How to leverage data to drive sustainable growth

Brands that emerge from economic downturns ahead of their competition have the foresight to maintain their marketing budgets and know the importance of leveraging data and embracing data-driven strategies to drive sustainable growth. 

So, what should marketers do right now to help set their brand up for success? These data-driven marketing strategies can improve efficiency and enable your brand to emerge from this difficult economic situation stronger than ever.

Savvy marketers know that leveraging the right data is the key to making smarter, faster, and more strategic and informed marketing decisions to drive the strongest results, optimise marketing efforts, and obtain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. 

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as too much data. There’s also such a thing as poor-quality data. Both can lead to bad decision-making. 

Instead, focus on the outcomes that your team can consistently track to discover where there are opportunities to improve and grow. For example, 
 
Calculate the lead conversion rate for individual channels to get a pulse-check on how well specific channels are performing, and to help direct your time and money to higher-performing channels. 
Track your company’s loyalty and retention metrics to analyse and understand your brands’ growth and overall performance. 

Brands that understand their insights and current growth metrics and know how to utilise them to guide strategy can enhance the customer experience for a competitive advantage moving forward.

As stricter data regulations and the phase-out of third-party cookies have already started to take effect, it’s more crucial than ever to leverage first-party data for a more personalised experience for customers. When budgets are tighter, personalisation is the key to retaining your loyal customers. More than ever, customers want and expect more tailored suggestions and recommendations while shopping, and using the power of data is the only way to give that to them. 

The data-driven solution to this conundrum is through omnichannel personalisation, which is fueled by unified customer data. Omnichannel personalisation allows marketers to serve their customers better no matter when, where, or how a customer interacts with the brand.

Brands must prioritise creating a unified experience across all channels and touchpoints in the customer journey – including brick-and-mortar, website, and phone. We know from experience that a consumer is much more likely to return when they feel like the brand connects with them on a deeper level. 

For example, Just Eat Takeaway is a leading global online food delivery marketplace that connects restaurants and customers with its global platform. The Amsterdam-based company operates in eleven countries and caters to over fourteen million customers annually. 

Just Eat’s purpose is to make food discovery more exciting and more convenient for customers than ever before. They offer curated personalised restaurant recommendations and simplify the ordering process by leveraging the data of their vast customer base. 

In addition to their online food ordering service, they also offer a B2B marketplace that allows restaurant owners to purchase food and non-food items from third-party sellers and enable restaurants to grow their online businesses efficiently and effectively. 

To provide a consistent experience across all touchpoints, Just Eat Takeaway facilitates restaurants with a personalised website and marketing experience that is tailored to customers’ needs and helps local restaurants better customise their menus. 

The website is also optimised so that customers can quickly re-order frequently purchased items and easily access a recommended ingredient list based on the menu of the restaurant.   

As more consumers continue to rely on digital channels, more brands will need to turn to these digital solutions to better engage with their customers and create a more personalised and seamless experience for years to come.

When a recession hits and budgets become tighter, brands typically cut marketing costs to conserve expenses when they should focus on getting a better grasp of their marketing spend and strategy. Part of this is to demonstrate the value of marketing expenses, while the other part is to quantify which marketing channels are performing at an optimal level – thereby reducing spend in channels that have maxed out their performance ability.

When a brand utilises spend management, they are better equipped to:

• Continue to demonstrate the value of marketing – especially in an environment that creates an opportunity to gain an edge on competitors who reduce marketing spend. 
• Highlight the channels where money can be spent more effectively and establish where to distribute spend among different marketing channels to determine which specific one is delivering the most ROI. 
• Measure the contribution of each channel.

By leveraging the right data, you can obtain consistent, fact-based information regarding your marketing, including your growth and performance patterns, variances, and risks. By investing in spend management, and embracing the right tools and strategy, your brand can shrink costs, increase profits, and stay nimble to weather the economic storm.