For some of us, 2003 doesn’t seem all that long ago. But the year B2E Data Marketing first hung its shingle, the marketing world hadn’t yet moved to a web-centered model. Consumers were still transitioning to using the internet to get information, and digital data was just being recognized as a unique and valuable new source of information.    

The following two decades have marked a sea change in digital marketing, and we’ve had a front-row seat for the incredible ride. 

To mark our 20th year in business, we’ve gathered 20 tips from members of the B2E team to help make your data marketing program the best it can be. Enjoy!

First … Meet the B2E Team

Keith Snow - President / Data Scientist	BJ Giudicessi - Account Manager / Data Analyst
Michelle Kosmicki - Manager, Analytics and Insights	Stephanie Baeth - Marketing Data Analyst
Stephanie Buckingham - Marketing Data Analyst	Jack Jermano - Marketing Data Analyst
Paige Miller - Marketing Data Analyst	Greg Sheridan – Vice President / Business Insights

Data Marketing Tips to Start Using Today

1. The more you know about your customers, the better you can serve them. If your first-party data (the data you collect yourself) is sparse, don’t get stuck in thinking you don’t have enough information to act on. You can easily enrich your data with information from credible third-party sources to improve accuracy, insights, and personalization.
2. Always understand the goal before starting any data project. It will help you focus on which data is most important and filter out the rest. Data overwhelm is very real! It’s the insights, not the amount of data, that matters in the end.
3. Include an offer in your in direct marketing to increase response rates – but remember, a majority of consumers say they are only likely to engage with a brand if those offers are directly tied to how they have interacted with the brand previously. Use customer data to determine which customers should receive which offer and when.
4. Always find a way to measure the success (or failures) of your campaigns. Don’t be afraid of metrics that show your campaign didn’t have the results you hoped. This provides valuable intelligence for how to optimize your results in the future.
5. Trends and key insights are often easier understood when data is visualized. Use data visualization tools to tell a strategic story and watch a clearer picture of trends, patterns and interactions emerge.
6. It’s easy for customer data to become siloed, hindering the ability to develop a complete customer picture. Make sure you are onboarding both online and offline data for a wider view into customer behaviors and preferences.
7. Perform data hygiene of your customer data frequently. Over time, your database will accumulate errors, outdated information, duplicate data, and unstandardized formats. This “dirty data” will undermine the accuracy and effectiveness of your marketing efforts. 
8. Do not let anecdotal stories determine your opinion of marketing success or failures. Analyzing over large samples will give you a more accurate picture of the truth. (And remember, the plural of anecdote is not “data!”)
9. The data landscape is changing significantly, especially when it comes to the phase-out of third-party cookies. As their use fades away, make sure you have a strategy in place to collect and use first-party and zero-party data, which are growing in value.
10. Look for patterns in your data that reveal insights about your customers buying behavior.
    This information can make your marketing much more sophisticated, enabling more effective segmentation, personalization, and sales strategies.
11. Be careful when looking at relationships in data KPIs – correlation doesn’t mean causation. However, that relationship may help you better understand other patterns in your data.
12. AI is only as smart as the data powering the model. So, before you jump into advanced analytics, make sure to address the fundamentals of data quality. High data integrity will produce more complete, accurate, and meaningful insights.
13. Enhance direct mail campaigns by adding digital marketing elements that create an omni-channel experience with better results.  A digital CTA (such as a unique URL or landing page) is a great complement to your direct mail effort and makes it more trackable. 
14. Data can help you understand your “perfect” customers. These are the people who drive the majority of your business. Knowing who they are, why they buy, and what channels they use will help laser-focus more effective new business efforts.
15. Test your marketing campaigns with A/B testing. This is a much more scientific approach to determining what works and what doesn’t, and uncovering which small changes might have a big impact on results.
16. The weather likely has a greater influence on your sales patterns than you think. Use weather intelligence to synthesize weather data with your sales data to uncover patterns and trends that are unique to your business and allow you to plan and personalize your marketing more appropriately.
17. Measuring the opinions of key audiences can be done more easily, effectively, and inexpensively than ever before with new tools such as AI language processing. In this dynamic age where attitudes can change quickly, modern sentiment analysis puts you in a position to be nimble and responsive.
18. Today’s buyer’s journey is a hybrid of digital and physical experiences. Make sure it feels seamless and connected for customers by using data to inform when, how, and where to engage with your buyers.
19. Because a majority of Americans now access the internet via smartphone, a mobile marketing strategy is a must. Half of Google searches are conducted by people looking for local information on-the-go, so consider how location-based mobile advertising would enhance your marketing strategy. 
20. Marketers should not only focus on what customers want right now, but what they will likely want in the future. But, don’t guess – tap into the field of predictive analytics for accurate insights about what customers will need, want – and be delighted by – next.

We hope you enjoyed this list. If we can provide more information, just reach out to schedule a consultation!