Data-driven marketing is the approach of optimizing Brand Promotional Planning based on customer information. Data-driven marketers use customer data to predict their needs, desires and future behaviors. Such insight helps develop personalized marketing strategies for the highest possible return on investment (ROI).

But how is data driven marketing different from the traditional marketing?
To understand the difference, we must revisit The original premise of Brand Promotional Planning or marketing.

In its simplest form, marketing has always focused on two objectives. First, to discover customers’ needs and desires. And then, using that insight to deliver what customers wanted to buy.

In practical terms, this has always meant:

Gaining a deep understanding of the target audience first.

Identifying and anticipating customer needs.

Designing strategies to deliver goods promising to solve those needs.

Traditional marketing teams used a combination of two factors to achieve those objectives:

Market studies available at the time,
Their assumptions about the target audience.
Unfortunately, this approach often meant trial and error. Companies had to launch many strategies to find the one capable of achieving their goals.

In contrast, data-driven marketing allows marketers to connect with customers at the right time. And with the right offering, at that.

But the benefits of using the data go beyond just improving communications. Modern marketing teams use customer insights to:

Personalise the customer experience

Target well-defined marketing segments

Get new customers.

With the data, brands can also measure and improve their strategies in real time.

Data to inform your strategy.

It almost goes without saying that to build a data marketing strategy, you need consumer data. However, beyond that basic tenet, few dig further into what this data should look like and how it should be handled!

You know that you need data to build your strategy. But, if you’re unaware of how to best collect and use that data, the process can be a headache.

If you’re working with an incomplete dataset and therefore an incomplete picture of your audience, any insights will be too flawed to do you much good. Or, if you’re collecting a massive amount of information with no organizational structure in sight— you’ll struggle to pull actionable insights to begin with.Therefore, we’re going to focus on two aspects of data to inform your strategy: collecting data and processing data.

As far as a data collection, there are two key sources to keep in mind:

In-house data. This is the data your business collects on your customer base. Whether social media interactions, email list sign-ups, or buying transactions, this information is valuable. Breaking down internal data silos is crucial to make the most of this data.
Third-party data. In-house data can paint a picture of your customers as they interact directly with you, but it doesn’t paint a full picture of your customers as human beings. Third-party data can fill in the gaps on what interests your audience when they’re not communicating with you. For example, are they homeowners? Are they interested in “going green?” Third-party data is key to figuring that out.
Once you’ve collected your data, you have to process it. A mass of raw, unexamined data will do little to help your brand’s marketing strategy and even in the worst-case scenario, send you down the wrong path.

Data hygiene is the practice of making sure all of the data you collect is correct and essentially error-free. It involves fixing incomplete, incorrect, and duplicate entries so that you have one complete and accurate entry for each point of data in your system.

A plan for analyzing and applying your data.

Once you’ve collected and cleaned your overall dataset and defined your objective, you can begin analyzing your data. After applying the insights unveiled by this analysis to your marketing strategy, you’ve successfully used data marketing.

As you’ve seen, examining your raw data will do little to inform your strategy. Use your data marketing objectives to build your strategy through the following steps:

Determine which demographics or common characteristics will best address your objective. This is a process of analysis, discovering where patterns exist within your database and applying them for action. Decide which characteristics would best inform your strategy, such as geographic location, age, buying history, communication preferences, or social network use.
Segment your data by those characteristics for easier action. Dive into your data to discover leads most likely to respond to your marketing campaign and determine how you can best communicate with them.
Put the insights unveiled by those groupings into action. There are a variety of ways you can put your data analysis to action, including but not limited to ad retargeting, dynamic advertising, paid search results, and even email and direct mail personalization.

Getting it right
If you get it right, effective Brand Promotional Planning and campaigns will give your data credibility and increase its reach, make your brand stand out from the crowd, and influence change. However, this doesn’t have to be tackled alone – med comes agencies have an important role to play in helping pharma companies achieve the best outcomes for your brand. Experienced agencies have the capabilities and resources to gain access to the KOLs who can help boost your brand. Such agencies can also ensure that no single advocate is overused or forgotten; define and communicate the expected participation levels; foster trust and loyalty; and help align advocates by interests and abilities. In addition, they can provide you with the insight, information and reach needed to expand the possibilities around your brand and increase profitability.