Will Scully-Power: Managing Director, Datarati

Here are the top 5 lessons learnt in Data at Ad:Tech 2010:

1.) DATA CAPTURE: Have a strategy of what data you plan to collect and why? i.e. Explicit data e.g. demographic data, profile data etc as well as Implicit data e.g. behavioural data (what people click on, pages they view, content they interact with and/or download. How do you plan to use that data? When do you plan to use that data? In what channel will you take action on that data e.g. email, sms, direct mail, social media, telemarketing etc.

2.) CENTRALISE ALL DATA POINTS: Centralise all your digital data into a centralised marketing automation database. This includes, paid search data, paid display data, email marketing, landing pages, web analytics data and social media data. Digital marketers are tired of living in EXCEL HELL www.excelhell.com.au Client side marketers should NOT have to live with excel spreadsheets of basic digital metrics e.g. impressions, click thrus etc.

3.) STREAMLINE METRICS & MEASUREMENT: Educate yourself to understand the metrics you’re using and why you are using them? Do these metrics relate to bottom line business metrics such as closed sales, revenue etc. With the rapid innovation of technology in the digital space, digital marketers are finding it hard to keep up with the new metrics that are being created as these new sets of digital data have never existed before. Keep it simple. Do your impressions, click thrus, conversions etc add to the bottom line revenue of your organisation? Can you prove it? Can you prove which channel is most effective and why? And most importantly, what are the variables responsible for improved conversions and sales e.g. creative, publisher, time of day, offer, channel, etc.

4.) OPTIMISE ALL CAMPAIGNS: If you don’t test EVERY paid search campaign, paid display campaign, email marketing campaign or landing page, YOU SHOULD NOT BE IN DIGITAL MARKETING. There is no more excuses for blaming this on process, time, inefficiencies etc both internal on client side or on agency side. A/B & Multivariate testing takes minutes to set up and can have an enormous impact on the success or failure of your campaigns.

5.) AUTOMATE COMMUNICATIONS: If a prospect or customer indicates some type of behaviour, either explicitly e.g. they have told you they are interested in a product or service or implicitly e.g. they have behaved in a specific way to your campaign through searching a particular keyword, clicking on a particular link in an email, downloading a specific piece of content on your website etc you must automate a dynamic message back to that individual in real-time. Prospects and customers will no longer wait. They want instant gratification, with targeted, anticipated, relevant and personalised communications in an automated way through whichever channel they have requested to receive it in.

NEXT STEPS: Need help with any of the above – contact the Datarati to get started right away!

(02) 8003 7343

www.datarati.com.au