This article was written by Dmytro Spilka.

As the online world becomes increasingly congested as a result of competitors discovering the potential of a rapidly accelerating market, big data analytics is quickly becoming a critical way for businesses to outperform their many rivals. With that in mind, how can businesses best leverage the wealth of data left by consumers to better understand how they can shape their marketing campaigns?

Statistical data suggests that the big data market volume is expected to exceed $ 100 billion over the next five years. This indicates that the early analytical adopters of the marketing industry are likely to pave the way for greater prosperity in the era of the ‘new normal’ as e-commerce continues to grow far from the COVID-pandemic. 19.

The last few years have seen a significant increase in the volume of the big data market, and the pandemic should ensure that this growth will continue throughout the decade. This presents many opportunities for marketers to strategize for growth beyond the period of e-commerce boom brought on by the pandemic and the widespread adoption of online shopping by consumers.

We can see that big data analytics has not been recognized as a critical facet in the sales and marketing departments of the pharmaceutical industry – more than in any other industry. In fact, big data is almost twice as prevalent in this area of ​​industry as artificial intelligence.

“The pandemic has given a boost to the digital revolution and accelerated the world’s transition to the digital space,” said Maxim Manturov, head of investment research at Freedom Finance Europe. “During the pandemic, a large number of financial transactions were processed electronically, a trend that is expected to continue. PayPal and Square both offer a fast and convenient way to transfer funds, and they have played a big role in the growth of e-commerce.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly left a terrible impact on a humanitarian scale in its wake. However, the arrival of lockdown and social distancing measures came at a time when emerging digital services such as the aforementioned payment providers PayPal and Square have paved the way for a flourishing digital transformation in the retail landscape. .

The emerging world of big data is accompanying them, and this level of analysis is poised to herald a new era of high-quality information for greater customer engagement.

The Benefits of Adopting Big Data Analytics

Big data is an even bigger topic in the marketing world, but why has it become so important? There are a number of ways that businesses can use this technology to leverage their digital marketing approaches. Some the main advantages of big data can be seen below:

• Competitor analysis: It is possible to gain valuable insight into your competitor’s campaigns as well as the behavior of your customers. It can help you see what works and what doesn’t in a market that is likely to have fundamentally changed as a result of the pandemic.
• Observe market trends: Today’s market is different from yesterday, but that doesn’t mean that historical data can help you understand what is likely to happen tomorrow. The demand forecasting and prescriptive analytics action items can let you know when customers are most likely to be interested in your product or service to help you prepare.
• Profitability forecast: Using big data for targeted marketing can help you lower your ad spend, shorten your supply chain, and get your marketing campaigns in front of the right customers at the right time, resulting in much better business growth. ‘business.

Every benefit of big data adoption has been rife for some time, but the acceleration of digital transformation and the growth of technology surrounding the industry means that high-quality information and analytics has never been better. accessible, powerful and necessary.

The New Era of Precision Marketing

The era of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the widespread adoption of precision marketing by businesses aimed at gaining any kind of advantage in a growing and rapidly changing market.

However, precision marketing is only as effective as the data behind it. For example, modern models built from old data are still likely to provide inaccurate information. This means that marketers in the era of the new normal will take a broader approach to data collection, which relies not only on behavioral trends and location-based analytics, but also on third-party insights into data collection. relevant businesses, customers and competitors to help shape their internal customer data.

Companies looking to make the most of their external big data options hope that epidemiological data from government agencies, as well as data on customer mobility and third-party sales, will intend to use this wider range. data to integrate into their models.

Using this additional valuable data, marketers will be able to identify peaks in demand and where the new custom is coming from. They can also see which customer profiles have increased their spend and where expired customers are going.

“Before updating its modeling approach, for example, a chain of stores could only say how many customers it was gaining or losing.” wrote Chase Bibby, Jonathan Gordon, Gustavo Schuler and Eli Stein in their McKinsey article. “The company then decided to extract data from cell phones to analyze changes in the net traffic of its competitors. This analysis showed that many of the customers they were winning during the pandemic were from more expensive specialty players, while those they were losing went to cheaper, larger-format players. “

“Based on this information, the retailer transformed its in-car and churn prevention campaigns. They sent emails promoting premium offers to customers passing specialty stores while promoting the bargain-oriented products to value-oriented customers at risk of unsubscribing, ”they added.

Plus, this biggest big data brand allows marketers to leverage better insights into how their competition is performing. By comparing third-party sales and campaign performance to their own numbers, businesses have the ability to gauge their customers’ responsiveness to each component of their campaign. This is helping to pave the way for an unprecedented prospect of personalized content that can be delivered in terms of personalized messaging and segmented offers.

The battle to provide the best experience

While COVID-19 has certainly paved the way for a marketing landscape where customers expect technology to provide a seamless shopping experience, those expectations were already rising before the pandemic.

Customer-centric online outlets like ASOS or Glossier have a long history of delivering hyper-personalized experiences through leveraging big data among their customers.

“When the coronavirus hit, the digital transformation accelerated overnight”, said Janet Balis, CMO Practice Leader at EY Consulting. “This, in turn, skyrocketed consumer expectations of what businesses could do for them with a more digital experience. The customer expects more than just a transparent digital transaction.

In the age of GDPR, customers are much more aware of the importance of their personal data. Subsequently, in exchange for agreeing to share their personal information, they expect refined, personalized and anticipated experiences to meet their new expectations.

To meet these growing customer demands, marketers need to know three strategies to ensure their experiences match the bill:

• Seeking to ensure that brand scores are a vital KPI for the entire customer side of the business – this would seek to incorporate real-time analytics into the fold to ensure companies never turn to the past to get information.
• Use the right data and the right technology to support the right use cases throughout the customer journey.
• Work to align individual and collective goals at every stage of the customer journey to mitigate the impact of functional silos within marketing, sales, and customer service for customers.

As we move into the era of the “new normal”, the scale of the challenges facing businesses is enormous. Digital transformation has created an ecommerce gold rush as more and more competitors battle for online conversions. To support this, consumer expectations are growing exponentially.

Big data analytics will play a key role in the ever-changing world of digital marketing. Emerging technology will pave the way for a $ 100 billion industry by 2027, which will help provide businesses with the opportunity to generate cutting-edge personalized experiences for their customers.

Dmytro Spilka is a London-based writer and the founder of Solvid.