Turning information into insight

Published June 9, 2014 at 9:09 am

The goal of marketing is to determine what people want and devise a way to provide them with it. With the availability of data, it has become easier for marketers to learn about target audiences and create campaigns that will appeal to them. But a lot of this success will depend on how data is interpreted.

A recent Forbes article discusses the point that data has the power to transform many different industries, and that marketing is no exception. However, some marketers may be unsure of how to fit data into a business strategy. As Fatemeh Khatibloo of Forrester Research points out, “big data is a journey that every company must take to close the gap between the data that’s available to them, and the business insights they’re deriving from that data.”

According to the article, the ability to glean valuable insight from data will be key to using it effectively for marketing. Without an effective way to derive insight from the data, it may be difficult to translate it into an actionable result. Computer software can take some of the burden of interpreting data but this doesn’t mean that marketers won’t still need to rely on intuition.

With data, marketers can achieve a higher level of customization with their campaigns. They are better able to reach the right audience at the right time with the right message. Data allows marketers to create campaigns that are more specifically targeted to certain groups. Using the available information about these groups makes it possible to create more finely-tuned messaging.

Although data has the potential to help campaigns, marketers that can turn this information into insight and action will be more successful.