Best Data Analytics Practices for CMOs

Data can be a strategic weapon for marketing decisions when used well. Yet not all marketers are employing data analytics to their best advantage. Create marketing value and opportunities from digital data with these best data analytics practices for CMOs.

“The most powerful data you have is something you are sitting on that nobody else has.” — Martin Kihn, research director for Gartner for Marketing Leaders

Digital marketing gives CMOs countless analytical opportunities. Consider these best data analytics practices when looking to take advantage of the massive amounts of internal and external data available.

Identify the right metrics

Maximize time and resources by identifying and prioritizing the data and metrics and aligning marketing priorities, suggests DemandGen in a 2016 Data Quality report. Measurement provides the feedback needed to improve marketing efforts and achieve competitive success.

Data crunching may not be fun for all, but data mining tools reveal valuable insights. Consider the value, for example, of calculating marketing ROI by analyzing past efforts or of generating future sales and marketing results with predictive analytics.

The volume of site visits can be a rewarding number to report each month. Nevertheless, the metrics that really matter when the focus is on increasing sales and revenue are more focused on action.

• Conversion Rate — all visits divided by the number of leads. Avoid measuring against contacts which could include job applicants, spam and other users with miscellaneous intent
• Leads — inbound leads have taken an initial action and can be segmented via progressive profiling for lead nurturing. The lead list reflects contacts in any lifecycle stage who have provided basic, initial information. From this list, leads become marketing qualified leads when their behavior (such as viewing a certain number of web pages) triggers the update.
• SQLs — sales-qualified leads that leads are ready to be handed off to the sales team for opportunity evaluation.
• Sales opportunities - If your marketing and sales teams can share data, CMOs can then use sales opportunities to identify which leads turned into deals. This helps improve the marketing team's ability to target and improve their efforts.

Related reading: Blog Metrics to Track for Inbound Marketing Success

Bolster buyer personas

Analyzing data is an effective tool for better understanding the interests, needs, and actions of everyone from site visitor to converted customer. Segment audiences. Target campaigns. Track funnel fallout. Identify trends. In examining this data, pay attention to what works and what doesn’t — both are learning opportunities.

With data the CMO can analyze appeal to audiences, index subject interest, determine success rates for tone, timing or small tweaks to messaging, to make messaging most effective with the target customers.

Progressive companies in Gartner’s Data-Driven Marketing Survey spent more than 7X as much on digital marketing analytics.

Share data throughout the organization

The CMO who sees marketing data as information best contained in the marketing silo may miss out on opportunities. Data analytics can drive product development for the company, suggest new sales tactics, offer important insights into changing industry needs and more. Distribute the data throughout the company and encourage collaborative action inspired by the insights gained.

Market intelligence not only helps you spend effectively but it helps you improve the quality of your message. — Hubspot

Related reading: Benefits of integrating sales and marketing

Value external data too

CMOs have copious data at their disposal from content management and customer relationship management software analytics. Social, mobile and media analytics add to the picture as well. Still, a recent Gartner study of Data-Driven Marketing found top performing marketing firms also gained more than 20% more of their data from channel or agency partners (than did the firms Gartner labeled as intermediate or embryonic in terms of taking advantage of data analytics).

“More than 2/3 of marketers plan to base most of their decisions on analytics within two years.” — Gartner

Protect data quality

A solid database is foundational to marketing initiatives. Yet, in DemandGen’s study, 69% of respondents identified maintaining data quality as a top challenge. Web registration forms are the primary means of acquiring prospect and customer data for the majority (71%) of marketers.

Once marketing gains data on people, the lead scoring can begin. A powerful feature of marketing automation, lead scoring works by automatically attaching a value to each lead based on their personal information, professional data, behaviors, and interactions with your content. Consider demographics, company information, online behavior, email and social engagement in setting up the scoring parameters.

56% of marketers see room for significant improvement in their database strategy. — DemandGen

Track key performance indicators

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) can help a growing organization to realistically assess its inbound efforts. Understanding what your company needs to measure is a major step in the right direction for digital marketing. In fact, digital and online marketing is special in that data can be so accurate and precise, which can help drive decision-making.

Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) early in the process can be a blessing for a marketing team–helping to sharpen the focus of the team and drive forward in a clear direction. Define goals based on a realistic assessment of the marketing efforts. Setting an arbitrary goal can do more harm than good. Instead, look to historic performance data to drive future goals. For instance, a 40 lead goal for May is typically unrealistic on the heels of  2 leads in March and 4 in April.

Related reading: Setting up KPIs for website marketing

Best data analytics practices conclusion

With the intentional use of data analytics, organizations can increase conversion rates and deliver a more efficient and successful sales process. In embracing the analytical opportunities many CMOs may need to rely on new talent. Still, the investment can pay off. Without the skills needed to identify trends and suggest progressive tactics based on the data, marketing effort success may slow.

Best data analytics practices for CMOs Sources:
Adams, I. (2013, Nov. 14). Transforming Market Intelligence to Intelligent Marketing. https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/transforming-market-intelligence-to-intelligent-marketing#sm.00012g66czam8e61x1p1jlvdtvz6t
DemandGen. (2016, July 27). The 2016 Database Quality and Enrichment Report. https://www3.demandgenreport.com/a/data-hygiene/p/
Kihn, M. (2016). How Leaders Use Data in Marketing. https://www.gartner.com/marketing/data-driven-solutions/