Dovetailing Data and Digital

It’s wise to be purpose-driven. It’s great to be goal-driven. When it comes to marketing, sales, or recruiting, it pays to be data-driven.
If you’re not using data to steer your overall business approach, you’re putting the cart before the horse. You’re sailing without a rudder. If you want to increase efficiency, boost productivity, and create more success, you need to dovetail data and digital.
It’s not as complex as it sounds. Like peanut butter and jelly, data and digital were meant for each other. They’re two peas in a pod (of business success).
Here’s a taste of how data can make that digital sandwich of yours delicious, nutritious, and ever more ambitious. Don’t be suspicious, this is bound to make you propitious.
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Data Reveals What Works

 
Data is an invaluable cog in the modern digital marketing machine. Tracking metrics and gathering information on your audience unveils insight as to what’s working. How can you optimize your campaigns without keeping track of what approaches are resonating?
Data helps you track metrics like:

  • Average daily and monthly digital campaign spend
  • Average reach
  • Average clicks
  • Click-through rate
  • Average conversion rate

Parsing analytics to measure your digital campaigns will make you more efficient at your job. Not to mention empower you to start running circles around your old school, shoot from the hip competitors.
Knowing what your audience responds to (and on what channel) enables you to tailor your communications according to their tastes and preferences. That’s how you win the digital game.
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Data Proves ROI

 
Each marketing campaign you develop is only as valuable as the measurable increase in revenue for your company that it generates.
We live in a ‘show me the money’ world. Your budget will disappear faster than chicken nuggets at a tailgate if you’re unable to prove your department is worth the investment.
If you can show your superiors that your recent blog post led to a certain amount of white paper downloads or call-to-action clicks, those are prospects who just became leads for your sales team to follow up on. If you have calculated the average value of a lead you can demonstrate how much that article/white paper/ad is contributing to your company.
Tracking the results of your lead generation gives you hard proof that your marketing efforts are worth the money, resources, and time.
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Data Helps You Target Online

 
Whether you’re trying to recruit drivers or reach potential buyers, how do you find the best prospects? Data is a torch in the darkness.  
How so, you ask? Here at Randall-Reilly we have a fleet of powerful brands with engaged audiences, who we get to know through our Connectivity Reports, industry research, and reader surveys. Gathering data about our readers’ demographics, media consumption habits, and channel preferences gives insight into who exactly reads our publications. We want to find out who they are and what they’re into. Collecting data of this nature can help you identify exactly who you’re looking for — in the right place, via the right channel, at the right time.  
For instance, our brands Overdrive and Truckers News draw tons of drivers who are actively looking for new positions. If you’re looking for female drivers, She Drives is the place to be. We also have popular publications that offer a gateway to decision makers in the worlds of heavy equipment, aggregates, and landscaping. Data can help you get your banner and text ads in front of the right prospects or customers.
Of course social media is a majestic wonderland of targeting unto itself. Don’t get us started on the possibilities of reaching your audience on YouTube and Facebook. Give us a holler any time if it is social success you seek.
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Whittle it Down

 
The big key here is to not take on too much at once. The possibilities of how to use data to fuel digital prosperity are just about endless, so you need to whittle down what metrics are most important to you. Put the others on the backburner. You have plenty of data sources to consider, like:

  • Keyword data
  • Geographic data
  • Link data
  • Local search data
  • Mobile data
  • On-page data
  • Rank data
  • Revenue data
  • Traffic data
  • Social network data
  • Universal search data

Identifying the metrics that matter most to you is the first big step toward dovetailing your data and digital efforts. Don’t get discouraged by all the information and numbers — you can make data work for you. If you need a hand to get started, we’re here to help.
 
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