Nowadays, data is a digital goldmine, precisely because we live in the digital era. This material enables your company to adjust itself and be more precise with every step it takes.
Success in data use lies behind a productive and, mostly, strategic collection.
Not only must you collect this information, but it is also important to know where to find it, how to organize it, and, lastly, analyze it.
In this article, we will explore the importance of data collection, how to do it, and how you can benefit from such an important activity in the Digital Marketing realm. Here is what you are going to learn:
- What is data collection?
- Why is data collection important?
- How do I collect data for Marketing?
- What are the main tools for collecting data?
- What are the benefits of a well-performed data collection?
Read on and find out!
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What is data collection?
Data collection is a process-oriented towards gathering strategic content that can be found in analysis tools, forms, and software that hold this kind of information.
This process aims to enable companies to deeply understand the results of different industries, the market, the consumers’ perceptions, and the business’s performance in general.
As much as it may seem an over the top activity, this is actually a very common task in almost every company.
Presently, data is considered a valuable asset in any industry just because they can translate company results and the external perceptions of products, services, and the brand.
Data is everywhere and is generated everywhere in a digital world, even in a straightforward interaction of the consumer with a page on a company’s website.
Besides navigational data, we can also mention the data originated from the interaction with posts on social media, replies to email marketing campaigns, among several other possibilities.
Hence, all responses and actions generate data that companies may interpret as trustworthy, reflect how the client acts, what they think, and how they react to the marketing campaigns.
This is why data collection is a constant task that aims to gather all this content to analyze it and transform it into strategic information.
Why is data collection important?
Data collection becomes vital when companies understand that it has to be part of everyday work life.
If digital is the main environment nowadays, and virtually every marketing strategy goes through it, we can assert that data provides everything the business manager needs to know.
Thanks to data, it is possible to optimize actions, plan more adequate campaigns, know what your consumer thinks about your company, and continuously act strategically, looking for improvement in key areas.
To do so, it is essential to have continuous access to data, understanding what they have to say to the analysis teams, who pass them on to the stakeholders.
Check some topics about how data collection is important and the main uses for this kind of information in your marketing department’s work.
Define and feed strategic KPI
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator, which means they are the most important criteria a company uses to define its progress. Therefore, they are essential for monitoring important metrics.
They enable business managers to know the number of leads acquired in a specific period, an e-commerce’s average ticket, among other data.
The control made via these indicators is exact and, besides this, can be held continuously, always with up to date data that offer a very accurate perception of the company.
To make it possible, data collection must be constant, so that the KPIs always have the most recent information.
Detect the public’s actions and their level of satisfaction
The public will interact with posts and ads, navigate on websites and e-commerces, and request help among other behaviors and actions.
Each one of them will be important to the company differently, so it is key to monitor and track each of them carefully. An active data collection is what will enable that.
Data collection from your main sources is what will allow you to know not only what your public has been doing, but also what they have been thinking about your services and products.
Good data collection must be able to reach such information via your main sources, guaranteeing a broad perception of each expectation and the consumer’s opinion about the company.
Develop a relationship with the customer
Since data collection will show you the consumer’s perceptions, opinions, and habits, you can use all this information to develop a relationship with them.
If the company understands what the public expects, it is easier to deliver services, products, and even establish a communication more inline with their expectations.
Besides, data offered by consumers can be important to generate customized records about them by using a CRM tool.
This kind of software is essential to develop a strategic relationship, from cutting-edge support to the possibility of generating more adequate sales to each person.
Structure campaigns and actions in an optimized way
With their data, a company can know which channels its consumers are on, their preferences regarding products and services, and how they interact with the actions, among many other important details.
From this, it is easier to develop campaigns since the marketing team understands better what may work for the public.
For this to be possible, consistency in data collection is essential. Only a constant follow up will enable the marketing team to have strategic knowledge, creating buyer personas that faithfully represent the average consumer of the company and their expectations.
Thus, the campaigns will be more accurate and will have a bigger impact on the public.
How do I collect data for Marketing?
Data collection is an essential activity, but it will only enable the company to reach positive results if held strategically and planned. There must be good terms and, most of all, you must know what to do.
Nowadays, besides structuring an efficient collection, you must also abide by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which means you must collect all the data you need while respecting the public’s privacy and committing to the adequate treatment of their information.
In the following topics, you will understand which guidelines should orient your data collection, structuring a practice that is, above all, strategic.
1. Define the goals of the collection
Why is your company collecting data?
As simple as this question may seem, it needs to be answered whenever this work is done.
Many important goals may be put as a priority, such as:
- understand more about the consumer’s expectations;
- know the public’s opinion about the brand, products, and services;
- monitor accesses and activities on websites and e-commerces;
- analyze reactions and interactions with social media campaigns;
- detect sales data and how they are generated from the public;
- understand the company’s financial information.
Each of these and several other possible goals are important for the company; therefore, they must be observed separately, as unique categories.
