Your company has no choice but to embrace the power of predictive analytics if it wants to compete successfully in demand generation.
Because it is through effective gathering and analysis of data that your business can mitigate risks when making critical marketing and sales decisions.
The following is a deeper look at predictive marketing, including
- an explanation of what it is,
- how your marketing and sales teams can benefit, and
- what the future holds in this area.
Predictive Marketing Introduction
Predictive marketing is the use of data to make more informed, intelligent business decisions.
It is a contrast to traditional strategies used to make business marketing decisions, which were primarily driven by instinct or gut feel.
The premise of predictive marketing is that data on prior marketing tactics and buyer behaviours help validate the accuracy of planned strategies.
A common objective is to identify the best-qualified prospects for demand generation by evaluating the traits and actions of existing top customers in your database.
Benefits to Marketing and Sales Teams
The most significant benefit of predictive marketing is that it helps improve the accuracy of your business marketing decisions, and therefore the efficiency of your marketing spend.
You don’t waste as much money targeting the wrong people or employing strategies with a low likelihood of success.
The following is a look at several specific benefits that apply to your marketing and sales teams:
Marketing
- Heightened use of optimised marketing strategies and promotional tactics
- Increased budget and resource allocation
- Better understanding of ideal customer markets and buyer personas
Sales
- Improved understanding of strategies and techniques that contribute to sales conversions
- Access to more qualified leads which aids nurturing and conversion efficiency
- Better understanding of the correlation between data input and lead quality
The Future of Predictive Marketing
Your potential for effectiveness with predictive marketing is fueled by your strategic planning and development of agile marketing processes, along with access to technology that enables in-depth data collection and predictive analytics.
An October 2016 eMarketer study of marketing and media executives found that 49.3 percent of respondents cited predictive marketing as the most important use of data technology.
Developers continue to integrate more artificial intelligence into their software solutions to give companies greater insight into the intent of targeted prospects.
Just this morning it was announced that Hubspot had acquired AI marketing chatbot company Motion.ai.
Ideally, AI allows you to combine the best of predictive data with old-fashioned human intuition. When optimised, you can deliver on-point messaging that speaks to the needs and emotional motives of a very precise prospect.
Currently, top companies use predictive analytics to gain insights at a very granular level. Such deep perspective enables the targeting of impactful content to distinct buyers even within the same company.
And usage of predictive technology is rising among marketing and sales organisations, though some have been slow to adopt best practices.
But there is still time to gain a leadership advantage in your sector by embracing all that predictive has to offer.
Wrap Up
The future is now when discussing the role of predictive analytics in marketing.
If you want to take a position of innovative leadership in your industry, dive in quickly.
In the near future, predictive will become the universal way of developing marketing strategy across most sectors.
