5 Can’t-Miss Data Marketing Articles

• “Marketers are reading the scads of articles and research reports about how Big Data might be the best thing since sliced bread; yet, they still have no idea how to ‘bake’ it.”

• Marketers often use analytics to prove a particular strategy, but their measurement methodologies are predicated on making sure they capture success. Marketers are focused on using data solely to optimize transactions instead of viewing it as insight on how to deepen engagement.

• Your data will have inherent biases because it is your data. Marketers need to move beyond using analytics as a method to prove success/ROI, and instead use data as a method to improve the process of deriving insight and developing deeper relationships with customers.

• Marketers need to ask advancing questions of our data to turn it into meaningful insight.

• Data is only half the story. Marketers need to balance it with their customer’s aspirations, fears, dreams, and desires to extract real meaning.

2. Content Marketing Analytics: How to Look at the Right KPIs to Measure ROI [Scoop.it]

• B2B marketers shouldn’t focus solely on shares, traffic, or attention. Instead, work on producing good content that is actionable, has a clear CTA, and converts (even if this is just turning subscribers into contacts).

• Track your content marketing on a post-by-post basis as opposed to a macro level. Try tracking the shares and traffic levels for each individual post (instead of tabulating averages) to learn what worked and what didn’t.

• Stop considering content success “through the sole prism of traffic” and look at generated leads. This will tell a completely different story.

• Look at conversion rates for each piece of content: take the number of leads generated by a given piece of content and divide it by the number of views. This will help you measure both lead generation and efficiency.

• Work towards putting a system in place that doesn’t just measure generated leads, but attributes them to specific content.

3. Data-Driven Marketing in 2016: Bigger, Faster, Better [Entrepreneur]

• New tools help us aggregate and process data at a faster pace, in real time, across a broader set of touchpoints. In 2016, “fast” data will be the new “big” data, driven by the pervasiveness of personal devices generating information about our behaviors.

• To do effective digital marketing the tech landscape will have to evolve so that platforms can create a unified database of raw transactional data and predictive insights.

• Stream analytics will become important for processing data from devices and applications in real-time.

• Access to both the algorithms and results remains out of reach for most marketing professionals. The transition of marketing professionals from mad men to mad scientists will accelerate as new user-friendly machine-learning tools allow marketing teams to focus on complex problems.

• The biggest change on the horizon for marketers is the Internet of Things. Soon most of the objects we interact with will have the ability to collect, manage, process, and exchange data.

4. How 3 Media Outlets Gained Influence During the Grammy Awards [ScribbleLive]

• Data can help marketers craft compelling stories and create unique content, so we analyzed millions of pieces of content from news sites, blogs, and social media channels to produce the Grammy Awards Influence Report.

• We dove into the data to reveal which artists, performers, media outlets, and sponsors gained the most “influence” during the event.

• The data sheds light on which media outlets had the best strategies for engaging viewers and music fans during the award show.

• Billboard used strong visual content (FIGs, clips, images of behind-the-scenes action) engaging features (like polls), and in-depth articles to create a compelling second-screen experience.

• CBS used the pre-show period to promote their online streaming service and reach the growing number of people who don’t subscribe to cable networks and consume most of their content through laptop and mobile devices.

• Rolling Stone used Twitter to link to existing online articles that provided more context and background information for music fans.

5. How to use Data to Create More Relevant Content [HubSpot]

• Marketers are starting to collect rich sets of data, but how can they use it to create great content?

• Conduct keyword research. Determine which long-tail keywords, short-tail keywords, brand phrases, product phrases, buyer-intent keywords, and other related phrases to target in your blog and social content.

• Identify the right content format. Determine the best day for publishing content in your industry, learn what type of content performs best for your niche, see how many words your post should be, understand what post format works.

• Generate content ideas. Analyze content ranking on the first page and find out what is ranking and what keywords are repeated. Pair this with data you collect on your own posts to see what is resonating with your audience.

• Use these to build a spreadsheet full of blog titles and topics tied to your most important keywords. Prioritize what to write by targeting buyer intent keywords and moving to keywords with the largest search volume. The last step is to start writing!

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