The role of big data in digital marketing strategies is becoming increasingly important for brands, according to one commentator.
Gerard Doyle, chief executive officer at DiscountVouchers.co.uk, said the majority of businesses had, until recently, only focused on building databases while failing to analyse them.
However, brands are now realising the impact that big data can have on their digital marketing strategies. "Big data analysis finally allows businesses to identify, measure, and effectively target consumers," he said, adding that this means both the target audience and the brand's impact on them can be better understood thanks to big data.
Content marketing segmentation
"Big data opens a new door for consumer measurement [and] understanding a consumer's direct impact on business," Mr Doyle noted, adding that it "completely transforms" a marketer's ability to engage effectively with consumers.
Effective data analysis also allows content marketers to segment their audience and present them with highly tailored content relevant to where they are in the purchasing cycle. This practice moves beyond targeted email marketing to a highly personalised website visit with much improved potential for conversion.
A report by McKinsey Global Institute last year confirmed the importance of big data for businesses and suggested the practice of segmentation, which is common among marketers, can be transferred to other divisions in a business.
Organisations which embrace big data and deploy it effectively are likely to outperform their competition, according to the report authors. They claimed retailers that embrace big data will be able to boost their operating margin by over 60 per cent.
"The use of big data will become a key basis of competition and growth for individual firms," the researchers commented.
Karen Webber is the head of marketing communications. She joined the team as a journalist in 2005, after working in marketing and media roles in South Africa and in the UK. 
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