The big data and digital marketing connect is nothing new. Back in 2013, Mckinsey’s found that internet penetration rates crossed 80 percent and that individuals spent around 5.2 hours using the internet for a variety of purposes, leaving behind footprints and four exabytes of data. Big Data technologies were not that easy to use back then to let everyone in marketing make use of the data. A recent IDC report suggests that big data business analytics could exceed $ 187 billion by 2019 and those who take advantage are likely to generate $ 430 billion over their competitors”. Numbers are convincing. Business has taken to big data and its implementation is much easier and affordable especially for digital marketing.
Coherent, cohesive
Advertising on the internet was a carry forward from the traditional way and that meant huge expenses with minimal returns for digital marketing. Enter big data and it transforms digital marketing services. Advertising will not be like radio or TV broadcasts. Instead, it will derive data about individuals in specific locations, their behaviors, and preferences and then target specific ads at them that will hit home. The impact of big data services on delivery of advertisements will be algorithmic based, coherent and cohesive like the analogy of light beam and laser beam. Ad spends reduce. Campaigns can be run for a long time or all the time and returns will be higher.
Understanding and direction
Digital marketing may rely on historical data to make predictions and base decisions accordingly and by the time any such campaign is initiated, market trends change. Big data services deliver data from diverse sources such as internet searches, sensor-based data and social media data that help marketers derive a better understanding of customers. Marketers know what customers expect. More importantly, capture and analytics of data could help marketers know when a trend is developing and help digital marketers get their clients to be market ready by following that trend. Marketers and clients will have a better understanding and a sense of direction. Strategy and implementation get better. Further, by getting there first, they cut out the competition while customers are happy that someone listened and delivered.
As an aside one can say that small businesses would feel left out of the big data analytics served digital marketing platform but this need not be so. Enterprising IT companies engaged in big data analytics can and do offer such analytics as a service to help even smaller businesses take advantage. This should become more popular in the time to come. Retail stores, for example, subscribe to data analytics and digital marketing services and have messages delivered to people’s smartphones using beacons as they walk past stores and know of special offers. Marketers can “listen” to chatter on social posts or forums about diverse topics and, for example, refine websites or campaigns or product portfolios. Alignment with expectations is the result and that spells success for digital marketing.
