Many marketers equate the quantity of data to the quality of their activation. The trend is to collect as much data as possible. Whether that is done through a website, download/participation forms, surveys, etc., collecting data can be done relatively easily. However, the information gathered still needs to be relevant. Often only a small amount of the data collected is actually used.
The challenge for marketers is to identify the useful and usable data in
order to send relevant and targeted communication to their audience.
In other words, to make your data talk, you first need to have a good knowledge of it. To do so, you need to ask yourself the right questions:
- Where are the data collected?
- Why are they collected?
- Who is going to use them?
- How are they going to be used?
Note: differentiate between ‘data’, ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’: data are the raw elements that have not yet been processed, interpreted and put in context. Information
is interpreted and contextualized data that helps marketers improve their client knowledge.