“Big data” in online business involves the use of software to capture, create, manage, and process large amounts of information in a relatively small amount of time.
The process manages data sets that are too complex for on-hand database management tools or regular data procession application. With big data, correlations can be made to spot business trends, determine quality of research, prevent disease, combat crime, and determine real-time traffic conditions by evaluating a large set of related data versus separate smaller amounts.
In business, big data can predict customer behavior on a large scale, and essentially save on a company’s bottom line through reduction in marketing costs and efforts. Here are some examples of how big data saves money in marketing.
Zero in on customers
Marketers are expected to understand, predict, and shape the buying behavior of customers in order to bring in more business for the online company they are promoting. Along with analytic tools, big data can correlate ads and sales, audience measurement, and ultimately, customer behavior.
This makes advertising and marketing more effective because they can target specific customers, which is cost-effective because customers will be more susceptible to buying what they know and like.
Different angles of analytics
Marketers can use analytics to work from a database versus representative sampling and create effective customer segmentation. They also make it possible to combine multiple data sets for audience measurement. This information can help marketers understand where and why the customers may have gone for one product over another.
Honing your aim
Marketers are using big data to understand how a consumer feels about a brand and how to interact with those individuals once they have this information. Customized marketing can help online business by speaking directly to the customers that are more likely to buy the product and will create revenue for the company.
Gain a stronger sense of hindsight
Big data can relieve marketers from the time-consuming duties of creating and testing advertising so they can focus more on the data that proves when marketing has worked. If advertisers are more worried about the color of the ad, rather than the data, then they may be missing out on customers and their true needs.
Marketing and profitability clearly can benefit from the use of big data, but it can also identify other resources your online business needs, such as better warehousing and distribution systems. It can help the company handle problems it needs solved or issues that have to be addressed, then offer the data which will determine the best solution.
