While many of us recognize that companies are empowered by actionable information penetrations and help drive sales, devotion and superior customer experiences, the thought of making sense of enormous quantities of information and undertaking the task of unifying is daunting. But that is slowly changing. Experts forecast that this year, budgets will be allocated by most companies, and that 2015 will undoubtedly be the year of big data and discover the best tools and resources to really harness their data.
Information gathering has developed radically, and both C-level executives as well as their teams now recognize they have to join the data arms race that was big to keep and grow their customer base, also to stay competitive in today's data-driven marketplace. Terms like in-memory databases, sensor information, customer data platforms and predictive analytics will end up more widely understood.
With terabytes of information being gathered by companies at multiple touchpoints, platforms, devices and offline places, companies will start to focus more on possessing their info, to be able to access, visualize and control this data, and on monetizing their audience in real-time together with the right content. More emphasis will likely be placed on ethically info is accumulated, how clean and collect the big data is and to be an information hoarder that accumulates information you don't really want.
Here are the top 5 information trends that we predict will reign 2015:
1. Data agility will take center stage
It's not sufficient to just own quantities of customer information if this info is not agile. More companies are seeking approaches that are simple, quick and easy to offer unified and protected use of customer information, across departments and systems. CMOs, CTOs, information scientists, business analysts, programmers and sales teams possess precisely the same pressing need for tools and training to assist them navigate their customer data. With the growing popularity of wearables, sensors and IoT apparatus, there's additional real time information flooding in. Plus having customer information saved on multiple legacy platforms and third party vendor systems only makes information agility that much more challenging. Most firms only use about 12.5% of their available data to grow their company. Having access to the proper tools which make customer information more agile and easy to use is going to be a significant focus of businesses in 2015.
2. Information is the New Gold & Puts Businesses In Control
For several businesses, the most commonly-faced information need is ownership and unification: Volumes of information being generated every second, being saved on multiple legacy platforms that still use dated structure, as well as the inability to access all this customer data in a single area to get a "complete view" of their customers. But together with technology that makes information union easier and the introduction of new tools, businesses are beginning to appreciate the worth of controlling and possessing their customer data. The frustrations of working with multiple third party sellers to gain possession of information, along with a lack of information rights keys that permits you to automatically pull information from these vendors will be major pain points which is handled. Companies can now select from a variety of systems like Umbel to help gather first-party customer information from multiple online and offline sources, platforms and sellers, possess and unify the data, and make use of the information in real-time to power and optimize marketing and sales efforts.
3. The Rise of Customer Information Platforms
While DMPs and CRMs help fulfill many business needs, today's marketers want a centralized customer information platform like Umbel that examines and gives profound penetrations on their customer base to them. Very few businesses really have one genuinely complete, unified customer database alternative. They're largely still using multiple systems and platforms that collect information separately.
A CMO's top priority will probably be to possess a reliable Customer Info Platform that collects exact customer information from all online and offline touch points (enclosed web site visits and purchases, social interactions, beacon info, cellular and in store interactions etc.), removes duplicates and appends it with added data (demographic, geographic, behavioral, brand kinship) from other trusted sources.
4. Info Democratization Across Departments
The abundance of customer data offered to brands today is staggering and yet many companies are yet to fully use the information to supercharge marketing and sales efforts. Among the biggest hurdles that marketers face is the fact that accessibility for this information is quite limited at most firms. Primarily, only larger companies with IT resources had the capacity to gather, save, analyze, and monetize this information that is precious. Second even if data, the IT department was collecting and/or the business enterprise analytics teams have restricted access to this information and sales and marketing teams that actually use this data must undergo a convoluted, time-consuming procedure to get insights and the data they need.
With new tools like Umbel, teams don't desire an Information Scientist to make sense of their data.
For info to be genuinely valuable to an organization, it is critical that the info be democratized across teams and departments, empowering all employees, irrespective of their specialized expertise, to get information and make more informed decisions. In 2015 more companies will start to use automated platforms that enable anyone in the organization to see, assess and take actions according to customer data.
5. Mobile Data and Strategy Will End Up Vital to Advertising
Based on eMarketer, mobile search ad spend in the U.S. grew 120.8% in 2013 (overall gain of 122.0% for all mobile advertisements). Meanwhile, desktop advertisement spending went up by just 2.3% last year. The mobile program has become as useful as an essential component of any marketing plan, and sites for retailers. For companies to remain competitive, a seamless, secure, fast and instinctive experience on mobile devices, and also the ability to capture this information that is mobile and add it to a unified customer data base is critical. Having this unified information of customers from every touchpoint (including cellular and offline) will enable firms to identify trends and shape a better customer experience. More companies are getting to be conscious of how significant it is to be able to unify their information and compare analytics across all platforms to help them create personalised marketing campaigns centered on a "complete customer view."
Originally posted on Data Science Central
Follow us @IoTCtrl | Join our Community
