Most marketers today are collecting varying degrees of social data. They have developed listening programs to monitor buzz about their brand, their competitors and their industry, and they have access to audience insights to learn more about their customers.
However, the data that marketers collect is only as good as the use they put it to. In other words, social data can be use to generate revenue, as long as marketers know how to direct it to that purpose.
Here are five ways that marketers can use the social data they collect to improve the bottom line.
1. Use data to expand your audience
So you’ve developed in-depth audience profiles, and you’re using them to create stellar marketing campaigns that speak to their lifestyles. Great! But what about taking that data one step further?
If you know your audience well, you can use this knowledge to build lookalike audiences: segments of the market that share similar traits with your current audience. Then, you can target these segments with tailored marketing messages to increase brand awareness and ultimately generate more sales.
2. Use data to partner with the right brands
There are other ways to use social data about your audience to generate revenue as well. Consider how much you know about your audience’s interests, likes and dislikes. You might be collecting this data and not acting on it, but that’s exactly how you miss out on revenue opportunities.
Knowing your audience’s interests can help you identify brands and publications that your audience enjoys. You can then reach out to form partnerships, sponsorships or to place ads on their digital properties, increasing your presence and leading to more brand recognition and loyalty.
3. Use data to plug leaks in your sales cycle
Social data can show you who leaves your sales cycle before completing their purchase, and at which point they leave. By knowing the whole customer journey, you can develop strategies to keep customers engaged for longer and improve retention.
4. Use data to align content with behavior
Does your audience retweet your blog posts frequently? Are they consistently downloading your white papers? Understanding the type of content your audience engages with can help you inform future content and align it with their behaviors. This leads to more social shares, engagement, email signups and more.
5. Use data to create better products
Social data can also be used to improve current product offerings, and even create new ones. Using sentiment analysis, you can examine what your customers love (and what bores them) about your product. Then, you can rework certain aspects to make it more appealing.
You can also generate smaller data sets by running social media-based focus groups. By simply asking your audience what they like and dislike about your product, you can augment your sentiment analysis with more qualitative data.
Social data can be used to inform all aspects of your business, from sales and marketing to product to customer service. Knowing what data to examine and how to draw insights is critical to successfully using it to generate revenue.
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