The Importance of Marketing in a Data-flooded World

More than ever, marketers can bring key insights into how to attract ideal customers and measure results.

An infographic titled “Every Minute of the Day” from DOMO.com reveals the vast amount of data Internet users create every day. Each minute, Facebook members share 684,478 pieces of content, YouTube users upload 48 hours of new video, and people create 571 new Web sites.

Which begs these questions: How can marketers successfully compete for attention amid the onslaught of information flowing at people every sixty seconds? And how can they use the massive amounts of data to tweak their marketing activities for optimal results?

Marketing Means Making Choices

Perhaps more than ever, today’s smart marketers play an important role in helping organize, decipher, plan around, and understand the world’s ever widening array of data.

To help companies stand out from the clutter, marketers develop marketing strategies that consider the sources of today’s overwhelming and unstoppable stream of information and

1. determine which avenues will best reach the company’s objectives and

2. identify measures that will help them adjust and optimize efficiencies.

Determining the Best Marketing Channels

Consider a retail electricity provider. Everyone needs electricity. On the surface, that would mean the provider should create content and disseminate it far and wide—through every available outlet and to every possible person—to communicate great rates on electricity.

Would that work? Sure, if the company had unlimited marketing budgets. Few do.

A more strategic, fiscally sound approach would segment potential consumers by income, race, culture, location, property ownership, electricity use, and other variables to define the target audience and determine where best to focus marketing efforts. Where does the company’s ideal customer get his information? Where does he go and what does he tend to do? What attracts him? What motivates him to make a purchase?

This customer analysis helps marketers determine the most effective and efficient avenues for their efforts. Perhaps the best route is to build the company’s brand on Facebook and develop relationships with consumers there. Perhaps marketers find that creating an app for customer service purposes will appeal highly to the targeted group.

Measuring for Marketing Optimization

Marketing efforts have become more measurable than ever. In fact, the data surrounding marketing efforts can overwhelm. Marketers can now measure engagement with their efforts through Web visits, site pages viewed, time on sites, pay-per-click marketing analytics, search engine rankings, and more.

Not all data will prove valuable or helpful in adjusting marketing strategies to best hit company objectives. Knowing what to measure and how to interpret and analyze measurement data makes a critical