Devising a business strategy based on intuitive guesses as opposed to hard data is like shooting arrows in the dark – you won’t hit your goals but, instead, veer off into unwanted directions without even knowing it. More often than not, these uninformed decisions do immense damage to businesses. It’s no surprise then why predictive analytics for business strategy has become a key growth lever for businesses in different industries around the world.
What is predictive analytics for business strategy?
When we talk about business analytics, one of the most important and most common questions that business owners and managers ask is this: ‘What’s likely to happen?’. This is where predictive analytics for business strategy comes in.
Unlike descriptive analytics which tells you what has happened in the past, predictive analytics is data that presents future trends. These predictions are calculated based on past trends using artificial intelligence as opposed to manual calculations. For this very reason, predictive analytics has become a holy grail for business success in today’s digital world.
Why is predictive analytics important for marketing strategy?
How do you know if it’s a good idea to offer a free trial to all your customers or only a subset of them? Or when to roll out a newsletter for that big offer’s announcement? Even the most educated human guesses can’t answer these questions. Only predictive analytics can.
Marketing is an area where predictive strategies need to be implemented on many fronts, and with good reason. There are numerous key data points related to Marketing such as website traffic, daily active users and return on ad spend (ROAS) that form performance trends over time.
Every business must track key marketing metrics in order to know how well they’re performing, and based on that, decide how they’re going to meet their Marketing objectives in the foreseeable future. Think of predictive analytics for business strategy as a game of chess – in order to win the game (your objective) you carefully calculate your opponent’s next move by observing what the previous moves (the past trends) were, and base your own next move – your strategy – on that.
How to improve marketing with predictive analytics: X tips every business needs to know
Figuring out how to improve marketing for your business is one big blur when you’ve got no data to drive your marketing strategies. Keeping predictive analytics at hand is your sure-fire solution to getting your marketing strategies right.
We’re pretty sure you’re curious to know how your business can benefit from relying on data-driven marketing strategies. Let’s jump right in.
Uniformly measured trends
Predictive analytics is all a game of numerical probability. The great thing about this is that the underlying historical data is uniform in nature. Because marketing numbers are uniform in nature, they are comparable to each other and, over time, show clear-cut trends.
Optimized advertising spend
Without predictive data at hand, even the most experienced of marketers struggle to figure out how much to spend on online advertising in the future. If, for example, the marketer of your business knows that customer demand for your product will decrease in the coming month, common logic dictates that marketing spend should be reduced to push customers to buy your product.
Now the big question is this – how much should you spend in order to maximize your returns next month? Here’s where predictive analytics will help you. Based on historical data for a given number of months, an advanced business intelligence software will do all that complicated number crunching for you, and tell you how much you should spend on advertising next month to maximize your revenue.
Proactive churn reduction
Customer churn is the worst nightmare of every business. Imagine how many customers you can retain if you knew beforehand how many of them will leave your business for your competition, why they would do so and who they are.
Predictive analytics can give you valuable insights on these key data points so that you can come up with a strategy to keep your customers for the long-run. For example, if you knew three months in advance that you could lose ten percent of your customer because no one from your Customer Support team resolves their complaints, you’d ensure well in advance that the team is trained in complaint resolution, that standard response times are introduced and that your customer support agents use the right language when communicating with complaining customers.
Informed creative design
How do you know which kinds of graphics your social media audience likes the most? Most certainly not by knowing what’s trending in creative design this year. A smart way around this is to observe which type of posts published on your business’s LinkedIn page within, let’s say the last one week, had the most engagement such as likes, comments and shares. If it’s a visual with a few big, bold words and bright, contrasting colors, that’s the kind you’d want to go with moving forward.
In addition to this, it’s always a good idea to run what’s called an A/B test to see what will work and what won’t work in the designs for your next marketing campaign. Testing out one factor at a time is the right way to go about it. For instance, you may want to test out complementary colors versus analogous colors to see which of the two your audience engages more with. You could also test out tone of voice to figure out, for example, whether your audience will prefer a humorous, informal tone to a serious, formal one. The figuring out part is where predictive analytics will be your best friend.
Inform your marketing strategy with Ascend Analytics
At this point, you’re probably certain that your business needs predictive analytics to drive its marketing strategies. Now it’s time for you to choose a business intelligence solution that will provide you with the predictive analytics that your business needs.
The best business intelligence software out there would be a big dent in your pocket if you purchase it directly. On top of that, you’d have to hire a data analyst which is another added expense, especially if you want to watch your spending.
What’s ideal for your business is a data management consultancy firm that’ll not only plug all the holes for you in marketing analytics but also do all the heavy lifting for you, and that’s where Ascend Analytics comes in.
Here’s why Ascend Analytics would be a great choice for your business:
All-in-one solution
When you’re looking for a data management consultancy, you’d want to opt for one that will offer you an array of services that’ll meet the needs of your business.
We, at Ascend Analytics, offer a wide range of services including business intelligence, predictive analytics consulting and personalized marketing services.
For more information, request a proposal, and our Sales manager will send you one tailored for your business.
Expert data-driven consulting
It’s never a good idea to follow advice that you’ll find on the internet. How do you know if the person behind it is even real, let alone an expert? That’s why you need us.
You know you’re in good hands when you consult us when you get a professionally crafted proposal from us keeping your business in mind.
Are you looking for a data management consultant? Request a proposal here.
Advanced business intelligence
Gone are the days when humans did copious amounts of number crunching on Excel just to make a few key decisions. There’s a ton of data that an advanced business intelligence software can generate for you within a matter of seconds.
We’re here to provide you with highly advanced business intelligence software that’s sure to be worth your money.
For more information, contact us.
Personalized marketing analytics
Did you know that plenty of data analytics consultants out there will present some impressive numbers that don’t belong to your business? Some will even throw some numbers on the table that aren’t even real.
We’re here to tell you that our services are tailor-made for our clients. More specifically, we’ll offer you marketing insights that are not only genuine but also customized for your business. Our expert consultants will work closely with you and pull the data you need to steer your marketing strategy in the right direction.
Native integration
If you’re a business that offers software or an e-commerce business that sells through a website or mobile app, you’ll need a business intelligence tool to crunch those key marketing insights for you such as the number of customer sign-ups, order volume and total discount spend that you turn to on a daily basis. Imagine how much time you’d end up saving if a solution like this was embedded in your system where your team can easily access real-time data and generate ad hoc reports at any time.
We’ll integrate business intelligence software with your product or system fairly quickly without the technical hassle. No third-party software involved.
Conclusion
There’s little you need to think about now that you know how essential predictive analytics for business strategy is.
We’ll help you figure out which predictive analytics to use for your business. Request a proposal today.