For Mobile Marketers: How To Turn Behavioral Data Into Actionable Insight?

When you're talking to someone in person, you're aware of much more than just what they're saying. Many experts believe that there is a 55/38/7 communication formula. It's 55% body language, 38% tone of voice, and 7% actual words spoken. Eye contact, hand movements, and posture are all indicators of sentiment or intent.

Hidden messages are lost in digital communications. Instead, we must rely on specific data points to determine what people are trying to say.

Customers are interacting with brands more than ever before, and they're doing so through multiple channels, which can provide marketers with valuable customer insights. Marketers must navigate increasing scrutiny over data handling while collecting and processing data about their customers' behaviors, needs, and preferences in a world where customer data has never been more important.

Two-thirds of customers expect brands to be aware of and understand their needs and expectations. Businesses must find new and better ways to attract and retain modern customers in the face of rising competition and amplified customer voices.

Why are businesses having difficulty extracting insights from customer behavioral data?

Customer data is spread across operational silos.

While most businesses collect some form of customer information, it is difficult to create a coherent and complete picture of their customers, especially when departments do not collaborate and share the data they have. When data is dispersed across departments in an organization, businesses can't understand their customers and make informed decisions about how to reach them.

Sales and marketing teams can benefit from understanding a customer's communication preferences, while social media teams can view a customer's online interaction history and finance teams can comprehend a customer's payment preferences. In general, businesses can use this information to ensure that they are making financially sound decisions.

Because of this data fragmentation, paid marketing campaigns can sometimes fly under the radar or go unnoticed.

Data processes are not in sync with business goals.

Even though data processes can provide significant benefits to businesses, ranging from cost savings to increased efficiency, these benefits must be targeted. Processes must be designed and implemented by business leaders to align with their data strategy goals. The goals of marketing campaigns can range from increasing visibility to changing customer perceptions of the brand to improving conversion rates. The metrics used to analyze customer data vary greatly depending on the business's priorities.

A hastily planned data strategy can result in significant time and resource waste in the service of a poorly defined plan. Poor planning during the data process design stage can also increase the likelihood of data errors caused by a lack of understanding of these processes within the organization, inconsistent participation in data practices, and other issues that can be expensive and time-consuming to resolve.

Businesses fail to create and integrate efficient data processes into existing workflows.

Non-technical staff who are unfamiliar with complex data management systems may find data processes cumbersome and tedious. As a result, errors occur, and data is not collected effectively or efficiently.

Businesses must devise new methods to encourage widespread participation in data processes throughout the organization. This could include automating repetitive or time-consuming tasks, as well as improving education on data processes and how they can be carried out with minimal disruption to non-technical staff. This data must also be effectively funneled to marketing teams, who can then use it to strategize future initiatives and outreach.

3 pointers for turning your data into truly actionable insights

Examine the data that has already been gathered

Each second, the average person generates 1.7 MB of data. Businesses can sometimes collect valuable data without even realizing it. Before designing and implementing broad changes to existing data operations and workloads, business leaders must assess the data that has already been collected or is being collected inadvertently.

Businesses that interact with customers on social media frequently have a basic understanding of the important metrics provided by the platform's integrated analytics tool. That would be considered data that has already been collected or is being collected continuously. To optimize their presence on each platform, modern businesses must go beyond that and analyze attribution data.

Modernize data collection strategies to obtain a comprehensive picture of marketing performance.

Data that is insightful can be gathered in a variety of ways. Some businesses set up data pipelines to collect data directly from customers, but most businesses supplement that data with information obtained from social media platforms and various marketing channels.

Previously, businesses could simply use cookies to collect the information they required to meet their business needs. The platform has recently "set up their solutions to mitigate some of the risks that have appeared on the market with cookies being more limited," according to Morgan. 

Close information silos and incorporate data workflows into regular business processes.

To achieve marketing success in highly competitive markets, businesses must collect and analyze data effectively. Marketers must be able to easily access and incorporate these insights into their daily activities. The first step toward accomplishing this is to bridge information silos and ensure that data is collected from multiple sources and combined on a single platform.

This data must then be routed to critical operational teams such as customer service.