Ask any marketer and they are more than likely to tell you that data is the most hard-hitting weapon that they have in their marketing arsenal.

A symbiotic relationship

Companies are investing in developing technology and services, and are doing everything in their power to acquire more data. And why shouldn’t they – consumers are becoming more elusive than ever. Making reaching out to them and evangelizing them difficult, to say the least.

The silver lining for marketers is etched by the fact that for customers it is difficult to imagine a life without streaming music, binge-watching shows, ordering food, shopping online and staying off social media. The price that consumers pay for doing all this is leaving a trail of data for marketers to mine and interpret.

Ever-evolving, ever-changing, ever mine, ever thine

Data that is no longer restricted to a name, address, mail id and phone number. Nor is it defined to a payment system. Each phrase used, image or video shared and item brought is a keyword. A keyword that further allows marketers to prompt and push their products and services to that consumer.

Evolved marketers who have understood this and acted upon it have enjoyed the first to market benefit and how. Brands such as Snickers, Racold and VOO are among the various brands to have used this to gain a marked edge in the market.

Giants such as Amazon are leading this bandwagon and vouching to develop Alexa in such a way that the voice-based search engine becomes less transactional and more functional and conversational, all on the foundation of making the platform more data rich yet.

Too much of a good thing, is bad?

While there is a consumer segment that does not mind being read and fed into a constant data stream, whether knowing or unknowingly, there is also a pronounced segment which is intimidated by this. No wonder that governments are having to step in and implement pieces of legislature that lend some method to this madness. Take for example, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation that came into effect from May, 2018.

Additionally, with the internet being borderless, laws and their offences are geography agnostic. This further adds to the complexity of customer data procurement for marketers. So while data is a must-have, the price of acquiring and protecting that data can amount to a cost that most marketers fail to anticipate.

Minimising collateral damage

So here’s what you can do to safeguard your vested interests:

• Data audits – If nothing, a data audit helps you understand what data you have, what you are collecting, what you need and what you don’t. This lends the first layer of much-needed accountability.
• Restricting data collection and retention – All most all privacy laws dictate that companies should use data that helps further their business. Plus, the more defined your data mining, the richer the yield.
• Securing data – It’s a well-established fact that data is power. Shying away from protecting that power is not the soundest of decisions.
• A privacy policy – the adage reads ‘better be safe than sorry’ for a reason.
• Let the consumers know – being honest with your consumers and letting them know about your data collection policies might just lead to you collecting a richer more accurate pool of data.

While data seems to be the safest and surest marketing tactic for now and in the times to come, marketing has and shall always be about customers. At Brandsum, we help you understand your customers and reach out to them. To know how, look us up at www.brandsum.com

All of our data is explicitly listed there!