Data is one of the most powerful assets at your disposal as a business owner. It informs every area of operations, from finance to sales and of course, marketing.

Though immensely valuable to building an effective marketing plan, many businesses, particularly SMEs, tend to fall into one of two categories when it comes to leveraging their data.

Some businesses simply do not collect enough data on the things that matter, or if they do, fail to put that information to use, while others collect so much of it that organising and leveraging it effectively becomes an overwhelming task.

With data more important than ever before, and Google’s phase out of third-party cookies forcing many to rethink their entire data collection strategies, how can you ensure your business is continuing to leverage data for marketing success?

Cleaning up your CRM

While marketing is increasingly moving towards data-driven campaigns and decision making, a large majority of marketers – over 60% - report they lack quality data to support this.

The average customer relationship management [CRM] database can hold hundreds, even thousands, of unique customer records, but this information can gradually become outdated and obsolete [if it was accurate to begin with!], with Salesforce suggesting that up to 70% of data held in a CRM “goes bad”, or becomes obsolete, each and every year.

Marketing strategies built on this ‘bad data’ are less likely to succeed, especially campaigns that rely on accurate personalisation and audience segmentation. It’s crucial that before embarking on additional data collection exercises, you conduct regular audits of the data already at your disposal, and ensure it is consistent, accurate and organised.

Metrics that matter

Your data should add value to your marketing activities, and as such, it’s important to differentiate the metrics that help you understand where to invest your marketing and sales efforts from those that simply look good on paper.

One of the most common use cases for startups and small businesses is getting to grips with understanding the immediate return on ad spend [ROAS] from paid advertising. While ROAS alone will not give you a full 360 view of how an ad campaign is performing, it can act as a useful indicator of what is working and what needs adjusting when placed into the context of your wider marketing strategy.

Defining your unique aims at the start of a campaign will give you a deeper insight into the types of data and metrics worth tracking.

Trendspotting

Effectively capitalising on trends and shifting customer behaviours used to require a heavy dose of guesswork and willingness to go with one’s gut instinct. With data analysis, much of this guesswork is taken out of the equation, making it far easier for smaller businesses with limited resources to effectively respond to the needs and expectations of their customers, as well as new market opportunities.

Google Analytics and Google Trends, along with social media analytics and other data aggregators all provide real-time insight into where you audience are, what they’re engaging with, and how effectively your own marketing activities are lining up with these behaviours.

Overcoming data collection challenges

With growing consumer expectations around online privacy, and Google’s phasing out of third-party cookies, businesses both large and small are faced with the challenge of continuing to collect valuable audience data to inform their marketing activities, while continuing to build trust and engagement with their customers.

There’s an impetus for businesses to invest in quality, first- and zero-party data – that is, data collected directly by audience interaction with your brand, or provided willingly by your customers, but doing so effectively means taking an honest, transparent approach to data collection.

Research indicates that on average, 74% of consumers are willing to share key data points like preferences, interests and demographic data directly with brands if it would improve their online experiences, but this only works if you properly inform your audience how their data is being used, why it’s relevant, and ensure that you are only asking for information that is value-adding.

Take B2B selling, for example. Asking a prospect for large amounts of information to access your whitepaper may be great for filling up your CRM, but is likely to significantly reduce your qualified leads when simply asking for an email address may be all that’s needed at that particular stage of the purchasing cycle.

Getting clear on exactly which data points you need and why you need them, then translating this transparently to your audience doesn’t just build brand reputation and trust – it helps identify the data that truly adds value to your marketing strategies.

Final thoughts

Many smaller businesses, though not in possession of as much data as larger companies, are actually far better placed to make use of the data they do have. The agile way of working adopted by many SMEs makes responding to data-driven insights much more effective – as long as you know what you’re tracking and how it’s adding value to your marketing strategy overall, ensuring you continue to channel budget into the areas and activities you are seeing the biggest return on.

Sam Martin-Ross is Founder and Director of digital marketing agency, Digital Uncut.