In the same data collection activity, each one of these goals can be contemplated. Still, it is essential to know which of them are relevant to your company in order to generate a strategic analysis from the collection.
2. Make a plan
A good Digital Marketing plan is also essential for data collection to become a constant activity and go to its schedule.
This activity can’t be treated as punctual or sporadic, since you need to monitor data constantly. This is why planning how this activity is going to be done is so important.
The team responsible for the data collection, usually marketing, must include this task on their agenda as a recurrent and priority demand.
Checking your Digital Marketing tools must be a daily activity since every software will provide new data daily.
Another important tool is polls and researches, which are one-off events. You must also plan these and determine until when they are held, so you can analyze the data once they are finished.
3. Analyze the data
The most important part of this task cycle is data analysis. As important as it is to have tools capable of monitoring and capturing data, the information itself has no value if it is not properly observed by those qualified to do so.
The reason why analysis is so important is quite simple: only this work can transform data into information and, then, strategic insights.
Without good analytical work, these otherwise impactful data will just be a bunch of empty numbers.
Just as you should include data collection on your age nda, you should also reserve some time in your team’s schedule to analyze and interpret the gathered data.
4. Refine the company’s Marketing strategy
Strategic data collection points to important company objectives. Optimizing marketing strategies is one of the top priorities when you have a really effective data collection and analysis structure.
The reason is precisely because data will enable the generation of insights about the market, the public, and ongoing campaigns.
From the data collected, it is possible to know the expectations of the public and their preferences and understand how they interact with channels and actions.
These perceptions are extremely valuable for developing more appropriate marketing campaigns and actions and with greater chances of impacting the consumer.
As you have a historical series of data, this will allow the marketing team to develop refined actions, which will be more successful and will bring better results.
It is important to highlight that the collection and analysis of data are also part of monitoring and measuring campaigns as they are in action.
By doing so, you can also adjust your strategy to make a better campaign before it ends, optimizing the ads with the time you have left.
What are the main tools for collecting data?
Data collection is a job that can only be done with the support of specialized tools.
From the simplest and most traditional one to the most advanced and indispensable, each of them has an important role, mainly according to the company’s strategy and objectives.
Let’s see the best ones and how they work below!
Use forms
Forms are mechanisms that can be used for customer satisfaction surveys.
In a simple way, it is possible to develop a form with questions that can be graded as a percentage, always giving the participant response options.
From this, it is easier to understand the percentage of responses for each alternative.
The main use of these forms is to understand more specific consumer perceptions. Commonly, forms are used to:
- evaluate an experience on a website (especially e-commerce);
- evaluate satisfaction with a product or service (post-purchase);
- assess consumer satisfaction with the company’s offers;
- understand the public’s expectations regarding products and services.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is, nowadays, the main data monitoring tool used worldwide.
It is a tool capable of connecting with marketing automation software, e-commerce, websites, and social media pages.
Based on this, Analytics creates dashboards that provide the user with the most important metrics for their strategies.
It is a free tool that can be configured according to what the Marketing team wants. Thus, it is possible to form a dashboard that shows the information that matters most.
Data collection is simple since the platform provides all the metrics already calculated. From there, analytical work is done, which will bring strategic insights.
UpMiner
UpMiner is a more advanced data mining software that, simply put, captures strategic information from various data sources on the web.
It is more focused on Big Data since it can process a very high quantity of information. It accepts data in an unstructured way, and from it creates graphs and reports for later analysis.
Research with UpMiner is done through keywords, which can vary a lot, always with the goal of creating parameters for decision making.
The tool has more than 1,900 sources, which are the basis of these searches based on the user’s strategy.
Ion
In addition to the most common data collection tools, we decided to present a less conventional one, but also effective.
Ion is a complete tool for marketing teams focused on enabling the production of interactive content, such as:
Through Ion, it is possible to collect the user’s information with these interactive contents, so that your team has total control over this data.
Knowing how to create relevant content related to your product or service will give you precious information about what interests your audience the most, what they understand as most valuable, and what their main doubts are — information that is increasingly needed for campaign success.
What are the benefits of a well-performed data collection?
A well-planned data collection program, one with clear objectives, can provide very significant results to a company.
Some examples of said benefits are cost savings and also enhancing marketing strategies. Among the main advantages, we chose to highlight:
- improving customer experience broadly;
- optimizing marketing strategies at any time;
- knowing more about your consumer and have better defined personas;
- transforming data into strategic information that generates sales.
Data collection cannot be neglected at a time when digital transformation is a reality worldwide.
Nowadays, Marketing is based on data, and it is impossible to survive in competitive markets without fully understanding your audience and their expectations.
Now that you know everything about data collection’s basic steps how about step up your game in the interactive content field?
It is a refined way to collect valuable data about your public, and you should definitely consider including in your strategy. Download our complete guide on interactive content and become an expert on the subject!
Start creating interactive content with Ion and increase your marketing results!
Start creating interactive content with Ion and increase your marketing results!
