What Is Business Intelligence(BI)?
Data is a strategic asset for companies that, for years, have been exploiting the information generated and transforming it into valuable knowledge to improve decision-making processes. Thus, data of a different nature is extracted, processed, and stored in each department. To unify and take advantage of the potential of the information available within the organization, business intelligence (BI) offers multiple applications in each company area. This article focuses on the benefits for the marketing department.
In recent years, the way to harness data and transform it into useful information has improved dramatically. The evolution of business intelligence systems allows advanced analysis of big data that facilitates the detection of failures and inefficiencies and the anticipation of market changes. In this sense, business intelligence not only offers a competitive advantage to companies, but its widespread adoption will put at risk those that do not implement BI as part of their strategy.
A report from the US Census Bureau reveals that data-driven decision-making in the United States jumped from 11% to 41% in three years. These figures are very worrying for organizations. According to a study by OBS Business School, 65% of companies recognize that not implementing Big Data management systems would pose a risk to their future; specifically, a break on its competitiveness and a reduction in its relevance in the sector.
Business Intelligence for marketing: applications and benefits
The use of business intelligence in marketing departments provides complete, accurate, and valuable information about customers (preferences, needs, purchasing habits, etc.) and their perception of products or services (their own and those of the competition) to optimize campaigns and strategy. BI transforms data into information and knowledge to facilitate customer understanding and detection of new opportunities.
Due to the high number of applications used in marketing (emailing, social networks, CRM, web analytics, etc.), one of the fundamental aspects of a sound business intelligence system is its ability to integrate with other tools and unify all information on a single platform. In this way, it is possible to improve audience segmentation and design highly personalized content. With this, business intelligence makes it possible to identify customer profiles to study their behavior better more accurately, adapt messages and actions, achieve greater loyalty, and improve return on investment.
Here are three great benefits of using BI systems in marketing operations:
Real-time campaign tracking
Business intelligence converts data from marketing campaigns into helpful information through interactive dashboards. This allows quick access to all the results and direct analysis of the development of the actions. It provides a global vision that facilitates the adaptation of the different elements of the campaigns (texts, images, conditions, target audience, etc.) to optimize the marketing strategy and guide future activities thoroughly. Therefore, this applies to campaigns of all kinds: it allows minute-by-minute monitoring of the results of a mass email, sweepstakes on social networks, an advertisement on a web page, etc.
Greater control of ROI
Improving campaign monitoring makes it easier to detect which actions work and which ones do not and compare the results, something essential to optimize the investment. Thus, it is possible to adjust their budgets and allocate more resources to profitability. In addition, business intelligence provides reports with a level of depth that allows you to compare revenues against actual costs and ROI according to customer segments, geographical areas, channels, etc. All this helps to make decisions instantly to obtain a better performance of the company’s resources.
Complete analysis of the market and the company
Through BI systems, updated data is sought on the evolution of your company’s sector, market share, product volume, sales, and opinions (sentiment) over time or in a specific period, in a geographic region, or by product category. It incorporates this information into reports and cross-references it with other internal data for complete analytics with improved visibility into all aspects and help take necessary corrective actions. This is how to increase market share, track customer feedback in real-time, and uncover new growth opportunities.
