If you aren't using analytics, you’re not really marketing

In today's multichannel world, it's virtually impossible to run an effective campaign or build a strong brand across diverse customer touch points without serious analytical efforts. Have analytics and marketing become inseparable?

By Jason McNamara, Alterian

You can have the best sales pitch in the world, but if you don't know who your audience is, or what they are looking for, your strategy is based on chance. 'Wrong message, wrong time' means the potential impact of your communication is decreased. Marketing – smart, cost-effective marketing – is about listening to what a specific person, or group of people are looking for, responding to that need or desire, and converting them to a "Yes". Marketing is communication and communication is, by definition, a two-way street.

The connected world we live in gives us a greater access and information and allows us to interact with customers more than ever before. Most marketers have taken advantage of this, and as a result, marketing channels have become over-saturated and increasingly complex. The solution, however, is not complex. We, as marketers, have to communicate with customers on their terms, or risk our content being lost and ignored in the myriad of messages with which each person is bombarded on a daily basis.

Of course, if you're in this business, it's probably because you're passionate about marketing. While that is still an important aspect of the job, today’s economic climate dictates that you spend each marketing dollar wisely. More and more organisations are holding marketing departments accountable for ROI on each campaign. Traditionally, that has been a difficult, if not impossible task. The difference today is that you can use analytics to focus that passion, making the results more effective, efficient and responsible.

In their book Competing with Multichannel Marketing Analytics, Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris suggest that this isn't exactly new. In a recent AdAge article they commented: "Successful marketing executives know what advertising is working and what is not. Companies can quantify lift from advertising and the effect of promotions on sales. In today's multichannel world, it's virtually impossible to run an effective campaign or build a strong brand across diverse customer touch points without serious analytical efforts."

Is analytics greater than technology?

What is new, however, is the idea that analytics is greater than technology. You can't just buy a solution and install it. In reality, effective analytics requires technology to be coupled with a perspective that continually addresses customers as people, and processes that maintain customer-centricity as the fundamental focus throughout the organisation. With these in place, you can really begin to understand your customers, execute marketing programs against everything you've learned and ultimately enhance the customer experience.

According to David Norris, senior analyst at Bloor Research: "If you are not using analytics, you are really not marketing. Customers expect to be treated as individuals, so if you do not know who is who and what they expect, and do not get it right the vast majority of the time, they will punish you. Analytics is the core of the whole process."

In order to be competitive and demonstrate real value and accountability to the company and your customers, marketers need to develop analytical skills as standard practice. How can you make this happen in your organisation? Becoming an analytics-driven organisation has to permeate every level of the organisation. The analytics mantra has to start at the CMO's office - in fact, the entire C-suite. By making this an enterprise-wide effort, you will be able to identify people with the ability to mine the data, and others who can interpret it into actionable insights. By working together, these groups will have a real, measurable impact on your company’s marketing efforts.

Finally, bring in a technology partner that thinks beyond technology. Align your company with an organisation that not only offers superior technology, but knows the importance of passion, processes, technology platform, partnerships and the individual people you're trying to reach. This is marketing.

Jason McNamara is chief marketing officer at Alterian.

Other articles in this focus report:

• The market for marketing software


• The secrets to successful emarketing


• Web 2.0: A mixed blessing for marketing?


• Marketing software in action


• Marketing software vendors