Over two thousand years ago, a gentleman called Sun Tzu wrote a book called “The Art of War”, which served as the basis for the creation of the first known concept of strategy.

Sun stated that his generals always had to be informed if they wanted to succeed on the battlefield, saying that this information is crucial to determining who our enemy is. If we transpose this teaching to the present day, and exchange the battlefield for the market, we can see that knowledge is power and, therefore, what we need to be a successful general is the data we have about our “enemy”, terrain, troops, supplies, among other things. In marketing, we can exchange some of these resources for one that fuels campaigns and strategies: data! If you think about it, we use it when setting a benchmark, when we use a database and build an email or when we measure the ROI (return on investment) of any campaign, for instance.

It’s vital to note that data for data’s sake, without interpreting it and aligning it for a future campaign, could be a failed act. This is part of one of the great transformations in marketing today, Big Data, which occurs either through market evolution or consumer change. If we look back to the not-so-distant past, we can see the difference: the flow of information and data is now much faster.

All these changes are synonymous with various synergies that have taken place in recent years, especially the major digital transformation that is taking place today. However, one of the premises we can consider is: if we have a lot of data that is growing exponentially, what can we do? What is the best strategy to consider? These questions may have easier and more pragmatic solutions than you might initially think! It’s not data that makes campaigns or strategic decisions, it just allows us to draw insights that are then adapted to the decision-making process to be implemented. It’s clear that we need to have data-driven execution, since value creation occurs throughout the entire lead-to-consumer conversation process, which plays a decisive role and represents the central and key piece of the organization’s concerns.

Let’s imagine a practical example: we have a website where we sell trips (since we’re missing summer, it always helps to explain) and we run an online campaign where users who sign up could win trips (how nice would that be). When the user signs up, we collect the lead, then analyze it and see if that user likes or is interested in journeys around Europe. When we carry out remarketing campaigns, we want to impact this lead, which has already been segmented and documented and will therefore only receive the information it wants. When this same user goes on a trip with our agency, they will become a lead and a client! After this little exercise, we can conclude that well-worked, analyzed, and selected data can lead to conversion. The same can’t be said for other companies on the national and international scene who, once they have acquired a lead, use it for all their campaigns, regardless of their segmentation, which leads the consumer to become jaded towards the brand.

One of the main benefits that revolves around data is the countless possibilities it allows: in-depth knowledge of the user; measurement; competitive analysis and its strategic outcome; decision-making based on facts and not opinions, sometimes imposed by hierarchies and as mentioned above, ROI.

Furthermore, we need to be aware of two basic issues: data-driven marketing is vital for any organization and, although data is crucial, there is one factor in the value creation process which is even more decisive: delivering relevance about our brand/product to our customers. There’s no point in having the best data if it doesn’t allow us to create efficient strategies and clear results. As Henry Ford, the well-known American entrepreneur, would say, “If there is a single secret of success, it lies in the ability to see things from someone else’s point of view”.