Data is the new Oil | Digital Marketing

The most powerful mode of marketing is the word of mouth.  

Is Digital marketing same as word-of-mouth marketing?  Yes or no? Well, what do you call ‘thing going viral on the social media’. The word spreads faster than a forest fire. We bank on referrals and trust the testimonies of our contacts before deciding on a service provider or business provider.

Today, it’s too expensive to try out the trial and error, and hence we follow footprints to be better safe and sure. Check and double-check. And that’s the reason why the online reviews are attached too much importance because you can’t collect all the information from your known sources, and hence, need to rely on unknown sources as well. Be it a travel or hotel booking or buying a car, we need to arm ourselves with facts, figures and Opinions. It matters more these days on others’ experience to get a perspective of ‘how it will be’, before doing it on our own for the ‘self-experience.’ Isn’t it? How many times have you checked a restaurant‘s reputation online before booking a table? And scrolled down all the way to sniff out foul smell? Yes, that one star rating which makes your face frown. Yes!

Word of mouth is more personalized. But in this digital era, where time is money, it’s impossible to knock on every door to get first-hand feedback. Technology has advanced. We speak of being ahead or behind the curve in technology. So the best way to pool in people’s views in one place would be the internet. And if that be, what’s stopping you from marketing using internet as a channel.

This could be the genesis of digital marketing. People prefer both brick and mortar shops and online shopping too. There exists a market share for both, and if you consider convenience, comfort, choice, online shopping is head over shoulder.

Times have changed and it’s wise to turn along the tide. So hoardings which do exist have shrunk in number and instead the online banners have risen exponentially in numbers. The medium of sale has shifted. Online transactions have spiked in numbers. Marketing of products and services using technologies through internet is otherwise known as Digital marketing, wherein the online space is used to provide the user experience to the best extent possible in promotions and pushing sales.

‘data is the new oil’

Why? Because that’s the most valuable resource. What moves the needle? Sales. And sales to happen, you need data. Refined. There, indeed, is an information overload. Looks like there is a data dump, and that’s why refined. 

Transparency is the key. Be it a website or a product/service promoted in a website. ‘how many users? how many likes? how many new users?  And that leads to the next poser ‘do you have the resource to refine?’ 

People are crunching the numbers and scrambling for data to dissect the demography in order to study and better understand the market conditions and customer behavior.  Anything that cannot be backed up with data becomes merely an opinion. Credibility is the cornerstone.  Data integrity. Everything centers on it.

Know your customer.

When a customer shops for a book, or a perfume or a laptop, or holiday vacation or anything for that matter, it gives a glimpse of the customer in terms of taste and take. Next time when the same customer visits the page, there will be “you might also like” with several  allied products or services listed. If that can bring a smile on customer’s face, then its good user experience.

Now this can be made possible only we have credible data.  Don’t let data sound so technical. It is information. How much you know about your customer to serve better and thereby improve your relationship. Relationship building is the ultimate key because that's how you earn the customer’s confidence. 

Data is the decisive factor.

Image credit: goo.gl/WmYFDt 

We will discuss more about this subject in the week to come.  Stay tuned.