When marketers discuss the overused buzzwords “big data” and the challenges that surround it, it’s easy for the unfamiliar onlooker to become baffled by what the term actually signifies. Images come to mind of rows of screens streaming thousands of lines of code, matrix-style, from which exceptionally intelligent statisticians make instant, complex life-altering decisions. If things were not already perplexing enough, the muddle becomes even more tangled when ‘big data’ professionals start proclaiming that their data is the cleanest, the most significant and the most illustrative. What does that mean? The concept of big data is rather simple and idea that today’s marketers and analysts are pioneers at the edge of a new big data frontier is false.
As we browse, socialise, purchase and consume online, we leave behind a trail of information (data) that detail various trackable facts about us. The demand to utilise this data for the purposes of intelligent, targeted marketing has resulted in the development of software which can gather and collate this data on scale.
Big data is a simplistic term which refers to the automated accumulation and analysis of audience data on a large scale. Here are two of the key colloquial terms big data professionals throw around to tempt marketers into buying data and data platforms:
Clean data: Hearing data professionals promote their data stores as “clean” is a common phenomenon in the industry. For marketers to make successful big data informed decisions, it is essential that the source data has been checked and verified. Data which has been processed by internal standards to check for regulation and integrity is considered valid and is known as clean. This term applies when marketers are searching for answers to a specific question, using data which has been processed and sifted of irrelevant fields.
Illustrative data: The collection of data without purpose is senseless. Data professionals strive to gather data from which audience insight can be derived. Data which possesses the potential to grant marketers a view into the behaviour of their audience is known as illustrative data. Needless to say, data professionals compete relentlessly to market their data as the most significantly illustrative.
While useful, owning big data does not lead directly to successful marketing. Instead, it is the ways in which big data is utilised and interpreted that leads to insightful choices being made. It is so-called big marketing – ie the decisions that data enables marketers to make – that is the pivotal term that defines modern marketing practice – not big data in its own right.
Sophisticated algorithm-based platforms designed to provide meaningful analysis of data stores and return significant insights are what form the bridge between big data and big marketing. These data-crunching platforms break down the sheer volumes of data gathered from various marketing channels, by isolating a clean layer of independent marketing campaign data. It is this bridge that makes sense of the data and informs marketers on how they can alter their approach in response to what their target audiences are doing online.
It is now critical that the marketing industry evolves its thinking beyond pondering the big data conundrum, to taking the next steps in utilising resources available to them to help them do their jobs better. Marketers are equipped with the necessary tools to analyse their audience on an individual basis and anticipate their potential consumer’s next move. Marketing can use data intelligently to become one of the most agile, informed and pro active activities within a business if we make the most of the offered assets. If the opportunity is taken, the practices of accurately pre-empting the next big wave of consumer activity by analysing the past will be a possibility open to all marketers.
In short, big data is the raw material that makes this invaluable foresight a possibility. Big marketing, and the tools that enable it, is the pickaxe that makes it a reality.
Jon Baron is co-founder and CEO of TagMan and can be found on Twitter @TagManJon.
To get more articles like this sent direct to your inbox, sign up for free membership of the Guardian Media Network. This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.
Tags: audience, baron, big-data, data, development, jobs, marketing, media, potential, source
Posted in Network Marketing | No Comments » |
As we browse, socialise, purchase and consume online, we leave behind a trail of information (data) that detail various trackable facts about us. The demand to utilise this data for the purposes of intelligent, targeted marketing has resulted in the development of software which can gather and collate this data on scale.
Big data is a simplistic term which refers to the automated accumulation and analysis of audience data on a large scale. Here are two of the key colloquial terms big data professionals throw around to tempt marketers into buying data and data platforms:
Clean data: Hearing data professionals promote their data stores as “clean” is a common phenomenon in the industry. For marketers to make successful big data informed decisions, it is essential that the source data has been checked and verified. Data which has been processed by internal standards to check for regulation and integrity is considered valid and is known as clean. This term applies when marketers are searching for answers to a specific question, using data which has been processed and sifted of irrelevant fields.
Illustrative data: The collection of data without purpose is senseless. Data professionals strive to gather data from which audience insight can be derived. Data which possesses the potential to grant marketers a view into the behaviour of their audience is known as illustrative data. Needless to say, data professionals compete relentlessly to market their data as the most significantly illustrative.
While useful, owning big data does not lead directly to successful marketing. Instead, it is the ways in which big data is utilised and interpreted that leads to insightful choices being made. It is so-called big marketing – ie the decisions that data enables marketers to make – that is the pivotal term that defines modern marketing practice – not big data in its own right.
Sophisticated algorithm-based platforms designed to provide meaningful analysis of data stores and return significant insights are what form the bridge between big data and big marketing. These data-crunching platforms break down the sheer volumes of data gathered from various marketing channels, by isolating a clean layer of independent marketing campaign data. It is this bridge that makes sense of the data and informs marketers on how they can alter their approach in response to what their target audiences are doing online.
It is now critical that the marketing industry evolves its thinking beyond pondering the big data conundrum, to taking the next steps in utilising resources available to them to help them do their jobs better. Marketers are equipped with the necessary tools to analyse their audience on an individual basis and anticipate their potential consumer’s next move. Marketing can use data intelligently to become one of the most agile, informed and pro active activities within a business if we make the most of the offered assets. If the opportunity is taken, the practices of accurately pre-empting the next big wave of consumer activity by analysing the past will be a possibility open to all marketers.
In short, big data is the raw material that makes this invaluable foresight a possibility. Big marketing, and the tools that enable it, is the pickaxe that makes it a reality.
Jon Baron is co-founder and CEO of TagMan and can be found on Twitter @TagManJon.
To get more articles like this sent direct to your inbox, sign up for free membership of the Guardian Media Network. This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.
Tags: audience, baron, big-data, data, development, jobs, marketing, media, potential, source
Posted in Network Marketing | No Comments » |