Data can’t tell you everything. Whilst many marketers have become very good at using digital data for personalisation, identifying customer behaviour and determining how to tailor marketing messages, that data alone can’t give you the full story.
Big data has been a hot topic in the marketing industry for a while now and whilst it can tell us quite a lot about what’s going on, where it’s happening and when things are taking place, it doesn’t really tell us why customers behave the way they do. Big data can track customer behaviour but it can’t explain it. And that’s why the raw data is only part of the story. The actual process of conducting market research either face to face or over the phone can provide valuable insight and understanding into customers behaviours.
Getting true value out of your data
If you want to get true value out of the data you collect on your customers then you need to get better at understanding the market trends as well as the social, political and technological factors that underlie that behaviour. Understanding the motivation and why customers behave the way they do will give you much greater insight and without making human contact, you’re unlikely to derive this information.
The collection of raw data certainly has a key role to play in gaining insight about your customers and that’s why organisations across the globe are pouring billions into it. But, this doesn’t change the fact that human interaction and customer engagement matter.
In a world that is dominated by online interactions, the human touch still resonates. Speaking to your customers directly about the things that affect them is the only way to get under their skin and understand the way they tick.
Asking the right questions
In the B2B environment it takes time to build accurate profiles of your customers to understand what influences them and how their buying cycle operates. The best way to understand your customers is to speak to them, ask the right questions and listen to what they are actually telling you. This is why many organisations are now looking again at telemarketing to nurture customers, drive successful marketing automation, and speak to customers at the right time. This is how valuable insight is built and how future sales strategies can be reliably informed.
In conclusion, you really need to understand all aspects of your customers, use that understanding to drive more intelligent data capture via automation and then use all the insight you have gained to drive meaningful long lasting engagement. If you can achieve this, you will see the positive effects of your efforts on your bottom line.
To see how telemarketing can help you better understand your customers read the Definitive Guide to Telemarketing in the Digital Age
