The Chieftains

QUESTION: MARKETERS TODAY HAVE A WEALTH OF DATA AT THEIR FINGERTIPS — MAYBE TOO MUCH. DOES HAVING ACCESS TO SO MANY METRICS HELP SHARPEN YOUR STRATEGY, OR IS IT TOO EASY TO LOSE SIGHT OF THE BIG-PICTURE IMPACT OF A CAMPAIGN?

MAC MCINTOSH, PRESIDENT, MAC MCINTOSH INC.

Mac McIntosh, president, Mac McIntosh Inc.

Analyzing data can be a bit overwhelming. But today you can no longer rely on your best guesses alone. You need data that can tell you if you are on target or not, so you can quickly refocus your marketing for maximum success. The best place to start is at the beginning — set clear but measurable goals or objectives upfront for all aspects of your marketing. How many leads do you need to generate? How many sales must close for the campaign to be a success? By when does this have to be accomplished? And you must be able to get data you need to measure your results. With this in mind, avoid setting goals that you can't get the data to measure.

LIZ MILLER, VICE PRESIDENT, CMO COUNCIL

Liz Miller, vice president, CMO council

Marketers are swimming in a sea of data that isn't just distracting from a campaign, but distracting from the customer! In a CMO Council report, 41% of marketers said they are struggling with collecting, integrating and maintaining customer data, and 38% are challenged to derive valuable insights and intelligence from their data. Marketers need to start by identifying the critical factors that impact customer affinity and create optimized customer experiences that are meaningful, relevant and aimed at building customer advocacy and loyalty. This requires going well beyond basic demographics to include transactional insight, customer voice, customer service experiences, social media monitoring and content engagement through online, channel or retail environments. You must define what makes up your “relevance matrix” and institutionalize this 360-degree view of the customer so that it's embraced across your company. And be practical. Remember, just because you can measure it doesn't mean that the metric will drive business, engagement, advocacy or loyalty. Sometimes data is just a number.

JONATHAN SHAPIRO, CEO, MEDIAWHIZ HOLDINGS, INC.

Jonathan Shapiro, CEO, MediaWhiz Holdings, Inc.

If marketers don't have a clear view of what data they want, and how they will use the information, it is easy to drown in a sea of information. You need to focus on actionable data, which can be transformed into valuable information and be used to improve a marketing program. This requires the technology to turn the right data into answers, like which customer segments have the highest lifetime value; which creative elements drove the highest response; and which media sources provided the highest converting audience. Then the marketer needs to be able to act. Using the highest performing creative elements and/or buying the highest converting media easily improves marketing ROI. Targeting the right audience online is a little trickier. It requires the technology to target the right ad to the right user in real time. This is getting easier with the emergence of data-enabled networks and exchanges.

NIKI ADAMS, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, PHOENIX SUNS

Niki Adams, Director of Marketing, Phoenix Suns

With a range in ticket prices from $10 per seat upwards to over $1,000 per seat for a single Suns basketball game, our fan demographics are extremely diverse. As such, data plays a critical role in learning more about each fan based on where they sit and what triggers their buying behavior. As our senior director of e-commerce and CRM Jenna Corday agrees, the best tip for sorting through all the data and its relevance is to test, test and test again. We've purchased lead lists based on profiling our customers strictly on data insights. Testing has taught us that in the current economy, those profiles are not necessarily accurate in today's market. Still, as marketers, we need to hang on to a bit of our gut instinct. We should let data and the relevant metrics help us make the necessary marketing decisions to guide our strategy, but we should not let them control our strategy.

GOT A QUESTION YOU'D LIKE TO POSE TO THE TOP MINDS IN THE INDUSTRY? Like to participate as a “Chieftain” yourself? E-mail brian.quinton@penton.com or beth.negus@penton.com.