In the modern age, where knowledge is global and necessary, and technological advancement is evident, it is essential to decipher the value that Big Data holds for us. Big data is all that information that can be encoded based on classification, patterns, various structures, and recurring human behavior.

Big data can be structured as well as unstructured. By studying this data, human behavior can be comprehended. The world has, now, become a virtual structure of communication. Everything from transactions to trends is being recorded digitally. Thus, the information recorded is of massive importance to marketers. Therefore, it can easily be said that it is the next Big thing after IoT.

Importance of Big Data:

Whether you want to dwell into finance with Big data or real estate – you will not be disappointed. Banks can easily track any form of fraudulent activities and patterns with the help of Big data. Similarly, in the healthcare or biomedical sector, one can easily keep track of all the drugs.

They can check that the ones who make it to the market and if they were verified to do so or not.  Therefore, Big data will inevitably change the entire industry as it has endless possibilities for its usage.

When it comes to the importance of Big Data in marketing, we can easily divide it into three categories.

• The customer category includes marketing based on behavioral patterns of the buyer, social media platforms, online sales, and virtual surveys.
• The operational category of Big Data comprises of the tools needed to measure the marketing processes efficiently and effectively. Examples include the management of assets and resource allocation.
• The third classification of Big data is financial. This relates to measuring the financial well-being of the brand.

Now that there is no confusion in our way let’s analyze different approaches (mentioned below). The methods through which marketers can seek guidance from Big Data.

1. Understanding the Client

These days, people rate their product or service purchasing experiences online. They leave comments before purchasing and also give their two cents on their post-purchase experience. The clients then either show a positive or a negative response through comments, likes, dislikes, discussions, and ratings.

There’s also the matter of acquired traffic per page, the sort of client visits as well as the number of times it was visited, etc. These activities are being logged constantly. Marketers, therefore, with the help of Big data analytical tools can decipher their customer and his or her buying behavior. This way, they can better understand what the client wants & what the brand needs to improve, etc.

For example, on a book purchasing website, where there’s a method to rate books, or there’s a discussion forum, the most liked and trending book gets the most acknowledgments.

Likewise, a book that ranks as most purchased, during a specific season, is easily track-able. These insights help the brand boost their sales and increase their revenue. In the end, it is all about what the customer wants, and Big data tells you that.

2. Classification based on Analytics

Since Big Data helps give information about the customer, the marketer can benefit a lot from it. Depending on the demographics and other such factors, a marketer can target the sales for potential clients.

For example, if the people residing in City A purchase orange juice more, more advertisement for orange juice can be shown in this area. Likewise, if the people nestling in City B favor peach over orange juice – more marketing for the peach flavor can be done in that respective area.

Similarly, if the audience on social media platforms is mainly teenagers, the product line, in accordance with their needs, can be advertised more on these social media forums. This example can also be applied in classifying the clients both – culturally and traditionally. Although, these might not be the only grounds of classification.

3. Cost Effective and Efficient Campaigns

Knowing precisely what the consumer desires helps initiate attractive campaigns that can better explain the ideology of your brand and cater to the customers as well. Big data immensely helps in that.

Moreover, the insights from it guide the marketer. The guidance can help create effective strategies to narrow down the potential customer and the target audience, and then to advertise to that very audience.

For example, if a particular internet brand understands that only the Facebook audience engages with it and generates 90% of the sales, it may stop paying for Instagram or Snapchat promotions in the long run. App Developers can benefit from Big Data analytics by understanding how to design the virtual entity in a way that it reaches most of the audience and gets the desired response.

4. Customer Loyalty

Through Big data, one can locate loyal customers whose buying behavior indicates that they don’t plan to switch. Then, based on that, different strategies can be generated to help maintain their loyalty.

For example, Sugar Courted, an online bakery business, after getting to know how many of its customers were loyal, introduced a buttercream discount card that offered a chance to get a three-pound buttercream cake for free on every third purchase of a cake. Not only did this campaign help retain the customers, but it also attracted new lot as well.

5. Competitive Edge

By understanding what the brand’s unique selling point is or what attracts the consumers most with the help of Big data, marketers can help enhance any particular:

• product,
• service
• or aspect of work to invest time in working on different campaigns to highlight it.

This way, marketers can have a competitive edge over their rivals.

6. Marketing Optimization

Understanding analytics is everything. Sometimes one needs to trust the data and factual information more than the in-person feedback of the customer. Marketing can be done using the tools that help the brand.

If the insights suggest that some social media platforms or tools do not help gain an audience. This acts as a negative catalyst that reduces the cost. Moreover, Big data can help reveal where the potential customers lie in the virtual world and the pathway to get to them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Big data might be difficult for marketers, but a thorough search with the help of different analytical tools and comprehension of data gained is always needed. User experience and consumer behavior analysts can also be hired.

In some organizations, where the application has sensitive client information, an in-house analytical system can be built. Moreover, insights like customer behavior tend to change according to contemporary trends and fads – all that a marketer should always keep in mind.

Sijdah Hussain

Digital Marketer

After completing her English Literature degree in 2017, Sijdah, set out for a professional career as a Content Marketer so she could feed all 7 of her cats and work towards her ambition of opening an animal shelter one day. She works as a social worker as well as a cat whisperer in her free time – contributing to spreading awareness about child and animal abuse. She also aspires to be an author/ poet like Sylvia Plath and Charlotte Bronte.