5 Ways Startups Should Leverage Data To Improve Marketing

In today's digital age, it is becoming ever so easy to bootstrap your way to success. The invention of the computer and internet revolutionized the world of business in ways that not many could have predicted. From utilizing cheap, do-it-yourself programs to organize your accounting or HR department, to setting your marketing on autopilot, new apps and platforms allow us to connect the dots in our business. 

Success in any business comes from the continuous flow of information from one "silo" to another. In other words, how seamless is the transfer of information from one value stream to another? 

Value stream mapping is a lean-management method for analyzing the current state and designing a future state for the series of events that take a product or service from its beginning through to the customer.

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When your value streams become so congested to the point where there is not an efficient and easy transition from one stream to another, your business tends to get backed-up. And just like the Falcons in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl... everything begins to fall apart. 

While value stream mapping can be one of the most critical components of understanding your business processes and potential lone "silos", without understanding the underlying information transferring from one stream to another, you have not accomplished anything. 

Often these streams are comprised of multiple different elements. In a typical setting, they are seen going from a marketing and sales-oriented stream to an operations, and finally to a financial one. Let's take a typical carpet cleaning business. Your marketing and sales team bring in the leads to convert, your operating team takes care of cleaning those dirty, stain-filled carpets, and finally the finance team collects payments, and repeat. 

The first hurdle to this challenge becomes the leverage through your marketing and sales force. With the invigoration and expansion of data collection, it is now easier than ever to access the information you need. Choose from thousands upon thousands of platforms that allow you to post on social networks, discover and create content, analyze your social engagement, or even put your Google Ads on autopilot. 

At the end of the day we still come back to one factor. You could be putting all the time and money into marketing efforts, but without utilizing the right data, you can count on going nowhere fast. 

Here are 5 concepts you should understand when leveraging data in your marketing mix.

1. GeographicsWhere are people searching for you from? Let's go back to your carpet cleaning business. You're based in Boston, Massachusetts but for some reason you are getting 75% of your website views from Pennsylvania. What does this tell you about the ads you are running? Did you receive publicity in a local-Pennsylvania magazine? Was there a flood ravaging through a Pennsylvania neighborhood? Or are your competitors simply spending more on ads than you in the Boston area?
   Understanding the geographical area where your marketing efforts provide the highest conversion rate will come to tell you a lot about what people are looking for and how badly they want it.
2. Demographics
   What type of people are searching for your product/service? Are they majorly from higher-income areas? Is this because of your targeted ads or is it because your product/service is priced higher than most competitors?
   Demographics will come to tell you the type of person that is searching for you. From their age to their gender and occupation, demographics data will help you narrow down the "average" consumer.
   
3. Psychological Influencers
   What are the interests of your consumers and leads? Are they from Catholic or Jewish families. Do they enjoy soccer or golf? Are they interested in pop music or country? These descriptors are often harder to understand than geographical or demographical factors, yet often play an interesting and crucial role in being able to "out-market" your competitor. 
   Psychological data allows you to understand where to target your ads, in addition to geographical location. If they listen to country music, do an interview on a local country music radio station. If they enjoy golf, you can always sponsor a golf tournament. The ability to target your ads knowing that they will be seen is something never seen before the invention of Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
4. A/B Testing 
   Now that you have understood where to target your ads and what subjects interest your target market, how do you decide on what colors, messaging, and images to include in the ads? It becomes fairly easy to churn through money when you are trying hundreds of variations of ads. A/B testing is about to become your savior. 
   A/B testing platforms allow you to split your ads 50/50. When allocating $1,000 to an ad, A/B testing will allow you to spend $500 of that budget on one variation of an ad (color, title, message, images, etc.) and the remaining $500 on a different variation. Your results will be simple. Considering the same amount of money was spent on both ads, which one had a higher clickthrough. Or more importantly... which one had a higher conversion rate?
5. Conversion Rates & Customer Acquisition CostAfter spending your entire marketing budget across channels including Facebook, Twitter, Google, blogging, etc.. how many new customers have you gained that can be directly attributed to the money you spent on advertising?
   You spent $1,000 in September on solely Google ads which gives you 750 new views on your website and 45 new email inquiries about carpet cleaning. Your conversion rate will be those 45/750 leads that signed up after being directed to your site, or simply put, 6%. To translate this into your next marketing campaign, you can expect that for every 1 customer you are looking to gain, you should be willing to pay $22.22. 

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Understanding and mastering these 5 concepts will allow you to truly leverage the mass amounts of data you are collecting to have more a cost-effective, influential, and successful marketing campaign.