[Cheat Sheet] Data & Insights for Marketers

Do you feel like your Data & Insights partners are either giving you too much information to digest or not enough to action? The “Data & Insights for Marketers” cheat sheet will help you frame your marketing impact in a way that Data & Insights teams can understand and appreciate.

Introduction to the Cheat Sheet series

As a marketer, we spend a lot of our time thinking about the customer, the psychology, and the creativity of the campaigns, activations, and initiatives we produce. We’re like artists painting a Picasso or musicians scoring a Mozart. Sometimes, in the midst of our artistry, we forget the science of marketing. We forget to ask ourselves the burning questions that our partners (e.g. Finance, Product, Tech, etc.) like to know:

Why is marketing important? How do you know it’s working? Why should we care?

We used to be able to say “we trust our gut” or “it’s standard” but those days are gone. Now, we need data to support and validate our intuition.

As part of this Cheat Sheet series, we will breakdown some of the most important parts of our partner teams’ jobs and goals so marketers will have a better way of communicating our impact to them as well as be better business partners.

Data & Insights
for Marketers

Role of Data & Insights

Data & Insights team’s remit is to provide valuable information and insights that can inform business decisions and strategies [1]. This may include collecting and analyzing data on customer behaviors, preferences, and trends, as well as providing metrics and performance data on marketing campaigns and other business initiatives. Data and insights teams may also be responsible for developing and implementing tools and technologies to collect, store, and analyze data, as well as providing training and support to other teams on how to use data and insights effectively. Overall, the remit of a data and insights team is to provide reliable and actionable information that can help businesses make more informed and data-driven decisions.

[1] Though the majority of the article is written through the lens of a business, this cheat sheet holds true for non-profit or for-profit organizations.

What does this mean for Marketers?

Marketers are increasingly being called upon to work with data and insights teams to make more informed and data-driven decisions. This is because data and insights provide valuable information about customer behaviors and preferences, which can help marketers tailor their strategies and tactics to be more effective.

Co-define clear objectives and metrics for marketing campaigns. This ensures that both teams have a common goal and can work together to track and measure the success of marketing efforts. For example, if the objective of a marketing campaign is to increase website traffic, the data and insights team can provide metrics such as website visits and conversion rates to track progress.
Use research insights to develop targeting and segmentation strategies. Data and insights can provide valuable information about customer demographics, behaviors, and preferences, which can help marketers tailor their messages and offers to specific segments of the market. This can improve the relevance and effectiveness of marketing efforts, as well as increase the likelihood of generating a positive response from customers.
Optimize campaigns based on data. This can involve using data to test different messaging, offers, or channels to determine which approach is most effective. For example, a data and insights team can provide metrics such as click-through rates and conversion rates to help marketers identify the most successful elements of a campaign and optimize their efforts accordingly.
Build from leading indicators. Data for marketers have become even more important; however, not all data is available. For example, there is no direct data to tie awareness marketing to downstream impact like sales or customer acquired. Thus, sometimes you’ll have to look at leading indicators, inputs that could eventually lead to the outputs like sales. Understanding how inputs correlate with outputs will allow you to optimize for the inputs (e.g. share-of-voice, impression volume, engagement rate) knowing how it will impact the outputs (e.g. sales, customers acquired, etc.).
Evaluate the data source. Make sure to work closely with your Data & Insights teams to ensure the accuracy and reliability of your data and insights. Work with the Data & Insights teams that the data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted correctly, and that any insights are reliable and actionable.

Vocabulary… and How to Use Them

Aggregate data – A collection of data that has been combined and summarized, typically in order to provide a more general understanding of the data set.
Data visualization – The process of creating graphical representations of data in order to better understand patterns and trends within the data.
Dashboard – A tool that allows users to quickly and easily access and analyze data from multiple sources in a single interface.
Insights – New understanding or knowledge gained from analyzing data.
Machine learning – A type of artificial intelligence that allows computers to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.
Metrics – Quantifiable measures used to track and evaluate the performance of a system or process.
Predictive analytics – The use of statistical models and machine learning techniques to predict future outcomes based on historical data.
Segmentation – The process of dividing a data set into smaller groups based on shared characteristics or traits.
Statistical analysis – The use of statistical methods to analyze and interpret data.
Visualization tools – Software or tools used to create data visualizations, such as graphs, charts, and maps.

Key phrases

“Can you provide us with data and insights to inform our marketing strategies?”
“What metrics can we use to track the performance of our campaigns?”
“How can we use data and insights to improve our targeting and segmentation?”
“What trends and patterns have you observed from analyzing customer data?”
“Can you provide us with support and training on how to use data and insights effectively?”