To start navigating the data deluge, begin by understanding how the human brain likes to process information. Director of Client Operations Elizabeth Crinejo tells how to make the data more manageable.
From the session “Drowning in Data, but Thirsty for Insight?” given by Elizabeth Crinejo and Melissa Mines at ConnectToConvert,
Transcript
So, really what do we do with all this big data? Well, we actually just have to figure out how to navigate in it, so looking at ways to help, looking at our process and the way we think about things. So, the way the brain works, it really likes things to be categorized and organized because then it can go to the places it needs for information.
So, if you look at all the different types of channels, these may even be the silos you’re talking about, in your marketing world pretty much anything you’re gonna do in your marketing portfolio, any contributions to your marketing portfolio, anything that might be a line item probably falls into one of these seven categories. So, now while you see this huge world of big data, there’s this handful of categorical places where they come from, and inside of those categories there are all of these different types of amazing partners that you can work with.
So, when it comes to understanding the data in each of your channels, one of the things that really can work to your favor is having the right partner for you. So, when you’re organizing your marketing world into those seven categories and then you drill down, because inside of each of these you know we have just a couple of examples. Paid can be search, display, paid social. It can be Google AdWords, Bing, LinkedIn, Facebook. Each of these have different vendors that are reflected here.
So, as you’re looking at your categories and what’s going to matter to your business strategy, to your goals, to the places where you need to be to have these conversations with your customers, you can probably pick a handful of these, and they would probably be really great partners to you. So, in terms of understanding your data, knowing where it is, how it’s impactful, if you have the right data, a lot of those problems land on their shoulders because they get to be the partner to you. They get to be the expert in the channel.
You get to be the expert in your customers and what they need and all this world of data and what we’re going to talk about here in a few minutes, but the right partner is really key because it allows you to focus on your categories. Categorize what you need. Pick your people and then strategize your marketing portfolio and your strategy accordingly. Does that make sense? Any questions so far?
Okay, so one of the things that we also didn’t want to overlook is that regardless of how big the world of data is out there, the main thing—the marketing game is still the same. It’s know your customer.
Now in this world of data, it’s actually irresponsible to not use the data to know your customer better because in a lot of ways, you know, they chose not to opt out of giving it to us, right? They said, “Okay, cookie me.” Right? It’s okay. So, given that we have all this data that we need to be respectful of and use in all the right ways, knowing your customer is key because it’s what actually—at the end of this thing the punchline is, this is where you simplify your data to your point. It’s starting from knowing your customer.