Moneyball Meets Marketing: How the best-in-class actually use big data to increase digital marketing results

The movie Moneyball isn’t really about baseball. It’s not even about statistics. It’s about the way data can be used to challenge conventional wisdom, and its something those of us in the field of marketing metrics have known for a long time. And yet, too many businesses are missing out—for example they know that there’s a lot of buzz around big data, but instead of seizing the opportunity they ignore it.

That is to say almost all use data for creating nice dashboards by now, i.e. small data.

But many aren’t yet using the underlying big data and analytics to make the transition from one-size-fits-all marketing to behavior-based, personalized marketing programs. That is despite the fact that both marketers and customers stand to gain when interactions are more relevant, helpful, and real-time.

Why is it that many marketers aren’t yet taking advantage of big data analytics, especially in digital channels that are a natural fit, such as the web, mobile and social media? An answer to this question (and many more) is to be found in the results of the 2013 Big Data for Marketing survey from Trip Kucera, at the Aberdeen Group. Here’s what they found:

1. There’s too much information in too many places: 35% of organizations say that integrating multiple data sources is a challenge.
2. They don’t understand the benefits: 30% are having a hard time understanding how marketing analytics could be used in their companies.
3. They lack the talent: 30% are having problems finding the right people with the right kind of knowledge of marketing analytics.

So what’s keeping your organization from leveraging big data in your marketing?  I’ll be taking part in a webcast featuring more results from the survey, along with Trip Kucera and Graeme Noseworthy, Big Data for Marketing, Media & Entertainment. Register for the webcast to join us and find out how the best in class in the survey incorporate data analytics into marketing programs—and how you can, too.