3 Step Approach to Marketing Analytics: Step 2 – Execute

Christophe Kuhner

[Posted by Christophe Kuhner, Senior Product Manager, Neolane]

In a previous post, “A 3-Step Approach to Marketing Analytics”, we outlined a simple methodology for the application of measurement and analytics in marketing. We followed that up with a more detailed look at the first step of the process: Understand. Continuing with the series, let us explore the second step, Execute, to better understand how to effectively leverage marketing analytics to power your marketing strategy.

Overview

Once you feel confident in your knowledge of the “Understand” step, it’s time to apply this new core comprehension of data-informed decision making into your business strategy.

“Execute” refers to the testing and targeting that occurs across the various aspects of a marketing campaign. It also refers to the data interpretation that comes from that testing.

In the execution phase of marketing analytics, your business is using analytics technologies to monitor the behavior of pre-determined targets and how that behavior is affecting the success of your marketing campaign.

Objectives of “Execute”

Although much of the planning should have been completed in the “Understand” phase, there will be final pieces to add once it’s time to execute campaigns. Businesses must know what they intend to accomplish with the execution of marketing analytics.

Define campaign targets without knowledge of logical operations
Select the best target via scoring, budget, and other constraints
Make data-informed decisions in current and future marketing campaigns
Use data insights from test results to improve marketing productivity

Commonly Asked Questions

Which population of the target audience is the best fit for my marketing analytics program?
Which segment of customers I should involve in my new program?
What will the testing breakdown include? (i.e., social interactions, sales, leads, page views)
How can I evaluate the expected results of a campaign with the analytics program?

Any strategic questions you have about your marketing analytics execution should be answered based on the goals of your campaign and which program of analytics you have chosen to work with. The technologies that are available will offer instructions and information on what type of measurement, testing, monitoring, and analytics it offers. Based on which program you chose to use, your business will have to learn the ins and outs of the program in order to decide which segments to monitor, how to categorize areas of activity, how data can be compared to the expected results, etc.

Enabling the “Execute” Phase with Technology

Analyzing marketing data should not trigger an anxious response from the creative minds of marketers; thanks to the multiple technologies available to execute your businesses analytical needs, making a data-informed decision is intuitive and within reach for marketers.

Query Editors: This is a classic and relatively simple means of measuring data. A popular query editor is MySQL, an open source relational database management system that allows multiple users to access a number of databases, including WordPress, Drupal, and Facebook, where they can find relevant information and design structures in code form.
OLAP Technologies: OLAP stands for Online Analytical Processing. While it’s not typically in the marketer’s vernacular, OLAP provides multi-dimensional analytical queries, especially on large volumes of data. This allows marketers to cut and layer data attributes for analysis (e.g., all products purchased in March by customers who spent more than $20 last year).
Data Visualization: This tool of analytics provides an image that can be used by marketers to analyze and isolate trends in large volumes of data. Marketers are, by nature, creative, and while a spreadsheet or table could have all the answers, it might not be so obvious until it’s graphically displayed in a chart, figure, or infographic.
Predictive Analysis: A program for predictive analysis incorporates data from past campaigns and provides users with access to models, statistics, and data about specific aspects of marketing that can then be applied to the current campaign to make predictions about events and results.
Integration within a Campaign Management Solution: If your marketing campaign relies on a campaign management solution, it’s likely that there are analytics capabilities that should be applied to your campaign, if they haven’t been already. The best campaign management solutions will offer a cross-channel approach to marketing execution that includes an analytics platform that doesn’t require a specialist to decode.
Simulation: Simulation-based performance analytics provide alternative outcomes and results for your campaign. Through models of a variety of scenarios, your business can use simulation analytics before and during campaign execution to make informed decisions.

How “Execution” Integrates in Conversational Marketing

Execution is important because it helps:
Easily obtain an effective target for a campaign
Address the best recipient when budgets are limited
Act as a starting point for all new campaigns
Improve the one-to-one relationships of a marketing campaign

The “Execution” step of marketing analytics will help further your business toward sending the right message at the right time and targeting prospects based on individual personas. Analytical execution and results provide marketers with insightful data that prompts them to make decisions based on concrete information.