It’s no secret, we’re currently in the midst of a digital transformation. Just take a quick glance at social media and you’ll see countless businesses across the world embracing new techniques and technologies to reach and engage their audience.

It was only a matter of time before businesses started taking advantage of the digital transformation and implemented marketing strategies driven by data. With the surge in popularity of business intelligence tools like Business Analytics and Marketing Automation, the digital marketing world has changed. And it’s changed for the better.

The shift to digital marketing has led to a massive increase in online statistics which, in turn, presents an unprecedented amount of data for marketers to mine.

This data revolution has paved the way for a more targeted approach to marketing. And what does that mean for you as a new home builder or remodeler?

The Importance Of Reaching The Right Audience

It’s an unfortunate fact of life in this ever-changing world that not every piece of content resonates with every audience. But thanks to the data that is now available, content creators (including you) can pinpoint specific groups of people and create content specifically tailored to them. Using demographics, psychographics, and digital marketing analytics, you can identify key groups of consumers that may not even know you exist and create content to convert them into customers.

For instance, if you’re a real estate company, you may decide to focus your content marketing on Millennial homeowners. With research suggesting that this audience is the greatest untapped resource in the world when it comes to real estate, you can see the merit in targeting this audience.

Not only will you gain new customers, but you’ll also be able to improve the quality of your current client base by providing them with content that they will value and benefit from. A win-win situation for everyone.

Marketing Automation & The Data Revolution

Marketing Automation (MA) is a necessary evil that every marketer must endure at some point in their career. You can find plenty of CRM tools (customer relationship management systems) that do most of the heavy lifting for you in terms of automating your marketing tasks. But if you think that’s all that Marketing Automation does, you’d be mistaken. Thanks to the data revolution and business intelligence tools, the world of marketing has changed. Now, you can automate the collection of data and use that data to make more targeted marketing decisions (like segmenting your email list based on a person’s behavior, rather than just their profile).

Here’s an example of how powerful Marketing Automation can be: Say you’re running a hair styling service. Using Marketing Automation, you can set up a series of simple emails (known as drip campaigns) that will introduce your services and offer a 15% discount to anyone who has not yet booked an appointment with you. You’ve also linked your email list to a specific product so that when an email is sent out, those on your list who are interested in, say, hair removal, will be exposed to your offer (and will have to act quickly to take advantage of the discounted rate).

Businesses that fail to keep up with the times risk becoming extinct. Unfortunately, many businesses still operate under the assumption that just because something is available online, it should be available for marketing purposes. This paradigm will no longer suffice in today’s digital world. Data is data and it can be used for good (tailored marketing), or evil (creepy marketeers keeping an eye on your personal information). So much vigilance is required in this new world of digital marketing, and business owners must realize that their digital footprint is also a legal one.

Marketing Automation has made collecting and analyzing data much easier. Business Intelligence tools like Tableau and Qlik can make data visualization a breeze. And integrating marketing automation with other systems (like HubSpot and Salesforce) makes everything even easier.

Real-Time Demographics

Thanks to the ever-growing influence of social media, digital marketing analytics platforms, and real-time reporting via APIs, marketers now have access to a wealth of data about their audience (customers, prospects, and everyone in between) in real-time. While this data provides valuable information about the people that you’re targeting, it also exposes you to unnecessary risks. Cybercriminals love to target digital marketers because their job is pretty easy—they just have to hit the right buttons to make an email newsletter go out. But because this is such a low-hanging fruit for hackers, the risks are minimal.

The downside to this ease of access is that it makes your data much more vulnerable. It’s one thing to collect data about visitors to your website—you know what they’ll be (potential) customers, and you can target them with tailored messages. But it’s another thing entirely when you’re collecting data about people who are involved in active social media discussions about your product or service.

If you want to retain your customers and encourage them to engage with your brand, you may want to consider looking into investing in marketing analytics tools that can help you monitor real-time engagement and sentiment. This way, you can determine which marketing tactics are working and which ones you should ditch.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is still relevant and, in many cases, very necessary. You may want to consider investing in SEO if you’re looking to gain more traction online and attract the right audience to your website (or blog).

There are various ways to get SEO juice—from doing keyword research to creating evergreen content—but you have to start somewhere. Building out a solid SEO strategy takes time and a lot of learning, but the payoffs can be invaluable.

You can also use tools like Google Analytics to track the performance of your SEO efforts and determine the ROI (return on investment) of your SEO campaign. If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop for all your digital marketing needs, you can’t go wrong with HubSpot.

Takeaway

In summary, the landscape of digital marketing has changed. Old methods of getting people to come back to your site (e.g., cold emailing or sending out digital flyers) will no longer suffice. Thanks to the rise of business intelligence tools and automated marketing, marketers now have access to masses of data about their audience (customers, prospects, and everyone in between). This data provides valuable information about your target audience and allows you to craft more relevant and effective marketing campaigns. If you want to learn more, here are a few great resources to get you started: