pre-existing data is often not collected for the same purposes as those at the heart of their campaign. Assuming otherwise will lead you down a garden path about the problem they’re trying to solve.

Marketers should strive for answer-driven marketing to guarantee the data collected answers the question they’re asking, rather than trying to crowbar secondary data into addressing their own needs. Embarking on a ‘one size fits all approach’ is a fool’s errand.

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The importance of ‘who’, ‘why’, and ‘when’

When collecting data, marketers need to understand who they’re collecting data from, what its source is and why they’re doing so – this is a key aspect of answer-driven marketing. In the make-up example I gave above, you would also need to consider different relevant sub-segments of that specific industry (such as climate, age, gender, and other demographic factors that influence make-up buying decisions) if you want your campaign to be as targeted as possible.

Data recency is just as important as the insights themselves: what may have been salient data ten years ago is probably obsolete now – this is another layer of risk involved in collecting secondary data. Take the COVID-19 pandemic: asking consumers about their travel habits before and after March 2020 will unsurprisingly yield wildly different insights.

If marketers ignore these facts, they risk losing sight of what they’re trying to achieve with their research. What’s more, digital is taking up ever larger slices of budgets, meaning more value is placed on real-time decision making than ever before. Combine this with the simple fact that, as in any industry, time is money, and it should be obvious that attempting to effectively reverse-engineer campaigns with pre-existing data is a recipe for wasted cost and resources.

Answer-driven marketing must be the goal

I often say that marketers are experts in guessing and that uncertainty is our biggest fear, but this doesn’t have to be the case anymore. Our industry now has the data and tools to be able to precisely identify exactly who we’re speaking to. From there, marketers can tune what they do to make sure campaigns appeal to the target audience.

Fundamentally, marketers can now understand the ‘why’ behind consumers making decisions. Tools like zero-party data and advanced AI can help brands unlock a hidden treasure chest of consumer behaviours and insights that would otherwise remain buried under the sand.

The whole point is that data on its own cannot help them get there. Instead, it’s an emphasis on outcomes and output that’s needed. In other words, being answer-driven is the only way marketers can accurately predict customer habits and personalise their campaigns accordingly.

Ultimately, it’s high time for marketers to embrace answer-driven marketing in an age of limited time and cost alongside huge volumes of data. Marketers must prioritise meaningful outcomes for consumers, appreciate the fact that not all data is equal, and strive to understand the ‘who’, ‘why’, and ‘when’ of the data they collect. Only then will they create successful, impactful campaigns that cut through the noise and deliver on their objectives.

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