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Perhaps the most noticeable change in the field of data analytics is how rapidly it’s growing. Every year companies are able to gain more data from their customer interactions, and the lag time between feedback and insights continues to shrink. It’s also true that customers are often very informed, coming to your website already knowing what they want, and how much they’re prepared to spend. Data analytics is the means by which companies can better connect with those savvy customers.
In order to make use of growing data resources, companies will benefit from understanding how analytics and data capture works, and they’ll want to devise an effective analytics strategy for the near and long term.
The story you’re about to read is not an unusual one. Unfortunately, it’s pretty common. It’s about a man who was considering purchasing the same brand of car he was already driving; he just wanted the newer model. The majority of the sales materials he had received from his regular car dealership didn’t even recognize him as a repeat customer. In fact, he went to that very dealer and spent two hours there. Ironically, he received an email from the general manager of that same dealership the following week, inviting him to come check out the newest models … and he was JUST there!
This is not a singular circumstance, but it brings to light a marketing speedbump shared by many industries. Brands must get a complete view of the customer by getting organized and aligning internally. Especially now that customers have a greater expectation, as well as a lesser level of patience. Consumers don’t really care about whether they’re being marketed to from a brand, regional or retailer level. It’s also important to recognize that a poor experience at any point in the journey is a poor experience for your brand.
This is especially true for the automobile dealerships. There are all kinds of marketing messages that are coming from manufacturers, regional dealer groups and local dealerships that create a great number of marketing streams, and represent a number of means to collect data. Savvy marketers understand that in order to really be of assistance to their customers, they must incorporate strategies that help to gain a holistic view of the customer. This also means that their infrastructure must be organized, their data activated and their measurement improved.
Once a foundation for organizing and connecting your data has been built, you can begin to work with it. As an example, one dealership wanted to reach adults who were in the market for a premium vehicle and had expressed interest in their brand. They leveraged its first-party data – people who were either in their CRM system or had visited their website. Then it layered that data onto its existing search strategy to drive greater efficiency and create more relevant messaging to interested car shoppers.
The company also let technology take the guesswork out of whether it would reach the right customers with the right message at the right time. It allowed machine learning to determine when its messaging appeared based on a person’s device, time of day, previous searches, and other signals.
It’s essential to remind ourselves that as consumer behavior evolves, our marketing must evolve with it. This is true whether you’re in automotive, tech, CPG, retail, or any other industry. Start by taking one action: schedule a meeting with your Genius Monkey Representative to discuss how you organize, activate, and improve your business to best assist today’s customers.
