Marketing has always been an art and a science. Lately, however, the balance seems to be shifting to the science side, especially with the rush to track consumers’ online behavior. Indeed, Gartner predicts that IT spending by CMOs will outpace that of CIOs by 2017.
Fortunately, you can capture important insights without spending a lot. Here are a few cost-free – often overlooked – ways you can start exploiting data to shape your business strategy now:
Listen. Wondering how your brand is being received in the marketplace? With the tune-in abilities made possible by social media, it’s no longer that difficult – or expensive – to find out. A good place to start is Twitter Search.
Analyze. Already participating in the conversation? How often are you using your customers’ engagement patterns to shape your content strategy? If you aren’t, the good news is that it’s never been easier to do so. Begin by allowing Facebook’s Insights tool to point out where the greatest level of interest lies within your audience.
Size up demand. Publishing high-quality content but having trouble getting it in front of the right people? Perhaps the solution is as simple as optimizing the way you’re presenting it. Google’s Keyword Planner, which you can use regardless of whether you’re running AdWords paid search campaigns, lets you evaluate related keywords and phrases. Simply enter terms you’re interested in pulling search traffic for, see how they measure up, then adjust your content based on your findings.
To paraphrase an old saying, half of a company’s marketing budget is wasted, but which half is anybody’s guess. That guesswork is now being minimized with the wealth of accessible, actionable data out there — not to mention the simple but powerful tools we’ve covered.
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