There’s good reason for this too. Business intelligence solutions can leverage data from dozens of sources, centralize it, and transform it into something even the least tech-savvy executive can use.

The Case for Business Intelligence

Imagine combining CRM, marketing automation, and Google Analytics into a single platform to better understand the behaviors, demographics, and process through the funnel. Now imagine using this information to tailor your content strategies, enhance your buyer personas, and better predict what will be the most effective marketing.

The case for business intelligence has never been clearer, and even marketers in less ‘tech-savvy’ industries are taking note.

In fact, according to research from the Business Software Education Center, executives are putting top priority on analytics and business intelligence solutions.

According to the C-Suite Software Sentiment Study, when asked which strategic initiatives they are implementing heading into the coming decade, executives saw business intelligence solutions in their top five—sitting behind only cloud, mobility, and digital transformation initiatives.

4 Marketing Benefits of Business Intelligence

If you’re still not sold on business intelligence, know this: Your competitors likely are. Here are four benefits to marketers who use business intelligence.

Centralize Data, Integrate Your Technology

We recently just looked at how diverse the marketing technology stack is, noting that there are tens of thousands of applications used across dozens of categories. Each of these applications generates usable data—but only if you know how to use it.

For too many marketers, trying to track this data across dozens of applications is cause for concern. Trying to combine it is even harder.

Maybe if you can afford someone to compile data, analyze it and present it, you can get something out of it. It’s more likely, however, that you are leaving money on the table. Blind spots are costly, and the shotgun approach to marketing rarely succeeds.

Business intelligence tools can contribute significantly to a fully integrated marketing approach. By bringing data together from your entire MarTech stack, you can use this to convey a unified message, tailor it scientifically, and improve results. Integrated marketing technologies provide customers with consistent messaging across platforms and can make a brand stick out in the mind of a customer, and ultimately be a determining factor in a purchase.

Automate Processing, Reduce Errors

Have you ever made a typo? Of course you have. Now say you are about to embrace some major initiative or present some big change to your boss. He or she is going to expect you have accurate information, and you’re a finger slip away from recommending something that could either harm your credibility or take your company down the wrong path.

On the other hand, you can set up a business intelligence product to grab data from the source, combine it with other information, and present it with a couple clicks. But it gets better.

Present Data More Effectively

Most people process information visually. It’s a reason that people love infographics, and it’s a reason you’ll love using BI software.

Like the dashboard of a car gives the driver a visual of the most important information he needs to keep driving safely and successfully, a business intelligence dashboard provides a marketer with an overview of the progress of the company. Now, you can track what’s going on by looking at a visualization—not a spreadsheet. Now when presenting this great idea, you can show why something works (or will work), rather than trying to explain every detail. There are many different types of visuals you can utilize and heat maps are definitely one of the more effective.

See the Future

It’s awfully hard to look forward if you’re spending all your time living in the past. You already know just how fast the marketing industry moves, and if you’re spending all your time analyzing historical concepts, you might miss something right in front of you.

Not only can a business intelligence solution save you time on the processing and analysis of past data, it can help you see the future. Predictive analytics leverages past trends to present accurate forecasting information. Information about how one prospect acts can inform you how another will act.

Whether you are using it to improve your messaging, buy ads, or to plan your ecommerce demand, predictive analytics will continue to become a bigger part of business intelligence and marketing as a whole.

2020 is Coming: How Clear Is Your Marketing Vision?

It’s an exciting time to be in marketing. Innovations are coming seemingly every day, new technologies are improving small or large facets of your business, and the little guys continue to beat out the old guard. However, you have to be smart. A smart company with a shoestring MarTech budget can run circles around a global player who pumps millions or billions into marketing.

Business intelligence gives marketers the power to combine, track, and utilize data in new ways, and will continue to become a bigger part of the marketing world.

Looking to learn more? Go check out the entire report from the Business Software Education Center and see how smart your website is with our free website analysis.

Additional Business Intelligence Resources

5 Key Considerations When Implementing a Modern BI

Business Intelligence 101
How to Use Business Intelligence for Marketing Effectively?

The post Business Intelligence for Marketing – A Shiny New Silver Bullet? appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

So how does marketing fit into Digital Transformation? Or is Digital Marketing Transformation its own shiny, new buzzword that can have its own acronym, DMT?

Please allow the gurus at Modern Marketing Partners to provide insights and tips for implementing Digital Marketing Transformation (DMT for brevity) including a Digital Marketing Transformation definition, perspectives about the new Digital Marketing Mix, along with a list of the Top 12 Digital Marketing Transformation Strategies. We share some details on the increasing role of marketing technology or MarTech. And for those that seek additional information, several Digital Marketing Transformation Resources are provided.

Digital Marketing Transformation – Defined

Experts agree that we are in the midst of a marketing revolution, with rapid change, evolving from traditional marketing to digital. To be sure, many traditional marketing strategies are either obsolete, or certainly less emphasized by brands of all types. In fact, for many brand scenarios (business and consumer), traditional marketing tactics are fast becoming obsolete, or secondary at most. Direct mail and print advertising are examples of traditional marketing tactics in decline.

