Imagine you are a marketing manager for a software company. You're attending an industry trade show where you plan to give away promotional products to booth visitors. You want to use these promotional products strategically to gather insights that will inform your future marketing decisions.
But how do you collect data through a branded travel mug at a trade show? It is possible to use data-driven marketing in a traditional marketing channel, like promotional products at events. You just need to use a little creative thinking. This post will give you some ideas. But first, let's set a framework for the what and why of data-driven marketing.
What is Data Driven Marketing?
Data-driven marketing relies on collecting, analyzing, and using data to make informed marketing decisions and develop targeted strategies. It uses various kinds of data, like customer behavior, preferences, demographics, interactions, and more. This data can assist in shaping marketing campaigns, messages, and initiatives. The goals of data-driven marketing are to enhance the success of marketing efforts and optimize resources by tailoring them to the specific needs and preferences of the target audience.
Why is Data-Driven Marketing Important?
In a 2023 HubSpot survey, 36% of marketers said data is essential for reaching target audiences and understanding customers, while 32% said investing in it boosts their ROI.
The survey found that using data in marketing offers several benefits. Marketers can better reach their target audience, create compelling content, understand effective strategies, increase ROI, and prove value.
How to Measure a Win
The purpose of data-driven marketing is to collect relevant information and use that information to measure the success of a campaign, message, channel, or ad. Setting goals is crucial to ensure that your efforts are focused and measurable. Here's a step-by-step guide to developing practical goals for your data-driven marketing campaigns:
- Understand Your Objectives: Clearly define your overall business objectives, as well as the objectives of a particular campaign. You might want to increase sales, win leads, enhance brand awareness, boost customer retention, expand into new markets, or a combination of many objectives.
- Make SMART Goals: Every goal must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Instead of a vague goal like "Collect leads at the trade show," a SMART goal would be to "Earn ten new qualified leads at the trade show booth." Another SMART goal could be to "Drive 50 new inquiries to the QR code on the giveaway during or two weeks after the trade show."
- Segment Your Goals: If your marketing campaign targets different customer segments, set goals for each segment. For example, if you're targeting people in different industries or with different titles at the trade show, set individual goals for each group.
- Quantify Metrics: Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will measure your progress. This will inform you what kind of data you need to collect. KPIs could include metrics like website visits, conversion rates, click-through rates, social media engagement, number of lead inquiries, number of MQL or SQL leads, event attendees, etc.
- Check Data Availability: This is important. Ensure the data required to measure your KPIs is available and can be accurately tracked. If not, it’s best to set different KPIs.
- Benchmark and Baseline: Establish a baseline for your current performance. This helps you track progress over time and measure the impact of your data-driven efforts.
- Regular Review and Adjustment: Regularly review your goals and analyze the data to see if you're on track. If not, be prepared to adjust your strategies based on the insights gained from the data.
Remember that goals provide direction and purpose to your data-driven marketing efforts. They help you stay focused, measure success, and continuously improve your strategies based on the insights you gain from the data you collect.
Creative Ways to Collect Data in Traditional Marketing
Finding relevant data through offline or traditional marketing campaigns requires creativity, innovation, and flexibility to gather relevant insights and measure the impact of your efforts. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Promotional Product “Store”: Instead of giving away pens or notepads, set up a digital Microshop at events. Customers can choose from various items and leave contact information for delivery. Phase 3's Media:Link platform is ideal for this kind of marketing strategy and has very robust reporting.
- In-Person Data Collection Mechanism: Set up a simple tablet kiosk at a trade booth or event to gather insights. Visitors who want a promotional item are prompted to answer a brief survey question about their product needs or why they stopped by the booth. An old-school fishbowl for collecting business cards or a sign-in sheet at an event works as well, as long as you have someone willing to do the data entry.
- Digital Data Collection Mechanism: Print a QR code, POS discount code, vanity URL, or unique phone number on a promotional item, step-and-repeat, trade show booths, postcards, print ads, retail displays, and event signs with a strong call-to-action. Tie the code or phone number to an incentive to collect a discount, prize, or reward.
- Integrating Digital Marketing Campaign Data: The data collected from your digital campaigns can provide valuable insights and improve the overall effectiveness of your traditional marketing efforts. For example, if a particular image on an ad is driving more traffic to your website, consider using that image on your trade show booth to catch people's attention. If your customers are asking a particular question over and over again on your social media page, make sure your sales team is proactively answering that question in sales calls and add it to your FAQ documents.
- Leveraging External Market Research: If you cannot gather data on your prospects or customers, leverage research from external sources such as trade associations, local chambers of commerce, consumer research agencies, government agencies, or market trend reports.
- Ask for Feedback from the Sales Team: Your salespeople are on the front lines, interacting with customers and responding to your marketing and advertising campaigns every day. Collaborate closely with them to gather insights on what your customers are saying, what messages resonate with them, and what campaigns are the most relevant to customer needs.
- Ask for Customer Feedback: Encourage customers to share their experiences with your offline campaigns on social media or through online reviews. Have a consistent feedback phone script for sales and customer service teams. For example, make it a standard procedure to ask customers who call your business, "How did you hear about us?" Also, regularly monitor these platforms for unsolicited mentions and feedback.
Traditional marketing strategies can be as data-driven as digital ones. It just takes creativity and an understanding of your business goals and customers. The key is to think creatively about the marketing strategies you are using, how your customer is experiencing these strategies, and how you can collect relevant information with the least amount of effort for both you and your customer. Armed with this data, you can create a more cohesive and impactful marketing approach that resonates with your audience across multiple traditional and digital channels.
Phase 3 bridges the gap between marketing expertise and data immersion, fusing strategic insight with hands-on implementation. We create conversion-focused customer experiences to align and enhance your business goals and build brand equity over time. We're not just a partner; we're your strategic advantage in an ever-evolving business landscape. To learn more or set up a discovery call, contact us today.