The advent of the Internet brought about a big data revolution that has fundamentally changed the way marketers communicate with their audiences. Armed with big data, marketers no longer have to settle for “spray and pray” messaging, throwing ads at a wall haphazardly and hoping something sticks. Instead, they can dissect audiences to a granular level and tailor messaging to specific niches based on thoroughly developed personas. This concept of content marketing is the way of the future — and big data is making it all possible.
Digital personas are not developed in the same way as traditional personas, largely because much more data is available to marketers through analysis of digital channels. Traditional personas account for attributes like demographics (age, location, gender) and psychographics (personality, values, interests), but there’s still a lot of meat left on that marketing bone. Digital personas developed with big data account for these attributes, too, but they also consider behaviors, online channels, buyer journeys, devices, geo-fencing, and more. As the distribution of consumer behaviors continues to widen, marketers must respond with context marketing — and that means embracing big data.
Marketers who aren’t developing digital personas yet may be overlooking one of the most important objectives of marketing: to develop an intimate relationship with the consumer. Marketers should aim for one-to-one marketing as much as possible. This means not only knowing the consumer intimately but executing effective context marketing by delivering the right content at the right time on the right channel. Consumers of the digital age have come to expect this; personalization is the most effective way to ensure that your messaging resonates with your audience.
The following infographic from Pardot, a Salesforce.com company, outlines some of the benefits and opportunities that can be realized from personalization. These facts and figures give even greater support to the need for big data analysis in marketing.
