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Businesses could always stand to gain from marketing. Marketing helps create connections, which boosts a business’ visibility. However, traditional means of marketing strategies may not be applicable anymore. If you are a startup business, a data-driven marketing strategy would help solidify your online presence, which is necessary in today’s digital world. To help you out, here are 6 steps to create data-driven marketing for your startup. 

Set a Goal for Your Business

When you first establish your startup, you should have a clear goal of what you want your business to accomplish. It is also important that those goals be realistic and attainable. Sure, making enough money and growing is important as much as it is primarily the goal of every business. But let’s get into the specifics. What are your key performance indicators (KPIs)? Do you want to just focus on increasing sales, or increasing sales by 10% next quarter? What about enhancing customer experience? These are some of the things to keep in mind to shape your business’ identity as a whole and measure your level of success. Without a clear direction, you will just end up going about everything randomly. 

Determine Your Target Audience

One of the important factors in putting up a business is knowing your target audience. It is very difficult to cater to everyone’s interest but there are certain demographics in which your business would surely thrive. For instance, is your startup geared towards young adults, older adults, or the teen category? Knowing your audience lets you create personalized marketing campaigns that will appeal to their interests. 

Collect Data to Create a Customer Profile

Data collection shouldn’t be implemented late into your startup but from day 1. From the moment you’ve decided to put up your startup is the day you should also collect data. It is also important you collect data in an unobtrusive manner that doesn’t encroach on the customer’s user privacy. Think about the different ways you could harness data whether it is analytics tools that could determine customer behavior to customer heat maps. This creates a customer profile that allows you to personalize their experience. It is how startups should make the most out of their data.

Analyze Collected Data 

The data you’ve collected isn’t meant to be shelved or archived. It serves a useful purpose. That said, raw data on its own isn’t going to magically create a marketing strategy for you. But it can help you make business decisions. The numbers don’t lie after all. Say you’re a cosmetics or skincare company and you’ve noticed that a majority of your sales come from lipsticks. You could increase your startup’s inventory of lipsticks and provide discounts. Moreover, you could also reduce the production of other items that aren’t as highly sought after. In short, relying on data would help you make better decisions and more methodical ones because it is comprehensive and reliable. It would also reduce guesswork or gut-based decisions that could do more harm than good for your startup. 

Capitalize on the Available Channels At Your Disposal

With the convenience of technology at your disposal, startups have the upper hand when it comes to reaching customers. There are lots of ways to interact with customers such as your website or on social media. Given how AI is changing digital marketing, it is not hard to boost your visibility and interaction with customers. Even non-technological means like word-of-mouth or even plain flyers and brochures can be utilized. The point is, with the almost unlimited number of channels at your disposal, it’d be a shame not to take advantage of them. You don’t have to use all of them, pick a go-to if you have to. What’s important is to ensure your startup is accessible to most people in such a way that it becomes ingrained in them. 

Review KPIs and Remove What Doesn’t Work

Having lots of sales is great but one way to measure your startup’s level of success is through KPIs. This provides a more streamlined approach that lets you see the different angles in your startup. As much as you want to involve all aspects in your decision-making, you also have to choose the ones which are most important whether it involves the number of social media likes, shares, or even the traffic your website generates. Reviewing your numbers would also allow you to make adjustments. Take for example the number of sales. Should you invest more time and effort into developing your website rather than relying on e-commerce sites that carry your brand? In terms of social media, if you’ve noticed your Instagram page garners more traffic than your startup’s Facebook page, why do you think that happens? Knowing these at a glance lets you look into the situation and see the underlying causes. Check out our LipSmart Case Study where we highlight some key components related to the project’s KPI’s and digital presence.

In a Nutshell

There is no doubt about the importance marketing can bring when it comes to promoting your business, startups, or otherwise. But implementing data-driven marketing is the way to go for startups if you want to establish a solid foundation for your business, make better business decisions, and secure a loyal following.