Importantly, new digital marketing tactics can be measured with analytics, tested, and reported to management. It is now possible to identify sales conversions, and to calculate return on marketing investment (or ROMI). Whereas traditional marketing often could not measure results, or report sales conversions.

A definition of Digital Marketing Transformation is the transition and evolution from a traditional marketing mix, to primarily digital marketing, including the use of a digital marketing mix (next subject) and new marketing technologies to plan, implement, test, measure, optimize and report results on marketing initiatives, campaigns and programs.

Depending on brand scenario (e.g. B2B vs. B2C), traditional marketing strategies will be required, but tightly integrated with digital marketing. For example, traditional events will be promoted via all types digital marketing including social media.

Digital Marketing Mix

So what is this new Digital Marketing Mix? First, you must know that the term marketing mix was coined by marketing professor Neil Borden in 1953, and later expanded by another marketing professor, E. Jerome McCarthy with the infamous 4 P’s of Marketing (in 1960). The Marketing Mix references the types and combinations of marketing (strategies and tactics) used by brands.

Of course, the Digital Marketing Mix emphasizes digital vs. traditional marketing strategies and tactics. As mentioned Digital Marketing utilizes technology including multiple types of software (See MarTech below). And Digital Marketing uses Analytics and other tools to measure and report on multi-channel initiatives. With Analytics, digital marketers can now test, refine, measure and optimize campaigns. Using MarTech, marketers can plan, coordinate, automate, measure and report on campaigns and programs. Market research, market segmentation, identifying buyer personas, and related activities are still part of marketing planning that determine the Digital Marketing Mix, along with the specific strategies and tactics used. On this latter topic, following are the Top 12 Digital Marketing Transformation Strategies and Tactics.

Top 12 Digital Marketing Transformation Strategies

1. Website Optimization (Incl. Mobile, SSL/HTTPS, Trust, User Experience (UX)
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO incl. visual, mobile, voice search; meta code, link-building, Local Citations)
3. Content Marketing (Incl. blogs, resources, case studies, registration pages, calls-to-action (CTAs), curation, syndication)
4. Paid Search (Incl. pay-per-click/PPC, Remarketing, Display, Programmatic Advertising)
5. Email Marketing (Incl. lists, campaigns, personalization, lead nurturing, trigger emails, optimization of subject lines, Click-Thrus)
6. Social Media (incl. Social Advertising)
7. Video (a form of content, but important enough to be Top 12)
8. Marketing Automation (software, tools and techniques, data)
9. Analytics (Incl. Google Analytics and Marketing Dashboards)
10. Marketing Diagnostics
11. Influencer Marketing
12. Artificial Intelligence (AI, Incl. Live Chat or ChatBots)

Marketing Technology is Now MarTech

No question, Digital Marketing Transformation requires Marketing Technology, often referred to as MarTech. Think of MarTech as the merging of marketing and technology. MarTech is typically software, but might also be applications or apps, diagnostic tools, or AI tools including Live Chat or ChatBots. Examples of marketing software include Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, Collaboration or Project Management Software, and Digital Asset Management (DAM) software. Hootsuite is a great example of a tool used for social media post scheduling, coupled with social media placement monitoring and reporting.

Ready for another buzz word?  The “MarTech Stack” is the group of tools and technologies used by marketing. In fact, the annual MARTECH Conference gets much buzz about its Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic that counts 7,040 MarTech solutions in 2019 (up from about 5,000 in 2017). See the “Supergraphic” below, and please click image to enlarge, or link to original image below.

https://cdn.chiefmartec.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/marketing-technology-landscape-2019-slide.jpg

Digital Marketing Transformation is More than a Buzzword

Like its predecessor Digital Transformation, Digital Marketing Transformation (DMT) is the shiny, new buzzword in marketing. Experts agree that we are in the midst of a marketing revolution, with rapid change, evolving from traditional marketing to a new digital marketing mix. DMT uses Marketing Technology or MarTech to plan, manage, test, optimize, implement, measure and report on marketing campaigns and programs.

Per the above referenced Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic, MarTech and Digital Marketing Transformation will continue to grow exponentially, requiring new technologies, tools, and marketing skills.

As Digital Transformation promises change and competitive advantage, Digital Marketing Transformation promises a new age of both marketing efficiency and effectiveness. Those who embrace DMT should have a distinct advantage over competitors that do not.  It may truly be the most exciting time in history to be a part of this marketing revolution.

Digital Marketing Transformation Resources:

How is Digital Transformation Changing Marketing? (Digital Marketing Institute)

The Three Keys To Digital Marketing Transformation (Forbes)

The Next Marketing Transformation Is … (CMO.com)

Digital Transformation Blog (Marketing Week)

The post Digital Marketing Transformation Guide – Top 12 Strategies appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.